100 Days, 100 Ties

…”Then tie will,” said the little red hen.

Alright, I’ve got a lot to get to here tonight. First, last soccer bit…well, until August, when the English league begins.

I must say that yesterday’s World Cup final match was crap. Total crap. In my mind I have awarded Germany the trophy, and Uruguay the 2nd place wages, for having the nuggets to play to score. 3-2 beats the holy hell out of 1-0 in just short of two snoring hours. Yeah, yeah, Spain were the better team, but you can’t spell ‘Neanderthal’ without N-E-T-H-E-R-L-A-N-D (wow, how’d they let that happen?). Sorry, Nigel de Jong, but your cleats should make marks in the turf, not Alonso’s boob. The mighty Oranje erased their beloved total voetbal concept in one South African night, and it ruined the end of the quadrennial show more than the vuvuzelas. Thank GOODness Diver Iniesta’s goal was good and legal–unquestionably onside, over the line and barely touched by human-goalie hand–or I would have sworn off World Cup soccer (for 3.9 years, he did not sheepishly add). I will add that the winning manager, Vicente del Bosque, wore a tie, while Dutchman Bert van Markwijk did not. Coincidence? I think not.

So, I mentioned my orange tie (the Friday Freebie from 10 days ago) which had an ‘outdoor’ weekend, in the street it turns out. My Dutch friend Dirk den Ouden was the winning commenter, and he wore it for the semi-final match (along with these specs, which come from the Elton John collection). Unfortunately, he had the tie (and all its guttered glory) dry-cleaned, and when he wore it on Sunday, its luck ran out. You can see him here with his son, Victor, who did his best to imitate the vuvulezists.

There was another tie that came back into my life, sort of, this weekend. My good friend, former French teacher, and oft-contributor to 100 Days, 100 Ties, Dan Murrell emailed this picture. He is wearing a Beau Ties of Vermont bow tie, that he sent back there to be re-sized to his preferred 2″ max width.

My Tie du Jour is another from Liberty of London, and one of my favorite parts is the hidden colors within the blue and white floral pattern. I doubt you can see it in the photo, but there are small bits of pink (that I’m pretty sure do not come from spaghetti sauces past) that matched this TdJ perfectly with this shirt. I got a lot of quick comments on this tie, and I’m almost ashamed to admit that I think I had only worn this tie once before. I’ll definitely wear it again, beyond the century (I’ll explain more of that later).

Wow, still a lot to get to…we have a couple of Guys With Ties to get to.

GWT I is Will, who was my waiter at the brand new Pensiero Ristorante, which is the reprise of the much loved Va Pensiero, which shared space with the Margarita European Inn for over a decade before closing this past spring. I was able to be there on a soft opening, as they put their kitchen and wait staff through their paces before opening tomorrow, July 13. Will was definitely a big reason it was such a great meal…

I met GWT II today at the Fifth Third Bank branch in Evanston, on Maple. Nate Zureikat was sporting this awesome purple paisley tie, and I just had to get this one into 100 Days, 100 Ties. Nate also manages the Niles branch of Fifth Third, and we hope to get him to some Chamber events soon.

Well this next fella is a GATWT. Guy About To Wear Tie. My friend, and former neighbor, Eric Schneider asked a couple weeks back if I could do him a favor. He asked to borrow a tie. It seems that he will be attending a wedding next week in Atlanta, and he does not own a single tie. Hasn’t worn one for, oh, maybe ten years or more. I guess that’d make him the anti-GWT. So, he came over and I plucked about 5 or 6 off the Hanger of the Worn (as you can see in the background) for him to choose from. Chose well Young Skywalker did. Two paisleys…a green and an orange. He cannot go wrong. And the price of such rental? Merely a photo of him, wearing it to the wedding. Eric’s family business, Huron Paper Stock, has been recycling waste paper since 1955, before Al Gore had ever invented the internet so that he could invent Power Point so that he could win the Nobel Peace Prize, which he invented.

Whoa, I did have a lot to cover. This is my longest post yet. Thanks for reading, even if you had to do it in two sittings…Brooke

Well, the Germans sure were quiet today, at least from a soccer perspective. After smashing 4 past mighty Argentina (mighty in the eyes of Argentina), they looked surprisingly tired today against an older, wiser Spanish team.

Enough soccer blogging…back to ties from here on out. Or at least until the final on Sunday, when I won’t likely be wearing one.

Since I’m late (as my Mom pointed out) with Wednesday’s post, we’ll have to call this the Tie du Yesterday. It was scorching hot on Tuesday, so it was decided that afternoon that Wednesday would be a seersucker day. I informed my boss that he should eschew his seersucker so that we didn’t look like they were filming the new Gone With The Wind musical here in Evanston.

No, no, no, they’re not doing that, at least not as far as I know. What I do know is that “Frankly, Scarlett…” and “Don’t Know Nothin’ ‘Bout Birthin’ No Babies” should never be Broadway songs. Please…

Okay, so, my silk light pink/light blue (looks yellow/blue in the picture, yikes) Tie du Yesterday went well with the ‘sucker. Because of all the stripes going on, I thought it would be a good time to break out one of the few actually solid shirt that I actually own. Too bad I forgot to check the label on the tie, or I’d gladly share. Sheesh, on Tie No. 78, how do I forget that? Age, definitely. Gingko Bilobaaaaa! Helloooo.

I did manage to remember that there is a Guys With Ties element to these here proceedings on this here blog. Last night we (I, the Chamber and the LGM Network committee) hosted an LGM Networking event at Prairie Moon. What does ‘LGM’ stand for, you ask? I may have already explained this, so sorry. Lawyers, Guns & Money is the name of our networking group that includes lawyers (natch), CPAs, bookkeepers, fund managers, real estate persons, bankers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers. Okay, I made the last three up.

Anyblahblahblay, Barney Peterson, who’s in sales at the Hilton Orrington, dropped by the Moon for a little bit. Long enough for me to get a snap of his Polo tie…

Luke, Owen T, Owen L, Nicky, Greg

And here’s a good one. I’ve been waiting on this one for a while. For the past few summers, my good friend Sara and her son, Nicky (who’s in Julia’s grade at school) have hosted a boys’ night in. It’s a dinner party, and the invitees are required to dress up. Here are the fellas, looking their best, and sportin’ some great ties.

And, while I’m on the subject of boys in Julia’s class, I may as well share my philosophy on their growing into the teen years alongside my precious daughter. I tell them to enjoy the nice guy I am now, because as long as I remember how my mind worked from 13 thru 18 (or didn’t), I’ll know what they’re thinking. I can hear my hairs turning gray right now, and I practice my “You-Make-Her-Cry-I-Make-You-Cry” speech (with accompanying face) almost weekly. I’m watching you, Wazowski, always watching. Who am I kidding? I talk mighty tough, but when it comes down to it, Julia will out-toughtalk me, and will get her way. Sproing! Another gray. Great.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Did anyone else notice that today was the first day in the last 19 without a World Cup match? Man, I was going nuts. I doubt Hank Williams, Jr is gonna sing to me about it, but I am ready for some football! South America vs. Europe, with Ghana thrown in as a consolation prize to the host continent. Just licking my chops, awaiting Brazil-Netherlands and Germany-Argentina, especially. With the exception of Spain, you have to think the champion will come from those powerhouses.

But, this is a tie blog, so let’s get it on!

By my calculations, and with the aid of some rudimentary counting skills, I think I’m about halfway through my ties. I still enjoy telling the story, such as it is, of how I came up with the idea. It was such a quick happenstance, getting to the blog from the 30-second train of thought (how will I move my ties/how many ties do I have/I’d guess 85/I should wear one a day until I’ve worn them all/I should write about them/I should buy enough to own 100/Hey, 100 Days, 100 Ties). Then, of course, I actually counted them, and there were 115.

The Tie du Jour is Tie No. 74, methinks. It’s pretty average, looks-wise, but I think I made it work with this shirt. It’s from Lands’ End, and I can’t remember if I got it at their outlet place or if I inherited it from my Dad. No matter. I’ve worn it, and it’s served me well.

A little on wearing the striped tie over a striped shirt. One can get away with it, as long as either the shirt or tie has diagonal stripes, and you don’t really want the pattern to be too similar. No perpendicular tie-to-shirt action, or pinstripe over pinstripe. This tie could have popped off of a plain white shirt, but that’s not really me; I think it jumps out rather nicely here, with this understated striped Perry Ellis shirt.

I have a very cool Guy With Tie to share with you today. If you may recall, my cousin, Elizabeth, submitted a very heartfelt comment on behalf of her husband, Tim, vying for a Friday Freebie a few weeks back. She said the colors of the tie, blue and green, matched the colors of their wedding. Awww. Which I missed. Ack. It was a lovely sentiment, and I gladly sent it to Texas with love and C.O.D. Just kidding, I’m not a monster. Anyway, here’s Tim Brehm, sporting the FF tie in front of a painting that they commissioned to represent their floral arrangement. Best wishes to you both…I’m sorry I missed it.

Well, thanks for reading…Brooke

A tiring day which followed a working weekend which came on the heels of a hard-chargin’ fortnight…good thing my 41-year old (feels like 42 or 43) body can take it. Yeah, right.

I spent a lot of my day today edging up to the precipice of buying a used car, then finally backed away when it just didn’t feel right. I need to feel like I’m in the perfect situation, so I think I’m going to be a minivan-man for a few more months. [The following should be read using the voice of The Price Is Right‘s Johnny Olson] Low mileage! Remote control sliding doors! CD/DVD with broken cassette! 7 years of dings & scratches on the inside, crumbs and gum wrappers on the out! It’s an…an OLD CAR! You’re the next contestant…

Onward. This past weekend was the Chamber’s Fountain Square Art Festival…two days walking the street (insert hookin’ joke here) was fairly brutal, but it was a great time seeing people. A lot of artists left happy, as the crowd was seemingly in a buying mood.

GWTT (Girl With Tie Tee)

One of the vendors was Eun Hee, who was selling handmade kids’ clothing under her label Sam and Coop. One of her designs is a t-shirt with a tie sewn onto the front. She actually had one in an adult size, so I thought it only serendipitous that I buy it. This will certainly lead to a Special Weekend Edition of 100 Days, 100 Ties, as I will certainly evoke much guffawing and chortling when I wear it to a barbecue (“A Tie! To a Barbecue! That’s a stitch!”)…

My Tie du Jour fell victim to the shortcomings of my iPhone camera. It looks yellow, but it’s really a light gray off-white. The picture also doesn’t really show the great blue pattern in it, that actually pulls it together with this shirt. Dammit. Don’t think that I haven’t heard about the camera capabilities–higher res, flash, the ability to see yourself while you picture yourself–in the new iPhone 4. Definitely looking forward to getting one of those in the future. Enough coveting of my neighbor’s smartphone, my TdJ is from Le Ferré, which I believe is mark of Gianfranco Ferré, a designer out of Italy. I would be surprised if Signore Ferré ever reads this blog. He passed away in 2007.

Ran into a couple of Guys With Ties during the weekend’s Art Fest festivities. Store manager Wayne Tadda of the Evanston Jos. A. Bank was around early on Saturday. His tie collection puts me to absolute shame. Four hundred ties. 400! I actually use his method for tie storage–hang them on a suit hanger–for my Menagerie of the Worn.

And, we have our first GWT-B of the project. B stands for ‘bolo’, and I made it a dash-B so it wouldn’t be confused with Guys With Bow Ties. I can’t be certain, but putting bolo tie guys with bow tie guys is only askin’ fer trouble. David Canfield, one of the presenters at the Festival (his wife Kate Barrere won an award), was sporting this bolo tie, and was kind enough to pose for a minute.

I’m pretty sure that I mentioned that I had to wear a tie every day in high school. On the first day of every school year, we had some sort of assembly, where Brother Someone-or-other read over the rules. Hair length, dress code, tardiness, etc, the usual Cat’lic school BS. One of the items on the d0-not-wear list was bolo ties, but it was a tradition that someone had to ask what a bolo tie was. I guess it’s not really that funny, unless you’re a barely mature boy who’s a bit nervous (and pissed) about the first day of school.

Well, that’s that. Welcome to the working week, which will lead to a long weekend. Happy early birthday, USA.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

I know I’ve predicted this before, but this post may be the shortest yet. I’m tired, I’m thirsty, I’m ADD-ing…and now the email from my iPhone to my gmail account won’t get delivered. Ahem. Echo-echo-echo…

That is now the sign for, let’s wait until tomorrow morning…

Have now been properly rested and sufficiently caffeinated, so let’s see how this goes.

After some technical difficulties which entailed emails from my iPhone going to some sort of limbo/purgatory, I’ve finally gotten a workable shot.

It’s from US Polo Association, which, come on, has got to be predicated on the popularity of the Ralph Lauren Polo brand. I imagine their sales figures/market value have to fall into these categories.

• True fans of the USPA brand – 7%
• Family members of USPA – 8%
• People who see “POLO” on the label, check the price, and giddily figure they’re getting a bargain on some kickass Ralphie gear – 39%
• People who see “POLO” on the label, know it’s not kickass Ralphie gear, but buy it anyway – 41%
• People who get the product because it looks good/fills a need, and don’t care about the label – 5%

I fall into this last category, as I bought this at Marshall’s or TJ Maxx, and liked the brown with the blue touches. While I certainly am usually aware of certain labels (and their relative value, in terms of finding a bargain), I truly was not label-watching in this case. So there.

Jim Nash: A great spy novel name

I found a new member of the Guys With Ties clan yesterday. Jim Nash, of Farnsworth-Hill, a real estate company HQed here in Evanston. This picture should guarantee that I’ll never be accused of being a lighting expert. Great, I made the subject stare directly into the sun, and I cut off half his face in shadow. Tie looks good, though.

And I totally forgot that my sister-in-law, Mo Kirk, sent me some pictures of RGWT (Related Guys With Ties) from a Bar Mitzvah that she and my younger brother, the strategically-named Grant Saucier.

In this first one, that’s Grant on the left, hiding his tie (is that a Liberty of London?) with his big paw whilst expounding on something to one of Mo’s brothers, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Michael Kirk (PBS’s Frontline).

In this other one, Grant & Mo are hanging with Eli (the new Bar Mitzvah) and Wolf, Mike’s sons. I guess these guys would be the charter members of WWT (Whippersnappers With Ties), although I guess Eli is a full-on GWT, due to his new status.

Thanks for reading…yep, though I was late, I was wrong about the shortness.

Brooke

This morning was good. My planning was good. No ill effects of travel, of late nights (since my daughter is down with my folks still), of forgetting to take my gingko biloba (I mean really, there’s a chicken-and-the-egg thing going on, right? Hello? Echo!). I shaved, deodorized, got dressed (underwear then pants, then do a little dance) and even remembered to take a picture! What has made me so proud is that I had a plan and rolled with it. That’s good!

This morning, this good, good morning, was our Networking Breakfast, hosted by Illinois Nut & Candy. The proprietor, David Levine, is a distinguished alumnus of GWT Univ. Their facade is very pink, very noticeable while driving past on Dempster. So, I thought that I’d honor that color scheme with my ensemble.

Paint the mother pink...

This striped strip is from DKNY, and I picked it up at Thriftgeek, which I’ve mentioned before. They are a thrift store which was open in Evanston for a year, and just recently moved down into the city. They had some fun stuff…I have several ties from there, as well as an old faux-leather (pleather, yeah!) gym bag that I use to tote all my racquetball crap.

Today’s meeting brought out a lot of Guys With Ties, and it made me realize something. Vince Roberts, a chiropractor with Reavy Rehab, has been on here, as a Guy With BOW Tie. The first GWBT, by the by. Well done, son. His 100D100T resume is getting to be quite like Paul Hletko’s…he, too, is a Friday Freebie winner, plus he gave me one of the bow ties for BTF. You, too, friendly reader, can be a winner. Just send two box-tops…

Next is Jim Pepa, a partner with Brown, Kaplan + Liss, an accounting firm Evanston. Jim’s tie is an attention-getter, and I don’t like it…I love it.

Larry Levin is a salesman at Jos. A. Bank on Sherman in downtown Evanston. He always has a big smile, and had some really cool things to say this morning at our NeBr. About me. And my tie blog. Which is nice.

Jesse Moreno of Next Level Planning Group was there, and he mentioned that he’d wear a better tie next time. I have to disagree, as I think this tie is pretty great. Um, Jesse, you can always give it to your favorite Evanston Chamber Membership Manager…

And, finally, after work, I went to [name of local establishment has been covered to protect the politician] for a [type of beverage has been covered to protect the politician]. Evanston’s 4th Ward Alderman Don Wilson showed up in his suit and tie, ready for a photo. Such a great guy…all of the GWTs are really, really cool, and I appreciate their willingness to be put on 100 Days, 100 Ties, I really do.

And, by the way, the weather, and the beer, at Nevin’s was perfect.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

All good things must come to an end, it is said. Some of them are available for a limited time…happy hour, McRib, the Titanic, and Bow Tie Fortnight are but a few. A funny/good thing about wearing bow ties for 3 weeks (no full 5-day weeks, but you get the idea) are the comments, many from people unbeknownst (is ‘beknownst’ a word?) to me. A sampling:

• “You should be selling ice cream”/”Are you the Good Humor Man”–a variation of this was definitely the leader, with 10+ versions coming across my bow.
• “Do you sell [Item other than ice cream]”–fried chicken, organ grinder music, washing machines.
• “My _____ wore bow ties all the time.”–Fill in the blank. Dad, uncle, grandfather, fried chicken salesman. An honor.
• “Nice guys wear bow ties”–this is a summarization of the sentiments received from two people. And being a nice guy, I liked hearing it.
• “Is there a horse race goin’ on that I don’t know about”–far and away, the winner. A guy I don’t even know said it getting off the elevator the other day. It may have been partly based on my seersucker jacket and white/brown saddle bucks, but oh, man, was that a good laugh for me all weekend.

Though I will miss BTF, it was nice to pull out a regular, albeit a bit staid, tie this morning. I mentioned the existence of this Tie du Jour a few weeks ago, when I talked about Wafa Zanayed, the proprietor of A-1 Tailor on Dempster. He had altered a tie for me, and he sold this tie to me that had been left at his shop in the late 00’s (have we figured out what to call that decade yet? oughts? single-didgies?).

So, if someone recognizes this tie as a tie that you or a loved one dropped off hurriedly and requested that it be finished by the next day, only to ignore it for the next 500 or so next days…well, then, make me an offer and you can have it back.

The TdJ is from Marshall Field’s, which most of you will remember as a downtown Chicago icon. They were bought by Macy’s a few years back, and their flagship store looks a bit different. But, luckily, Macy’s has quite a bit of cachet in terms of traditions, so they know how to handle the transition. I’m sure some will think I am speaking the language heretic, but the few times I’ve been down have been fine. If I started a tradition going down there with Julia this year, she’d be just as happy had it started at Marshall Field’s.

A colleague in the Evanston community, Carolyn Dellutri of Downtown Evanston, passed along this great photo of a tie wreath that she took over the weekend at an awesome Andersonville business called Necessary Extravagance. I’ll have to go check that place out…

Small pianist, big bow tie

Paul Hletko (partial resumé: double Guy With Tie alum, winner of a Friday Freebie, soon-to-be-announced winner of the Friday Freebie, Bow Tie Division) sent in a picture of one of his offspring, P.Q. (or “Paul Quinn”, when his parents want him to listen), sportin’ the bow tie for his piano recital. Can’t wait to see (big) Paul with his new red bow tie.

Thanks for reading…Brooke