What does the good writer wear, anyway?

Brit Hume talks about bloggers on Fox News Tonight. He interviews Scott Johnson of Powerline, and asks if it's fair call bloggers "guys in their living room in their pajamas" and "what about the charge that you guys are not subject to verification?" Johnson gives just the right answers: we only have readers because of our track record, the verification to be found by following the links, and we make quick corrections when we go wrong. Johnson is, not surprisingly, wearing a suit for his TV appearance. But let me say a word about writing at home, dressed for sitting around at home: that's nothing unique to blogging. How do you picture the great writers writing their books? Are they sitting in an office in a suit and tie?



UPDATE: A reader with a good memory sends this link about the historian Robert Caro: "Though he spends his days at the office alone, he goes to work in suit and tie. 'To remind me that I'm working,' he said." That's reminiscent of the stories about President Reagan always putting on a jacket to work in the Oval Office. Which always reminded me of those old pictures of Nixon wearing a suit to go for a walk on the beach. Back in the Nixon days (where we like to spend most of our time, this crazy election season), that excessive suit-wearing was considered a mark of deceit, and men wore jeans and a work shirt to demonstrate their seriousness.