This month, our Book-of-the-Month selection was Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription by William F. Buckley, Jr. As regular blog readers now, I often lament how toxic our political discourse has become of late, so it was with much trepidation that I selected a book by someone as "ideological" as Mr. Buckley. But in the wake of his passing, it was amazing to see how many "liberals" had effusive praise for William F. Buckley, Jr. the man. While they may have disagreed vehemently with his views, he had a joie de vivre that made him admired by friends and foes.   

Besides, Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription is hardly a "political" book -- it's more a compendium of correspondence between WFB and readers of the National Review, guests on Firing Line, and politicians ranging from Richard Nixon to Ted Kennedy. There are two things I enjoyed about the book: (1) Buckley's infamous wit, and (2) the sheer volume of handwritten correspondence that Buckley must have engaged in over his lifetime. While I would consider myself "above-average" in terms of the number of notes I write, that isn't saying much these days.

So...in the interests of encouraging an old school form of correspondence, we have a quick little promotion. Handwrite us a note on your own personalized stationery postmarked by Monday, April 7th, and we'll send you back a small token of our appreciation (a double-secret bonus will be included if you're stationery is letterpressed, and triple-secret bonus if you bought it from us!).

I first came across Robin Rotenier's cufflinks 7 years ago while working at a software company called Blue Martini Software. The company, which was a Wall Street darling until the dot-com bust, was on fire, and I was in the mood to give back. Upon seeing a pair of Rotenier Martini Glass cufflinks in a store, the only thing preventing me from buying them was the green peridot stone representing an olive; Blue Martini's logo had a lemon twist. The salesperson called up Robin Rotenier, and they were happy to make them with a citrine instead to represent the lemon. I ordered 10 pair, plus a stud set for myself, and gave them out as gifts to Blue Martini colleagues who would appreciate them. Ahhh...those were the good old days.

To this day, there are only 10 sets of Martini Cufflinks with citrine, and I know exactly who has them. Now, we carry Robin Rotenier's cufflinks & pendants on our site, and we could not be more pleased with the results so far. Their willingness to make custom designs and swap in or out stones is one of the main reasons we love doing business with them - our customers can get exactly what they want. Robin was in the Bay Area recently and we sat down with him to talk about how he got started, how he does what he does, and what we might expect in the future. Enjoy!

When On The Fly was nothing more than a business plan on a cocktail napkin, courting vendors to sell to an online-only upstart was priority #1.

Lucky for us, Mulholland Brothers was able to see the potential, and was willing to lend a helping hand. Business was already good for them, but 3 years later, no one would have guessed the various directions in which our partnership has taken us. Our showroom is filled with their furniture as well as their sought-after leather accessories. We manage their direct-to-consumer website at mulhollandbrothers.com. There are future collaborations probably best not discussed yet. No matter what happens, we are eternally grateful for their support, and to show it, we are proud to launch our first ever podcast: an interview with Founder & Creative Director of Mulholland Brothers, Jay Holland.

It's Friday night and rather than hitting one of San Francisco's great restaurants, I'm at home patinating; I'm too exhausted to do anything else. Patination is the chemical process by which a patina forms. What is a patina? Literally, it's a chemical compound found on the surface of a metal. Figuratively, according to Wikipedia, patina can refer to any fading, darkening or other signs of age, which are felt to be natural and/or unavoidable. This is not to suggest that I am fading, darkening or showing signs of age -- Lord knows I still look too young to drink -- but rather, I am really enjoying the slow process of establishing a patina on my Catherine M. Zadeh Buffalo Horn Bracelet. 

Let me start by saying I have never been one for men's jewelry. Never got an ear pierced, never tried a pinky ring, didn't even do the Lance Armstrong Livestrong bracelet. But I have certainly seen men that pull off jewelry quite nicely, so on a recent trip to New York, where we placed our opening order for Catherine Zadeh's line of cufflinks, bracelets, belts, pendants and rings, Catherine was extremely generous in offering me that bracelet. At first, I was hesitant, but when she showed me her husband's bracelet, it had this beautiful patina about it. It seemed to have a greenish-brownish hue which looked stunning given that the bracelet, brand new, is jet black.

My instructions were clear -- never take it off. Wear it in the shower, in the ocean, in snow or oppressive heat. All of those things will combine to form a unique patina for this bracelet. Although it's only been 3 months, and the bracelet is still mostly black, the patina is coming. As for my plans for the weekend? Saturday I'll be watching paint dry, while Sunday I'll watch the grass grow.

There are many perks to being 2 freeway exits away from Mulholland Brothers' headquarters. One of my favorite perks is seeing new products, sometimes months before they will be shown at market, which is months before they'll be seen in stores. Last January, I got a first look at the Mulholland M-Series line while filming the episode of "Ultimate Retail" for HGTV in Canada and Fine Living in the U.S. The collection made a big impression because it was stunning to look at, and very unlike traditional pieces from Mulholland.

The M-Series is probably the most contemporary line to come out of Mulholland Brothers, although the Momentum line was also a pleasant departure with its cool orange microfiber interiors. The M-Series is a sable grey color with a brownish tint to it lined with an almost chocolate brown leather trim and sewn using a very subtle chocolate thread. The luggage is made of the Endurance® textile known for being both scratchproof and waterproof -- two qualities that are hard to understate given the beating that baggage handlers or Mother Nature can inflict.

At the end of the day, though, it's the details that make the M-Series stand out. Details like the baseball-stitched handles, the square rivets made custom for the M-Series, the titanium hardware, the wheel-and-tire combination, hidden passport pockets, a dirty-clothes bag integrated into luggage pieces, and a "switchblade" luggage tag. 

It's been 9 months since we first laid eyes on it, but the M-Series has finally arrived. Some pieces have already found their way into the Wall Street area of our showroom. If you can't make it San Francisco to see the line in person, you can see it all online here.  

When we last checked in, AT&T had only started one of the worst customer service experiences of my life. A little after midnight on the release date of the iPhone, I had only spent about an hour on the phone with two different customer service representatives trying to activate my phone. Long story short, it took 4 more calls over 3 days to finally get activated. At several points, I was ready to return the phone and leave AT&T for good. But I was told it would be worth the wait, and now that I have been using the phone for a few days, I can honestly say it was. The iPhone will truly revolutionize what everyone should expect in a cell phone.

Much has been written about all of the features and its beautiful design, and a laundry list here won't break any new ground. So, I'll share the features that may not get much attention, but which make the device truly amazing:

• The simplicity is divine. Initially, I was puzzled by the 10 picture instruction manual, but its interface is so intuitive, you will master it completely within hours of using it.  
• The built-in, 6-axis accelerometer -- which allows you to rotate the screen for watching movies or browsing the web -- detects when you move the phone from your ear and lights up the phone so you don't need to touch any buttons to bring up your options. I can't count the number of calls that were hung-up prematurely due to hitting the wrong button on my old Treo after the screen went to sleep.
  
• The virtual keyboard requires a leap of faith since the keys are so small, but once you realize that it automatically corrects most of your mistakes, you will be pleasantly surprised how fast you can type on it.
  
• The integrations with Yahoo! for weather & stocks, and with Google for search & maps, is incredible. You may never need to call 411 again.
  
• Voicemails are downloaded to the phone, so there is no waiting while your phone dials into your voicemail, enters your PIN, and then plays your messages. I missed the first 20 seconds of my first voicemail message because I was not expecting that. Fortunately, the slider bar allows you to very easily skip to any part of the message.
  
• It can truly multi-task. Need to find a contact while on a call? Not a problem. Download email while on a call? Done.
  
• You may or may not care about being able to listen to music on your phone -- I didn't care much -- but when you add the ability to watch videos and subscribe to podcasts, it changes the way you consume information. This morning, I listened to 6 different podcasts -- from NPR to the Harvard Business Review to the Onion News Network -- while running errands around the City.
  

My previous phone was a Treo 650, so it's not as though I was using a primitive phone. But in just 3 days of using the iPhone, it sure does feel like I was living in the Stone Age.