100 Days, 100 Ties

Thanksgiving is over, but given the new holy days of obligatory shopping–Black Friday and Cyber Monday–the giving season has just begun. How long before the rest of the post-turkey week are taken over? Will we have Pawnshop Tuesday and Government Giveaway Wednesday?

Let me interrupt this by calling out to the folks at Hallmark. Are you listening to me? Do not–I repeat: Do. Not.–start creating Black Friday and Cyber Monday cards, even as a joke. I will lead a gang of sarcastic comsumo-terrorists who will replace your record-a-cards with non-niceties, and we will pre-seal all of your cards in their envelopes, too.

As I mentioned last week, I’m going to start wearing ties that have been given to me, or loaned to me, for one reason or another. I’m not sure if I can make it all the way until Christmas, so if you have a tie laying around that you wouldn’t mind sending to me, well, then send it with a story and I’ll wear it and post it, a-course. My address: Brooke Saucier, 495 Sheridan Road #1W, Evanston, IL 60202. I appreciate it, and if you need it back, I’ll gladly send it back.

First, we have the gift of a tie co-wearer: My old friend from Memphis, Chip Crain, said that he has enough holiday ties to wear one a day from December 1 until Christmas Day. So, Chip, send me the pix and I’ll post ’em here! Many thanks!

Mr Bill...Ohnoooooo!

Next, I have the gift of a photo: Another friend from Memphis, Jennifer Lazar, resides in Austin now. She apparently was in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the last few days and snapped some shots of these GBMWT (well, duh, look at the picture: GingerBread Men With Tie). These were entrants in a gingerbread man/house contest at the Philbrook Museum. I’m sure our wide-eyed-tie-guy was the winner.

Next, I have the gift of co-promotion. Staying in Texas, a true gentleman from Dallas, Drew Jones, found 100D100T interesting enough that he mentioned it on his website’s blog. Looking at the rest of his site, for the D. Jones Tailored Collection, I am honored to be included. The collection is truly outstanding, so check it out.

Wow, all this giving, and I haven’t even presented my Tie du Jour. Well, as I said, it was a gift from Margaret Gergen, the Managing Director at the North Shore Retirement Hotel. A couple of weeks ago (I think I mentioned it), I gave a short talk to a group of retired folks about my addiction to ties, and about 100 Days, 100 Ties. As a thank you, Margaret gave me three ties from their lost & found collection (which I think is really the guys-who-passed-away collection).

Diamonds Are Forever

I am thus honored to wear this beautiful Christian Dior tie; red, whitish gray and blue, the diamonds-within-diamonds pattern went perfectly with my shirt. It was funny…when Margaret presented the ties, she had me guess which brand they were, from Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior and Geoffrey Beene. I mixed up the Dior and the de la Renta, in all honesty, and got the Beene right. Oh, well, batting .333 would get me to the All-Star game. But, then again, I wouldn’t be able to wear a tie to work, now would I?

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sending stories, pictures and ties…Brooke

…but last night I wanted to.

I hereby call upon the deity, wizard or higher power that invented the neck spasm to please uninvent it. A grown man should be able to go to bed knowing that he’ll be able to get out of it the next morning. And as long as we’re asking for bodily amendments, could we get to the bottom of this sudden onset of ear hair after one turns 39 or 40? There has to be a geneticist or anatomical anthropologist out there who can get to the bottom of this? I mean, the neck spasms will (hopefully) go away, but do I really have to spend the rest of my life tweezing the ol’ radars?

Speaking of necks, I write a necktie blog, so I’ll get off Santa’s lap here and get down to bizness.

Have a nice trip, see you next fall

Since it is Thanksgiving, I decided to get autumnal with my tie selection, and I knew just the strip I needed. The Tie du Jour is a gorgeous paisley from Brooks Brothers, given to me by Diane for my birthday a couple years back. It’s a little orange and green, and a lot of deep maroon red; it’s set off quite nicely by the blue square-check shirt. This pattern would make a great, big comfy couch, which would likely be in the top 3 or 4 best sofas in the world (Question: is there a technical difference between a couch and a sofa?).

So, we have a very short week…while I’ll wear a tie on Tuesday, I’m not yet sure about Wednesday, and there definitely won’t be a Tie du Thursday, nor a (Freebie) Friday this week. I am, however, feeling a need for a weekly tie theme here, so let’s come up with one. I could probably reprise Red Tie Week, or perhaps Blue Tie Week, but where’s the fun in that?

We all know by now  that the day after Thanksgiving is the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season. As mentioned all the way back in the previous paragraph, I won’t be sporting a tie on that day, but next week, and perhaps for the next fortnight, I will honor the art of gift-giving by choosing TdJs that were given to me by friends and family. Decision = Made.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Ha! Made you look! I’m fully dressed, na-na-nabooboo.

I did play poker tonight, but it was the non-strip kind, thank goodness. My last wager will be that all of you are glad that I am beclad.

Ok, now it’s time to pretend that it’s Friday, or at least Saturday, and get down to some biz on this Friday Tie du Jour. My TdJ is a knit special, from the house of Mark Shale, one of Chicago’s finest purveyors of clothing. It’s a dark green heather that’s pretty plain, save for the texture that really shows the quality. Casual Friday meant that I could bust out the plaid; Friday also means Freebie Friday, so if anyone wants to comment with something nice, then it’s yours (if, on the off chance that there are more than one, I’ll choose by committee (of one) who gets it.

Saturday, I went to the Northwestern-Illinois tackle football contest at Wrigley. I say tackle in a brief moment of sarcasm (not my first today, I promise), as Illini RB Mikel Leshoure nailed 330 yards runnin up on the board. Actually it was tons of fun…

Later that night I went to the improvOlympic for a musical comedy revue, called, tastefully, “Cupid Has A Heart On.” I did snap a picture of the ticket guy, and darnit if I didn’t forget his name.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

A quick one, while he’s away… The Who

Once again, I’ve let myself get about a day behind on the posting bit. But now…haha!…now I have an excuse. Drugs!

Sing it to the rooftops, shout it from the heavens. Wait, shouldn’t those cliches be switched around? Shout from rooftops, sing to heavens? Yes, that’s it–I’m smacked up/whacked out on narcotics. Actually, I am on a pretty tame myscle relaxer; so tame that it didn’t even have its own mysterious drug ad campaign.

I love those commercials (not really…it’s hate. two exclamation points signify sarcasm)!! There are two types: the first is mostly print, where it shows a field and the name of the drug, with no mention of what the drug does, what it treats or when it’s available. Then there are the ones that list every non-symptom known to man, to create a market. Do you wake up in the morning? Are you sleepy at 11pm? Do you urinate? Drive me nuts.

Anyway, my Tie du Jour is a beauty from Ermenegildo Zegna (remember, it’s pronounced Air-Men-A-HEEEEEEEL-Do). Somehow I paired it with this vintage Marshall Fields shirt, and even my pocket square (scarf) was a relative match. Too bad I didn’t have the foresight to take an ensemble photo. This is another that I found at the Wings Resale Shop. Is very nice.

Wednesday was the Chamber’s Business After Hours, or BAH as it’s affectionately called. I managed to get one fella on camera. Savio Dias is in sales for the Kingfisher Airlines, a newish airline in India. They don’t fly in/out of the US yet, but they’re working on it.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

After John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head (and, given the fashion of the day, they were probably BOTH wearing a tie), he shouted “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” which loosely translates to “Suck it, Dictator-breath!”

So, I spent part of Tuesday thinking that a couple of Booth shots to the skull may actually improve my outlook on a pain-free week. No, no, relax, it wasn’t so bad that I had suicidal tendencies, but maybe Mr. Booth could just rub those muscles. All that pent up rage could have been better served getting at my prolonged headache.

What's up

A visit to the family doc, Dr. Ettner, started me on the road to that pain-free nirvana. I hope. I knew I’d be in good hands when his MSdM (Medical Student du Month) entered the exam room wearing a bow tie. First things first, I had to get a pic. A 3rd year med student, Dr. Brian Holoyda refused all pleas to provide me with powerful narcotics (legally prescribed. of course.). His and Dr. Fred’s assessment did, however, get me onto a muscle relaxer, which will hopefully give those damn neck muscles some chill time so they can get fixed.

I grimace while I describe my Tie du Jour, since putting it on was pure misery. Buttoning that top button felt like tying a balloon, only if the balloon were my head and had a brain and blood and bone in it. So, I went a little casual all day, popping the top right away.

The TdJ itself is a red and blue plaid from Chaps. They’re still affiliated with Ralph Lauren, right? I have been out of the loop for so long, and I don’t know if I ever would have known something along those lines. Not sure where or when I got this one, but the keeper (thanks to Lee Allison and his tie construction page, I know the keeper is the thing that keeps the apron and the tail together) had partially detached, so it’s probably for all the better that I will only wear it once.

My Shirt du Jour, from Thomas Pink, gives me a good reason to talk about safe resale shopping. Maybe not safe, but smart. I realized that the collar and sleeves were slightly fraying, but that’s not necessarily a problem (according to GQ’s Glenn O’Brien). The problem was that I didn’t look all over the shirt, and therefore thusly didn’t find the two holes in the right elbow. Oops. I would have still bought the shirt, but certainly wouldn’t have worn it to the office (or certainly would have kept my jacket on). Moral of the story: Know that there’s a reason that an item of clothing is in a thrift store; try to find that reason.

Thanks for reading…Brooke