Mr. Heb has a great fondness for patterned men's shirts...the sort of thing associated with Paul Smith, Liberty of London, and countless sofas and over-stuffed armchairs lurking in countless homes in countless sleepy English villages...proper, traditional shirts that require proper, traditional accoutrements...like cuff links.

Of course, as I quickly learned, you can just opt for any cuff link...whatever you pick has to be classic enough to add a touch of sobriety to your shirt...yet not be completely devoid of humor. It's like the search for the holy grail; I may not be the easiest, or fastest, shopping companion...but discussing all the possible permutations of link and cuff is the fashion equivalent of stamp collecting...buried in minutiae that only an enthusiast can enjoy.

Which is why I'm rather chuffed with myself for having purchased this Boy's Jewelry Set as a gift for Mr. Heb...authentically classic (I could imagine these being sold in the back of a boy's magazine, in whose stories the boys always have "jolly good times" and the sort of clean, honest fun that it was really only possible to have in the days before television and a constant stream of worldly knowledge killed the innocence of youth)...and amusing (if you keep the links' guns...and the tie clip's gunbelt...firmly in the realm of childhood...the land of cowboys and indians...plastic sheriff badges...and endings that are never final).

The only question left oustanding...who is Stacy?