100 Days, 100 Ties

At press time, I’m less than two weeks from the one-year anniversary of starting 100 Days, 100 Ties. It should have ended in August (I think it was), on Tie No. 100. But, with the help of my friends, and with the help of a seriously tie-acquiring problem, I’m now writing about Tie No. 234 or so. While there is an end in sight, finding 10 or 12 ties, left by my friend David Colker, at my office does not lead me to believe that the end is coming soon. More on that as we approach March 15…

Thursday I went back to high school. Kinda. After having our February gathering postponed due to the blizzard, my Leadership Evanston class finally met over at Evanston Township High School. It was an educational day, as we learned about local education. I have two new categories now, with three new WT members.

One of our daily activities was a visit to Washington School, where we met the principal, Kate Ellison, and the assistant principal, Erik Friedman. Erik (good thing I checked online for the proper spelling) was sporting a classic navy tie with white dots, and I just had to impose. And, lo, the PWT is born (Principals With Ties).

Witherspoon & Robey (sounds like a buddy cop movie)

Later on we were regaled with speeches by two big hitters in Evanston education. Eric (had to check again) Witherspoon is the superintendent of District 202, which oversees our high school, which has three or four thousand students, and hundreds of employees. In the same picture is the other charter member of the SWT (Superintendents With Ties) crew, Mike Robey, Assistant Superintendent of District 65, who is charged with our grade schools.

Okay, now even though it was a casual dress-type day, I decided to sport a tie, given the folks we’d be meeting. I wore another plain-ish strip, a red one this time, but I put it under a sweater, just so it would peek out a little bit. Voila! Casual.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Is the word in that phrase ‘spilt’ or ‘spilled’? My handy-dandy WordPress spell-check seemed to underline (aka disapprove) ‘spilt’, but then again it underlined ‘WordPress’ so maybe it’s on strike.

Reminds me of Halloween my freshman year in college (oh, here we go again with one of Grampa’s stories!)…my soon-to-be roommate, Jason Anderson walked into a costume party, clad all in white, with a paper towel pinned to his chest. He had bent a coat hanger in such a way that it was wrapped around his neck with one end and hanging over his body with the other. On that hanging end was attached an open carton of milk. What the hell are you, we asked. Dude…I’m SPILLED MILK! he replied. Or maybe he said SPILT.

Anyway, enough 80s fun. On to the Topic du Jour, which is a Tie du Jour. It comes from the house of Nautica. It’s a lovely blue with a wavy, khaki-esque nautical (hey, they know what they’re doing) pattern. I still have several ties that aren’t the flashiest–a lot of somewhat plain reds and blues that rarely get asked to dance. This one was kinda the nicest of the blands, so to speak.

Captured a Guy With Tie, although now that I think about it, he may be a GWT alum. Scott Whitaker is head of the Kellogg Entrepreneurship Internship Program over at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Very hazy picture, very nice guy. My friend Chris and I ran into him before he was to judge an entrepreneur contest for NU students.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Some days hurt. Some of those days you can share that hurt, and some you can’t. Optimists build up what is later revealed as fantasy, and then are surprised when the mirage becomes apparent. One day I’ll be able to share it, but everyone should just know that it’s going to be better. A lot better. Very soon.

Okay, now that we’re done with the deep portion of this (hate the word:) blog, can we get on to the (alleged) fashion piece? Yes, thank you, move along, thanks for shopping. Drive carefully.

My Tie du Jour seemed like one of those hard ties to match to an ensemble. Purple, red and white. Wow, did this one ever look different on the tie rack. It seems to be okay with this shirt, and actually one of my funky pocket squares (okay, it’s a small scarf! but it looks the same tucked into the suit pocket!) set it off okay. It’s from Calvin Klein, who apparently knows about more than underwear.

Tuesday my group project group from Leadership Evanston met to discuss our (what else?) group project. Tracy Francis was lookin’ awesome in this brown paisley tie setting off a red striped shirt. Amazing use of dissimilar color, in my humble and uneducated opinion.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

It’s much too cold to play tennis these days, at least here in Chicago, where Mother Nature today bitch-slapped us all in the past two days with a mild ice storm followed by about a half-inch of snow. “It is not spring,” she told the surprised citizens, as she executed the bitch-slap. “Now get your mittens and winter hats back on before I bitch-slap some more of you!” Mother Nature, always jealous of Zeus’s lightning bolt, takes out her frustrations in the form of bitch-slapping.

Tennis, the sport, was invoked this evening because my Tie du Jour is from the Wembley line of fashion items. It’s white with gray (Brit: grey) and blue (Brit: blue) threads making up the plaid. I put it with this solid purple Gene Meyer shirt to purple up that bit of blue, and it was good. The ensemble was greeted, and properly complimented, this morning at the Other Brother, by Anna, aka Little Green Pixie. Can’t wait to see her dress, made almost entirely of ties.

That is water in that cup

A couple of months ago, I gave a few already worn bow ties to my friend (and GWT alum) Todd Paul. My one condition was, when he wore ’em, he had to get a picture taken for 100D100T. Well, he gave me the opportunity to snap the shot…diggin’ it, TP.

Thanks for reading…Brooke



Rahm-a-lahma-ding-dong

…or what Rahm Emanuel said, “Tie Fellow Chicagoans.” He probably said ‘my’ instead of ‘tie’, wouldn’t you think? Congrats to the new Chicago Mayor for leaving DC and getting a job right away. He should be a great post-Daley exec, and his sound bites should be fantastic.

In other election news, zzzzzz.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on the same day that I’ve actually worn the tie. There are still 3 minutes to midnight, but I’ll give myself the credit anyway. The past two were 5 and 4 days late…sheesh. But, I’m sure that’s expecting a lot from a guy who calls his blog ‘100 Days, 100 Ties’ when it’s gone to 228 days & ties. Houston, I have a problem.

The Tie du Jour was selected in honor of our host for our monthly Networking Breakfast, the North Shore Retirement Hotel. You may recall that, at the request of Managing Director Margaret Gergen, I gave a short presentation about my ties to their Open Forum group. As a thank you gift, she gave me three ties. This pink beaut from Oscar de la Renta was one of them. Margaret recognized it right away…so cool.

One of the prospects at the meeting, Steve Schwartz, was kind enough to remain motionless for 1.3 seconds while I snapped this shot. He laughed when I told him that he was the 3rd Steve Schwartz that I know, and we all shared a hearty chuckle (or was it a chortle) when a woman mentioned that she knew another Steve Schwartz. It’s a schmall, schmall world.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Well, this is officially the latest I’ve ever been, as far as blog posting goes. Those who know me well will know that my procrastination knows no bounds; those who don’t should just know that this blog (still hate that word) has gone against the grain for me. So, let’s get to it.

A few days have happened since Wednesday, although there have only been two Ties du Jour since then (a Tie du Wednesday et a Tie du Thursday). So, I’ll try to properly apportion the goings-on from this 5-day period.

My TdJ for this particular post is a navy blue and white number from Barini Originals. Though I really like the tie, I don’t think I gave it its best shirt companion. Oh, well, can’t win ’em all, I guess…though the blue tie clip gets an ‘E’ for effort in my attempt to save the ensemble.

Wednesday was our Business After Hours event, held at Bar Louie Evanston. Our good friend, GWT, Friday Freebie winner, tie contributor, Vince Roberts was there, sporting the vintage purple and black bubble tie that was given to him at the inaugural Guys With Ties Mad Men Happy Hour last month.

Thanks for waiting, and reading…Brooke