Casual: Badass Boots

Cowboy boots aren't (ain't?) for everyone.  (Ladies: Cowboy boots are for you.  Rocky Mountain Jeans, maybe not.)  But a good pair of boots can get you around in style, comfort, and safety.  D.C.'s unusually snowy winter has been an excellent reminder of this.

Friend and polymath Bryan runs, among other things:
Celebrating Sagan, a site dedicated to remembering Carl Sagan's outsized contributions to scientific literacy and wonder in the United States; and
Knock Twice, which must be seen/read/heard to be believed.

Bryan also has a great--how to describe it?--Urban Western?--style; think city jeans but country shirts, irony-free (or else I'm missing the irony).  These are his new Red Wing Iron Rangers, acquired from Amazon.com:

The top three lace-holders are hooks rather than grommets, which keep the upper bights from slipping once you tie them down.  And these boots are cap-toes, which makes them look a little more dressy, but make no mistake--they mean business.