Turning Up the Heat
The Sunlighten mPulse line of saunas features such bells and whistles as a Blaupunkt stereo system, a CD/DVD player that displays video on a seven-inch LCD screen, and an LCD touchscreen with which you can control the music, set the temperature, and dim the lights.
The saunas also are equipped with an infrared heating technology that, according to some studies, can reduce your blood pressure and your blood-sugar level, improve your blood circulation, and induce weight loss. The sauna’s heart monitor and other biofeedback accessories allow you to observe some of the effects a sauna session is having on your body.
The mPulse lineup ranges from the one-person aSPIRE (starting at $3,500) to the six-person eMPOWER (starting at $6,000). The saunas are available in cedar, basswood, and teak.
The Neck’s Big Thing
One type of collar not mentioned in this issue’s shirts feature ("Shirts So Good," page 60) is the detachable collar. The style peaked in the early 1900s and then disappeared. Recently it has been revived by a number of custom shirtmakers, including Mel Gambert, which calls its offerings "interchangeable" collars instead of detachable.
The style originally served practical purposes: You could wash the collars without having to wash the entire shirt, and you could replace the collars, which frayed before the rest of the shirt became worn, instead of buying a whole new shirt. While the interchangeable collars retain those benefits, the real perk of owning some of the 400 styles that Mel Gambert offers is that you can use them to give a shirt a completely different look each time you wear it: a cutaway collar for business dress, for example, or a wide-spread collar sans tie for a more casual look. Mel Gambert also offers more than 60 different styles of interchangeable cuffs.
Case and Point
W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. has introduced an alternative to the letter opener: the desk knife, which, the company’s literature says, has a blade point that is ideally shaped for slipping under envelope flaps and for cutting box strings and packaging straps. The blade is also just the right size for cutting through a cardboard box.
W.R. Case, a Pennsylvania company that has been making pocket knives, hunting knives, and collectible knives for more than a century, offers the desk knife in three different handle styles: abalone, stag, and red bone. Each knife is six inches long and comes with a leather sheath. The company’s knives are sold at cutlery shops and sporting-goods stores throughout the country.