100 Days, 100 Ties

Really behind here…this is the first time I’ve had three posts to write. Really putting the blah in blog, so let’s get to it.

My subject calls to mind the Thompson Twins song, “Lies.” It is most definitely NOT rock, so co-lead vocalist Tom Bailey’s tie in this video gets him charter membership in the SPWT category (Synth Popper With Tie).

A bit of a rarity here with my Tie du Jour: a green tie! As much as I love green clothes, I’m rather surprised that I have so few green ties. I seem to recall wearing a couple of green ones in my first week or two of 100D100T, but I never really replenished the supply to great effect. This glowing green strip, with purple and blue stripes, is a beauty from Astor & Black. My friend Billie Kershasky works for A&B, and led me to a sweet tie sale on their website.

My GWT radar was in the ‘on’ position as I captured a pic of a new Guy With Tie, attorney Manish Bhatia. He has his own estate planning legal practice here in Evanston, and he came to our Lawyers, Guns & Money event at The Celtic Knot. The focus in this pic is awful…he had a great tie and you can barely tell.

I have a birthday coming up (at press time it has already come and gone), so I’m pondering the Tie du Birthday (at press time I already know the TdB). Stay tuned for the reveal…

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Monday was a pretty big day in Chamberland (or should I call it Chambertown? Chamberville? Dang, Chamber City sounds pretty cool, too). A several-week search for a new Executive Director culminated in a decathlon-style, 10-event face-to-face battle, held at Ryan Field/Dyche Stadium. A pulsating throng of 55,000 rabid citizens chanted the opponents’ names as they vied for the opportunity to lead the…oh, who am I kidding? Two very qualified candidates interviewed with Elaine and me at the chamber offices before making a presentation before our board, our search committee and other members. It was a very nice process…but tell me the decathlon battle-royal wouldn’t have been cool. You can’t! Oh, well, next time.

I felt it was a day for a professional tie, and I think my John W. Nordstrom strip (the Nordstrip?) fit the bill. It’s a dark navy with lighter blue diamonds and ninja throwing stars adorning. Actually they’re probably regular stars, as condoning such a violent implement of death was likely not Nordstrom’s intent. That would’ve definitely affected my choice along the aforementioned professional lines.

There were a lot of ties in the room, and I was able to get a couple of GWT alums to re-pose…

Dave Skrodzki was a vital cog in the machine that was our search committee. Through his firm, PharmExecs, Dave has been a part of a multitude of executive recruiting exercises, so his expertise was very valuable to us. Plus, he wears only Jerry Garcia ties…

Our board president, Steve Hagerty, was of course on hand to direct the proceedings. He has overseen this process from the very beginning.

Back at the office, I found that Andrew Freeman, of Pension Specialists (who sub-lease part of our office from us), was sporting a tie (it’s not that often that he does). It takes a real man to wear a pink tie, in my humble, Chinese-throwing-star-tie-wearing opinion. Not many Harley Davidson riders can pull it off, but Andrew certainly did.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Looks like a bow tie, no?

Since there are about 1,843 cable channels nowadays, with 44,232 hours to program (I have a calculator), it’s just not that surprising to see infomercials and other commercials that have gone horribly wrong. Sex symbol (it was the 70s, so don’t get too excited) Suzanne Somers spent much of her post-Three’s Company days shilling for a spring-loaded workout tool called the Thigh Master.

Thursday was one of those busy days where there’s no point in putting stuff on your calendar, as it just doesn’t relate to a half-hourly slot in the day’s allotment of time. It was Julia’s post-birthday, my parents were in town, it was my boss’s last day, I had Leadership Evanston, Julia had a school concert, I had an introduction/connection to make at dinner, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria!!

And yet, as that curly, redheaded orphan loves to sing about, the sun came out (didn’t warm anything though) the next day. Friday still came to pass. But, as this is a blog about the Tie du Thursday, we’ll get to Friday later.

Throughout the day, my TdJ was called “whimsical”, “my favorite” and the fairly obvious, “polka-dotted”. My navy-field-with-sky-blue-dotted strip is from the Portfolio line of the Perry Ellis house o’ fashion.

Back to the aforementioned Leadership Evanston session…I was able to recapture a GWT alum, Assistant City Manager Marty Lyons, as he spoke to us about city services, as well as his cool projector.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

I’ll begin today with a new item in the “Stuff-You-May-Not-Have-Ever-Learned” category. John Masefield was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for nearly four decades, and his poem ‘Sea-Fever’ is oft quoted. Well, maybe not quite ‘oft’…but it is in this blog, and it is in my favorite movie of all time, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” Another new item is Masefield’s charting course for the PLWT (Poet Laureate With Tie, of course) category. He is looking properly laureate-ate in this pic, wouldn’t you agree?

And, since we’re mentioning Willy Wonka, I may as well put a shot of Gene Wilder in his dandiest finery (or would it be finest dandery?). If I see that this movie is on, I simply cannot turn it off, or turn away. With a bow tie like that, can you blame a brother?

I chose a sea-faring theme (or lake-faring, as it may be) because of my Tie du Jour. Since it was Julia’s birthday (she’s 10!! a full decade! double digits! okay, you get it–she’s ten), I let her choose a strip. She chose this nautically-inspired number from Alynn Neckwear. It’s called, not surprisingly, “Regatta,” and it was designed by Eric Hulch (so sayeth the label). It’s yellow, obviously, with drawings of flags, race courses and sailboats in action. This tie was given to me by my friend Pat Kelly (GWT alum, works for John J Cahill Inc).

While on a short quest for caffeine, I ran into my friend/barista Anna (aka Little Green Pixie). I had given her some ties when she said she was making a dress made of paisley ties, and I gave her a couple of more for a skirt that she was crafting. You can see what the skirt looks like on her blog. She also has an Etsy shop…

Wednesday at the Chamber we hosted the selection committee for one of the awards that will be presented at our Annual Meeting in May: The NorthShore University HealthSystem Public Service/Nonprofit Person of the Year (we should win an award for number of letters in that award). Last year’s winner, Gerald Gulley, sported a tie, and I needed to get it. Welcome to the Guys With Ties club, Mr. Gulley! Jerry, who is blind, has been the executive director of SHORE, an organization that strives to better the lives of persons with developmental disabilities, for 33 of its 60 years in existence.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

SGWT-Super Group W/Ties

Plant. Page. Are they nouns? Verbs? Or are they the heart and soul of one of the pantheon rock and roll bands? Yes, yes, this is a tie blog, but it’s Rockin’ Tie Week. The ties themselves may not rock, but the song alluded in my subject heading sure does. I thought finding a tie on these guys would be as difficult as Bono (and UB40…go figure), but it was the second pic. Bonzo and John Paul will just have to stand there looking cool, and relatively untied.

I should just come out and say that my Tie du Jour is not as rockin’ as Jimmy’s and Robert’s strips are. Sadly, I needed to attend a wake later on in the day, so my general ensemble was rather gray. The son of a former fellow teacher at School for Little Children passed away suddenly. Way too young, way too young. My thoughts go out to the Erickson family.

My TdJ is very dark, black with red tinges that one probably can’t see on this picture. Well, maybe you can. From Claiborne, it has gray crescent moon shapes all over. I got it at the Salvation Army in Skokie several weeks ago.

Later that evening was my daughter’s Science Fair at Lincoln School. As this is about the 3rd or 4th year of the event, the controlled chaos is getting more and more controlled. Julia presented a project on fingerprints that she had just come up with a few days before, and was able to knock it out. This is totally unlike her dad, who would have come up with a plan months before, only to just get started on it a couple nights before.

I was able to get a new GWT during the evening’s scientific festivities. Dave Bennett, who’s a fellow Lincoln dad as well as a member of the admissions staff at Lake Forest College, was kind enough to pose with his summery tie.

Thanks for reading…Brooke