100 Days, 100 Ties

It’s been quite a while since I’ve struggled for a post’s beginning sentence, or even a main thought. But, that’s where I’m at right now, what with the previous night’s Tie-valanche still fresh in my mind. With the help of a friend’s sage advice, I’m questioning my decision to go with a seemingly stronger hanger over the safety of just having two hangers for the Already Worn. Danger doesn’t rhyme with hanger, but it’s close, and it’s my middle name.

You may recall my cousin Beaux’s tale of nearly choking on himself when shopping for a Lee Allison tie at Aidan Gill’s New Orleans store. The thought of spending a hundie on a tie was only slightly alleviated when Mr. Gill showed him the special “Remove After Sex” notation in the tie. Anyway, Beaux is about to be on the receiving end of an envelope full of ties. Wear them proudly, Cuz.

My Tie du Jour contains perhaps my favorite shade of blue. Would this be cornflower blue? I’m no paint color expert, but…I like it. It’s from Nautica, and the strip’s tan/blue/orange notes made for a nice airy complement to my mainly orange shirt.

We have a contribution from a reader (and friend and fellow Lincoln parent), Ginger Moore, who submitted this blog post from the non-tied Anderson Cooper (does he have a patent on those perfectly-wrinkled, you’re-damned-right-I-work-in-war-zones-and-disaster-areas shirts?). It’s a pic of VP Biden and SotH Boehner, both wearing ties, and a caption contest underneath. The winning staff entry is tie-based…and kinda funny.

Just a bit of a preview, since I didn’t capture any live GWTs…on Friday I’ll be wearing a blue paisley tie, which will herald (should I remember) PTW (Paisley Tie Week) from Monday through Friday of next week. Wear your favorite paisley ties (or paisley scarves or whatever, for the non-tie ladies out there) and send me a picture. We may even have a

Thanks for reading…Brooke

I hereby give the proper advanced notice that this post will be forever pigeon-holed in the STMOH (Schlocky Tooting Mine Own Horn) section of the interwebs. However, the story ends so sweetly and serendipitously that I can’t help but relate it.

Thursday evening I walked to my car in the parking garage. It wasn’t as miserably cold as it has been since Friday, but it was getting there. I noticed a very flat tire on a little Mazda a few cars away. Not just low flat–rims hitting the concrete flat.

Anyway, what to do? I tore out a piece of paper to write a note: “Your left rear tire is very flat.” This would likely have been obvious, as the owner would have probably seen it (it was that flat). As I had to deal with a nail-in-the-tire this week on the family truckster, I bought a mini air compressor from Target, which pumped my tire enough so that I could drive it to Doc Able’s on Chicago Avenue. So, I pondered leaving the compressor next to the car with a more detailed note on my business card.

It took a couple minutes of pondering. The YES DO IT factor was very strong, as I put a story into my head that this person (for no reason I pegged the owner as female) had a family to get back to, and, with the weather as it was, could really use a 10-minute solution rather than one that would take over an hour (not to mention cost money). Somehow, I thought that the happiest person in the world would be this girl’s father, who would HATE not being there for his daughter; I hoped that someone, someday, somewhere would do a similar nice thing for Julia. I figured there would be about a 15% chance that the person would keep it…maybe even less than that.

The next morning, I saw the car again. The tire was fat, happy and full of good ol’ air. At the office, lying against my office door, in a plastic bag? The air compressor. No note, but it made me happy. After lunch, Elaine told me someone from one of the offices in our building had dropped by, saying something about a flat tire. I went up to introduce myself to Coleen (two l’s?), who was very gracious in thanking me, marveling at the amount of faith I must have had that I would have gotten it back. Faith schmaith, I just wanted to help. But then she said it had been a tough month; her father had passed away just two weeks prior. I felt a wave of paternal brotherhood (does that make sense) pass through me, quite rapidly, and then I felt myself getting emotional, never ever wanting Julia to reach the moment in her life that her Daddy is gone. I hope that Coleen knows that her Daddy told me to leave the compressor, and that he and I and all the other Daddies out there (in this world and the next) remain vigilant, and will make sure that daughters are taken care of when life’s mini-crises come up.

My Tie du Jour is quite simple, a solid blue from the Tongue Tied collection from Tom McClellon. The colorful plaid shirt is really the star in this ensemble.

I’m spent from that story. Take the time to do nice things. Thanks for doing a nice thing for me and reading my blog…Brooke

It’s a short week here at 100D100T Regional HQ, but we’ll try to make these 4 ties equal the strength of a full-fledged (can something be half-fledged?) 5-tie week.

Speaking of tie weeks, Paul Fredrick Week has rekindled my tie-week jones. As I still have some more gifted ties (more gifted than your ties, and I have the test results to prove it) I’d like to get out there, I’ll probably wait until after next week. So, if I remember my self-pledge (how fledged is your pledge?), I’ll fire up Paisley Tie Week starting January 31 or February 7. Please add it to your calendar (and have your calendar remind me).

So, back to the wok-at-hand. My Tie du Jour was a gift from my friend Rhonda Antonucci, whose family just moved to Evanston this past summer. Her kids are at Lincoln with Julia, and she runs an interior design firm, Antonucci Design. This ENYU tie, with its Chinese characters, caught her eye at a resale shop, and she decided that it deserved immortality here on 100 Days, 100 Ties (ha!).

But, please, if anyone can read this tie, please don’t tell me if it’s cuss words. TEACH me how to say ’em! With my luck, it’ll be the how-to manual for taking over the US&A by bailing out its major industries.

Thanks for reading…Brooke