Some people tell me they can't read on exercise machines because they get a headache. I'm lucky, I suppose, because I've been able to stay on the cross-trainer machine at the Alexander Family YMCA for an hour or more reading books at a clip of about one a week. (The sublime to the ridiculous: An Abe Lincoln story one week, a biography of Bonnie and Clyde the next.)

On occasion, though, I have to go to magazines, and while on vacation recently, I'd run through about everything so I got a copy of Esquire's "Black Book," which I take it is supposed to be a definitive guide on how to dress. This was a mistake. The "guide" was full of instructions and recommendations, which included suits at $4,000 or so, shoes in the hundreds, various forms of cashmere that ran a grand or so for a scarf. Usually, my philosophy is...well, I don't know why somebody would want anything but corduroy, anyway.

But feeling somewhat inspired, I repaired to a local department store and picked up a sport coat for $75 that was referred to by a sales person as "faux cashmere," meaning that it looks and feels like the genuine article.  Now don't get the idea that you can get faux cashmere at that price all the time. Nosiree. I ran into a sale. 

However, no goat or sheep fur was sacrificed for my coat, whereas I think that's the case with non-faux cashmere. I think for mine, a few polyesters were cut out of the herd. 

My friend Jayne, who reviews such purchases, reckoned the coat to be OK, but said that when we go somewhere, I need to keep my mouth shut about the fact that it's "faux" because she doesn't want people assuming she's also clad in faux. So to say anything would be a faux pas.

Aw, give me a break. You knew it was coming.

For this edition of the Condition, the 25th installment so far, I talk to someone whose name has popped up more than a few times on this podcast. And, after weeks of scheduling, I finally get him in the hot seat. Today, I talk with Mike D'Angelo.

To the novices who don't know who he is, he's quite powerful in the film-criticism game. His meticulous Web site, The Man Who Viewed Too Much, has been a major source of influence in the movie-reviewing blogospehere. Holla at any online film critic or blogger (as I have with this podcast) and you'll learn that Mike D'Angelo is The Man — even if he says he's not, which he does here. But, anytime people you don't know give you money to go to France, so you can write dispatches from the Cannes Film Festival, you have to think of yourself as The Man just a little bit.

Since I was shocked to get him on the phone, we spend most of the time talking about him: his Cannes exploits, his tenure as an Esquire columnist, his rather mathematical approach to reviewing movies, his new column over at the Onion's A.V. Club. It was quite entertaining all around. I'm sure this will be a heavily-listened-to edition of the Condition. But that's what happens when you talk to someone who has The Man-type qualities. You can also download it here.

MONDAY: Discussing the life of a golden-age movie master with the film critic who recently wrote his biography.