I have a very stylish friend who all but lived in No. 6 clogs, clog boots, or clog sandals, depending on the season, but when this article came out in the Times a while back citing No. 6 clogs as a crucial component of the Brooklyn mom uniform, she swore off them for good. She is, in fact, a Brooklyn mom, and did not want to be viewed as one who engaged in such easy sartorial cliches. Being neither a Brooklyn-dweller nor a mom myself, I didn’t take the Times assessment too personally, but I did take note, and wondered: had No. 6 clogs become too ubiquitous? I decided to keep wearing the ones I had—they comprise too huge a portion of my shoe wardrobe not to—but not to buy any new ones. And then this afternoon I was out running errands—dropping off dry cleaning, bringing busted-up footwear to the excellent Cowboy Boot Hospital—when I realized I was in such close proximity to the No. 6 store that I might as well drop by—just to look at the clothes, mind you. And while I did admire this Lauren Manoogian coat and so many sweaters, eventually I made it to the back of the store where the clogs live, and discovered these little wonders, which are now officially my first and only pair of purple shoes. Yes, just when I think I’m out, No. 6 pulls me back in. What brand/product/article of clothing does that for you?

Life as a middle-aged woman sometimes strikes me as equally full of changes and surprises as adolescence. So many developments I did not even begin to see coming, and I’m not talking only about the ones involving hormones. To wit: I absolutely did not anticipate that suddenly I can not tolerate anything but surpassingly comfortable footwear. I’ve never been one much to suffer for fashion, but now my tolerance for feeling ouchy in order to look good is pretty much nil these days. So since fall is afoot (see what I did there?), I’ve been thinking about finding boots that feel as good as they look, checking out brands that aren’t on my usual style map, but that are known for creating well-made, walkable stuff (added bonus: they’re all pretty well-priced, too). The bad news is one has to slog through a lot of pretty frumpy choices to find anything decent, but if you poke around long enough, good options emerge, like this Loubouton-ish platform boot by Naturalizer,  which I actually went for.

This reminds me somewhat of Acne’s popular (and pricier) pistol boot.

These sleek wedges are from Dr Scholl’s, a brand that can surprise you.

These are suede and also waterproof, which is a cool trick.

I like the idea of a slighty-higher-heeled-than-usual Chelsea boot.

This kitten-heeled pair would work as well with a dress as they would jeans, and I dig the sharp pointy toe.

Combat boots can be a little too mannish for me, so I like the idea of a pair that has some height.

Just a good, polished, walk-everywhere-in-them boot.

Profuse apologies for the unannounced absence: I finally broke down and replaced my ancient, filthy laptop, and it took longer than anticipated for the nice people at the tech store to transfer all my data. So I lived without a computer for TWO WHOLE DAYS and it’s kind of amazing how hard that was for me—I felt purposeless, distracted, and and vaguely as though I was missing a limb. And it’s been raining here in Sag Harbor so pretty stir-crazy too. I texted a friend to say “I don’t know how we survived in the olden days,” to which she replied “I think about that often. Our brains have changed.” Which is undoubtedly correct, and that scares me a little, but mostly I’m just pleased to be connected again. I’ll be back after the long weekend with all sorts of exciting, autumnal posts—it’s been cool out here (and from what I hear in the city too) and it’s put me in a very back-to-school-shopping mood. Tell me, readers, what fall purchases are you looking forward to?