"All I Want is the Best Of Everything and There's Very Little of That Left " - Lucius Beebe

I recently came upon a photo in an old London Magazine taken during WW2 ( in the underground) and the sign on the wall  read
                                    "Temperatures Will Fall, Standards Mustn't'.

My Edwardian grandfather and to a lesser extant my Bostonian father, were constantly hammering that into myself and my brothers. It was not a snob thing, far from it, but an idea to live your life in a style and manner that reflected well on the family, but moreover,a style you wished for yourself. My grandfather use to say ( among so many things) that being a gentleman ( the thing he prized most) was a 24 hour a day profession, not just sometimes. 
Smoking a cigar or having a glass of single malt Scottish whisky was something you did in the quiet of a room,to enjoy the full flavors. You sat there and thought about what you were smoking or drinking, taking time ( 45 minutes to smoke a cigar was the norm) to really get all the satisfaction you could out of it. That was one, of many, of life's pleasures that I was taught. 
As a boy, my grandfather ( many times) took me to visit his cigar maker and to really understand the time and craft that went into it and thus be able to appreciate it to the max. 
He was horrified, as I am today, by people who rudely open bottles of Champagne and let the glorious ingredients spray everywhere as if its the way you do it. 
As I love Champagne ( and cigars, port,whisky, foie gras, Tweed clothing and so many other refinements)  and have spent much time in the French Champagne countryside and see how long it takes to produce a bottle, I always looked at people in horror who let corks fly in all directions and guzzle the 'stuff' . I guess I am just old fashion....I think there is a song by that name by Jerome Kern...
What this all leads up to, as an Edwardian at heart, I live and have lived since I was 13 years old, in a style and manner that has never changed and I am happier for it as the world today seems that ' have gone to hell in a hand basket', my god, have you seen what young men are wearing today and how they groom themselves..I think they all need a bath and manners? Don't ask and young ladies with tattoos? They look like gangster's molls? Is that attractive? Not to me! Never!!!

OK, OK..I am sounding like my grandfather! Well...that's the nicest thing you could ever say to me.

The American highly civilized non-conformist ( and one of my life's heroes) Mr. Lucius Beebe