100 Days, 100 Ties

Editor’s note: For some reason, I first published this last week as a page in WordPress, not the usual post. What the difference is between page and post, and how I accomplished that feat, is not within the realm of my intelligence to decipher.

Editor’s second note: You can’t spell ‘editor’ without T-I-E.

Using the alma mater song of the University of Texas (the other UT, remember) was quite the easy choice for my tie-pun-subject. What I was hoping was that one of the lyrics in “Deep In the Heart of Texas” went along with it. My ulterior motive was to show this clip from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, where our hero must prove that he is indeed in the Republic of Texas (the only state that can legally secede from the union). Mission accomplished.

All of that to get to our Tie du Jour, from deep in the heart of Texas. Yes, Neal Pearlman, half of your dream has come true! I wore a bolo tie! Now if I can just find an ascot…but I think I have a line on one. Then I’ll just need to learn how to tie it…AND get invited to a regatta or a country club board meeting.

My BTdJ is a gift from my dear friend Janet, who you may remember (from this mid-July post) is the one who gave me the interesting series of gifts (in case you’re wondering, interesting = heart-adorned boxer shorts and red velvet handcuffs) on Valentine’s Day during our time together teaching pre-school at the appropriately named School for Little Children. Janet’s daughter goes to Baylor University, down in Waco; on the way home from visiting her daughter, Janet decided to bring me back a little souvenir for my tie project. I do love it so…Thanks Janet!

I was finding it hard to choose a work-day outfit that was apropos for the bolo, so I chose one of my Leadership Evanston days to sport it. It went well, until my fellow classmates decided to, um, take the lead in creating a new nickname for me, based upon my cowboyesque gear for the day. The winner: Best Western. Thanks, Miro. Hope your Mudlark play, “This Is Just To Say”, is a success this weekend.

After picking up some leadership tips (and getting towed–grumblegrumble) during the day, I took Julia to the Merchant Mingle, hosted by the Chicago North Shore Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, or CNSCVB, for short, Thank Gawd. While Julia shopped happily, I was able to recruit a GWT for the ranks. Raphael, an administrator at the Baha’i Temple in Wilmette, attended the event with his girlfriend Bridgette Schnider, a friend who is an amazing artist. When her website is redone, I’ll put some of her design work on this blog. Amazing.

One more little nugget about bolo ties…every year, during my Christian Brothers High School orientation assembly meeting, Mr. Waff or Brother Adrian would run down the dress code. One of the rules was very curt: No Bolo Ties. Someone (and I think it was the same person every year) always…ALWAYS…asked what a bolo tie was. Every year I laughed, and every year I hoped that it was a tradition that lives to this day. Someone should always ask a school administrator what a bolo tie is. Always. Thank you, you’ve been kind.

Thanks for reading, y’all…Brooke

I didn’t actually stay there, but I did attend a play on YMCA property this evening.

The Mudlark Theater company, which puts on plays in the YMCA Auditorium, is an Evanston organization that provides a theatrical experience for youths. The program contained their mission statement, and while I’m pretty sure it was much more eloquent, I’m absolutely sure that they provide more than merely theatrical experiences. It’s just very late, and I’m not in an expounding mood. That’s why I put the link on there.

Perhaps I am in an expounding mood. Today I spoke with Jim Davis, the Artistic Director of another theater company, the Next Theatre. They end their ‘theatre’ with ‘re’, which is the British way. Metre, spectre. mothre-fu*kre, you know the drill. I had originally written ‘Mudlark Theatre’ above, and on the link, but had to change it so that it went to the correct website. I’d like to change my mind on the expounding statement from the prior paragraph and expound on this: Is any board time wasted on which way to spell a theatre/theater company? I’ll wager that there is, and I’ll wager that there have been board members who have left because of it.

Maybe I should go to sleep. I will savour it.

After a decent night’s sleep that has taken me well off the loopiness of 1:30am, This Is Just To Say was indeed a fun play, and its cast included a lot of Julia’s friends (she went with me; I try not to attend children’s plays without my 9-yr old chaperone). My friend Michael Miro directed the performance, and his vest/tie combo gets him to GWT status. Mike’s in my Leadership Evanston class, and I may need to borrow his cool purple tie. I’ll give it back, Mike, I swear.

Upon my bi-weekly trip down to the mailbox, I was welcomed by a package that contained a Title Nine shopping bag. Contained in that Title Nine shopping bag was not a great-looking sweater from Title Nine, but 5 ties. All very very different from one another. The donor very obviously had been reading the tie blog of the donee, and knew that resale ties of many fabrics, persuasions and hue were what he liked. The donor, or donoress, is, however, a mystery. No name written on the package. No name written on the Title Nine bag. After thanking folks for getting me up over 10,000 page views for 100D100T, I find myself thanking the person who gave me the ties (all 5 of which will be featured during Gift Tie Season Month). Thank. You.

Proceeding on to the Gift Tie du Jour, or Cravate Mystérieuse Numéro 1. It has no brand tag, but it is very obviously a vintage strip. One small tag remains, and I’m just not sure what it means. Where it says ‘All Silk’, that is pretty obvious, but then it goes on to declare “Weighted up to 35%.” Hmm…more mystery. No biggie, but it’s a great tie–plenty of texture, which I dig.

On the Tie du Thursday (my bolo adventure), I forgot to put my friend Chip’s second Xmas tie, so now I’ll put ChipTie Nos. 2 & 3.

Red shirt = Xmas fun

Speaking of Christmas ties, my roving 100D100T photographer, Mother Version (i.e. my Mom) snapped this shot of Jim Shepherd, General Manager of the Santa Rosa Beach Club, down in my parents’ neck of the woods.

And we have a new cat-egory. Get it? Cat? My friend, and bow-tie-o-phile, Dan Murrell sent this in. Yes, someone fashioned a tie onto a kitten…I presume it was not Dan. And the only thing better than one cat with a tie? Two of the cute little buggers. Don’t say I didn’t get you anything.

Thanks for reading. Meow…Brooke

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) — “The Mourning Cloak, with its yellowish border and brilliant blue spots, is a majestic sight to behold. In contrast, when resting on the bark of trees, the Mourning Cloak’s dull underside provides an excellent camouflage. When added to the powderized wings of the Mourning Cloak, the blood of the Mourning Cloak can be free-based, producing a trippy high that can enhance the hell out of a sexual experience or a Grateful Dead show, man.”

All but the last sentence of that description can be found in the packaging for my Tie du Jour. The latest Gift du Month was a special gift to me, from my friend Jonathan Liss and his wife Kristen. Kristen, it seems, is a thrift store treasure hunter like myself. She spotted this Buttertie, brought to us by Ralph Marlin & Co, at an area resale shop. They were nice enough to purchase it for me a couple of months ago. As I had already been through my Bow Tie Fortnight, I’m glad that I found the vehicle to show off ties that were gifts to me. The aforementioned Mourning Cloak is the featured butterfly…ain’t she beautiful?

This evening was chock full of events–our quasi-regular Lawyers, Guns & Money (“the shit has hit the fan!”) networking group, held at The Cellar, was preceded by a Wellness event at Saint Francis Hospital, entitled “Let’s Move Our Numbers!” The guests of honor were Jerry & Estella Hayes, who won The Biggest Loser‘s At-Home Challenge a couple of years ago. A bit of an oxymoron, no? The Biggest Loser winner? Jerry lost 177 lbs, while Estella lost 83. I had the chance to meet Jerry, who was quite proud to tell me that he’s gained back only 2 pounds, as he nibbled a carrot.

While there, I was fortunate enough to have two Matts join the ranks of Guys With Ties. Matt Trewartha is the aide to Robyn Gabel, our newly-elected 18th District Representative to the Illinois House of, well, Representatives.

The other Matt is Matthew Moy Johnson, who is the VP of Marketing & Development at the McGaw YMCA here in Evanston.

And, finally, I consider this to be a great gift: I believe I mentioned my friend Chip Crain would be wearing a different holiday tie every day between today, December 1, and Christmas Day (December 25, doy). We have the first one, and it’s a good one. Christmas trees and snowmen, you just can’t get any better than that. When I realized that Chip was emulating my tie-photo style, I asked him to send a shot that showed his face. He claimed that I would lose readership if his face was on here. Chip, you are a fine & distinguished Southern Gentleman, and I am honored to have you, in your Irish national soccer team jersey, on my blog, and I will be so honored for the next few weeks to put your brilliant collection of ties alongside mine.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

…which you can’t spell without T-I-E. Is Vanna still turning letters? What a career…how many words has she actually spoken on-camera?

We passed a big hurdle today on my second day of honoring gift ties that have come my way: I actually remembered that I was honoring gift ties that have come my way. Score one for the brain! And so soon after that miserable Flexeril made me so stupid (OK, I know some of you are saying, “You mean, more stupid?” Cut it out.)…

giveushadrink

My Tie du Jour was given to me well over ten years ago. Diane introduced me to the martini during our courtship (“Brooke, meet the Martini. Do not drink more than two of these in one evening.”), and found this hand-painted tie for a birthday or Father’s Day or something. The label says “Do not drink more than two…” Just kidding. The label says, “Handpainted by Siobhan. Bozeman, Montana, USA.” Alas, Siobhan of Bozeman does not seem to be Google-able. I really like the blue background color on this tie, and of course the martins* and olives are perfectly funky, too.

*by the way, that’s not a typo. My parents and brother have called martinis “martins” for years. Creative, yes, I know, but that’s what we do, we Sauciers. Here’s another cocktailing tidbit about the Sauciers: They have called Mondays “Martini Mondays” for quite some time now.

Let’s see, we have some fun extras today…where to start, where to start?

Ah, yes, a great fellow is one of the newest Guys With Ties member: Mark Schroeder, Director of Community Relations at Evanston Hospital (one of four hospitals in the NorthShore University HealthSystem) was one of my hosts today, along with Sean O’Grady, a member of the Chamber’s board (aaaand himself a fellow GWT alum).

This evening I went over to the Lorraine Morton Civic Center, to show support for my friend (aaaand GWT alum) Paul Hletko, as he continues his quest to open a distillery in Evanston, the home of the prohibition movement. A movement which, gladly for our purposes, died about 80 years ago.

While there, we attended a zoning meeting with Dennis Marino, the Assistant Director of Planning with the afore mentioned City of Evanston. He said he’s usually a turtleneck guy, so we caught him on a good day (for me).

Along the wall leading into City Council chambers are portraits done of our mayors over the years. I snapped a couple of MWT (Mayors With Ties, of course). I forgot to get the name of this one, but I liked that his moustache is as big as his teeny-tiny bow tie.

I did, however, get the name of this fella. William Dyche was a mayor of Evanston who had served as Business Manager for Northwestern, and had led the campaign to raise bond funds to build Dyche Stadium. The Northwestern football team played there until 1995, when, in a flash, the stadium was razed and rebuilt in a matter of moments! It was then named Ryan Field in honor of Patrick Ryan, who raised funds to perform this engineering miracle.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

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