Tielor-Made

September 1, 2010

A wise man once said, “Honey, could you turn that down? I’m trying to read.” I don’t know which wise man said it, but don’t you think it’s possible? I have always enjoyed reading the Bartlett’s Book of Familiar Quotations. All this wisdom, prose, poetry…bound together and categorized by subject. But didn’t these people say some dumb things? Mundane things? Those would be more the familiar quotations, right?

I mean, we have George Washington and his “I cannot tell a lie” myth; Abraham Lincoln’s much-proven Gettysburg Address, which began with “Four score and seven years ago…” But, even those guys must have said silly things, right? George could have said, “Wow, Martha, do you think you could have food that’d make me forget that I have wooden teeth?” Abe: “This sucky play makes me want to blow my head off.” See, now that would be a great book of quotations.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re saying. This sounds like stoner talk, but I’m not a stoner. What does this have to do with ties? Nothing. Someone said something really amazing to me the other day, and it’s never going to end up in a quote book, and perhaps that person will never be known as particularly wise. I guess what I’m trying to say is, Pay attention to the wisdom you’ve chosen to surround yourself with, and don’t hunt down those who claim to be wise.

Sir, step down from the soapbox.

Look closely...

Okay, on to my Tie du Jour. It’s from Lord & Taylor, and it was treasure-hunted at Unique Thrift Store, like so many of my strips are. From a distance it looks pretty staid, but up close it is quite complex. This picture actually may bring out the best in this tie, strangely enough. For a camera that has left a lot to be desired on many a tie-occasion, it really came through this time. Well done, iPhone camera.

The Chamber hosted a networking event this evening, called Lawyers, Guns & Money. Maggie and Dean Noonan from WineStyles were the gracious hosts. Pretty sure I’ve taken pictures from the event before, and tonight I got a couple Guys With Ties.

Joel Lipman is a real estate/business attorney who lives in Evanston, and offices in Rogers Park. I like the color in this one.

Square to be hip

Tom O’Hare, of North Shore Community Bank, is a GWT alum, and his square-patterned tie gets him in once again. Here, the camera disappoints slightly again, as his tie is actually much more detailed.

Thanks for reading, especially through that first part…such drivel.

Brooke

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Tied for second…

September 1, 2010

Second day of school! Second day of…nah, it doesn’t have the same ring to it.

As I mentioned yesterday (or, actually, about an hour ago, when I finished posting about the Tie du Yesterday), I counted my remaining ties, and I had some thoughts on how to wear multiple strips in one day. My Tie du Jour, from Marshall Field’s (bought famously by Macy’s), is a fairly simple red tie with small decorations on it, very much like 2 or 3 other ties in my collection. I thought I’d bring them all, and change them every time I went into my office or something, and see if anyone noticed.

Pretty crazy, huh? Sorry I may have spoiled the surprise.

I ran across a great article in GQ from their summer issue. Sex, Drugs & Neckties. As I have been one of the small percentage of the Evanston work force that dresses formally for work, I have established somewhat of a philosophy on this. I see dozens and dozens of professionals, ranging in age from 20 to 60+, walking around in casual dress, in obvious work mode. And that’s fine. While the article suggests that ties are the new casual, I go a bit further and say that wearing suit and tie is the new casual. At least in Evanston, there are so few of us, that my tie, pocket square and cuff links, for example, are looked at with more fanfare and wonder than the Gap-cargo-shorts/brand-spankin’-new-Target-vintage-rock-tshirt/latest-expensive-sandals trifecta. Some call me a snob. Some call me the gangster of love. Some people call me Maurice.

Hey! Steve Miller, everyone!

I have to admit that I was pretty stunned to learn yesterday that I have about 75 ties left to wear and write about. Today, though, I had a fun interaction when I walked into First Northern Credit Union, my financial institution that holds the money I have, fleetingly. I walked in as Rod was describing his MOST awesome tie. It’s got skeletons riding motorcycles on it. Skeletons! Riding on Motorcycles! That would immediately move into my Pantheon of Ties subcollection. I’d have a Motorcycles and Skeletons Week, and wear it every day. And I will strike down upon thee with vengeance, and FUUUUURIOUS anger, to those who would defy my tie-wearin’ authority!

Hey! Samuel L. Jackson, everyone! Playing the role of Julius, in Pulp Fiction.

Okay, enough with the cameo appearances. Thanks for reading…Brooke

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Ties and Dolls…

August 31, 2010

First day of school! First day of school! Nothing surpasses the excitement of the first day of school, except of course the last day of school, birthdays, holidays, approximately 104 Saturdays and Sundays and perhaps that teacher’s in-service day in the spring where you get surprisingly good weather and go do something outside after being stuck inside for 4 or 5 g’dawful months.

Julia started 4th grade today, with much fanfare. Sunday she went with Diane to Justice, a clothing store on which I have laid nary an eye, to fire up the all-important Day1 outfit. Any mild anxiety she had over the weekend was partly washed away by getting gussied up in something new.

I figured my morning would be the complete opposite, my thinking being that choosing the first post-Tie Week Month tie would be simple. I’d be unfettered by purple-ness, ugliness or any other ness-ness. But, of course, it took me tens of seconds to choose.

Temp in the 80s, 'Tude in the 70s

And, choose I did. The Tie du Jour is a vintage paisley from Don Giovanni. It’s not extremely well-made, as the fabric was on the thin side. But, something about the pattern screamed out “Hey, I’m from the 70s!” This strip was from my Dad’s collection; it survived the Saucier Boys High School Years, as well as the Retirement Purge. So, as far as survival of the fittest goes, well-made apparently matters nil.

Since I passed the 100-tie threshold a couple of weeks ago, a few people have asked me if I would be finishing the blog soon. I am not done with my ties, so the answer is no, since I was assuming I had about 30 or 35 left. Today I actually counted the remaining ties…well, I counted most of them. I got up to 62, and then guessed that I had about 15 or 20 on a smaller tie rack. Sigh. 80 ties? I think I need to come up with a stunt or two to wear multiple ties in one day or something. This will end up being 200 Days, 200 Ties.

I had formulated plans to re-wear some of my ties that I’ve already worn. Some of them, after all, are nice ties, and deserve to be sported again, so I figured it would be okay to have one day a week for Reprise Day or something. But, man, that would put me WELL over 200…We’ll see. Part of me says that would be against the spirit of the blog; the other half says it’s my freakin’ blog. Even though I have been late, um, lately, I still am having a great time writing it and finding people out there who are interested in ties.

I just remembered why I named this post “Ties and Dolls”…a couple weeks ago, my buddy (and GWT alum) Paul Hletko sent me a picture of a Build-a-Bear outfit with a tie. I can only assume (and hope beyond recognition) that Paul had at least one of his children in the store with him. And, wow, I just noticed that the bear’s tie matches its skirt. Not an accessory that you’ll see me sporting on 100 Days, 100 Ties.

Away we go. Thanks for reading…Brooke

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Tie one On Wisconsin! Or on Czechoslovakia…

August 28, 2010

Winger: C’mon, it’s Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick ’em up, we zip right out again. We’re not going to Moscow. It’s Czechoslovakia. It’s like going into Wisconsin.

Ziskey: Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!

Nothing like a movie to give a geography lesson, as well as a sociology lesson. From this exchange we can deduce the following:

  1. The Czechoslovakians are/were less menacing than the Russian, um, menace. By the way, as you may have heard, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have split. There is very little chance of reconciliation, as they already have separate flags. And probably currency.
  2. If you go to Wisconsin, be prepared to fight. Not because they are any more menacing than the Russians, or even the Czechs or Slovakians for that matter. But, due to this movie line, no state has ever been more empowered to defend its fight-worthiness.

My Tie du Jour doesn’t celebrate Czechoslovakia (bet there aren’t many blogs in the world today that feature 4 mentions of Czechoslovakia! Make that 5!!), nor does it promote the tourism or pugilism of Wisconsin. But it does celebrate the stripe, tiny though they may be. This one could have fit into Mad Men Week. It’s from Boynton’s in the Palmer House here in downtown Chicago. Due to the seemed age of the label and the lack of googlability, I’m assuming that Boynton’s was a clothing shop in the lobby or basement of the esteemed hotel.

Keep in mind that this is the Friday Freebie, so the best comment will get this lovely, thin tie from Boynton’s, which may or may not have been a mod, hip stone-age men’s store.

And this concludes Tie Week Month. Perhaps. There are still two tie-wearing days in August, so the month is not yet over (duh). I may either have a two-tie thing, like maybe a Pink Tie Overnight, or a Plaid Tie Two-Day Conference…you never know how I’ll feel on Monday, or if I’ll remember even thinking about it.

Have a great, grand Saturday night. Thanks for reading…Brooke

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Christmas in August…

August 28, 2010

General Barnicke: Are you telling me that you finished your training on your own?

Winger: That’s a fact, Jack!

Rest of platoon: That’s a fact, Jack!

And that, my friends, is the classic exchange of the classic graduation ceremony scene, the best part of the entire film, at least for me. I remember seeing that on the commercial trailer, and I knew I needed to see this flick.

I realize that I am very late putting up yesterday’s blog, which means I am also behind in today’s blog. Late has been the norm for me lately, but when I finally do get to it, I still enjoy it.

So, back to Stripes Week, the final week in Tie Week Month…

It's beginning to look a lot like a Christmas tie...

My Tie du Yesterday is actually a Christmas tie…red with small green stripes (or is it green with large red stripes? Hmmm?), the TdY is from Alynn Neckwear. I am pretty positive I picked this one up at good ol’ Salvation Army at some point last year; I wore it during the last holiday season. Look at me using the power of deduction…a regular Sherlock Holmes, eh?

Hmm, the picture actually tones down the Noelesque qualities of this strip. But, believe me, in person, I got a couple of comments that made me think this tie, or at least this shirt/tie combo, would have done alright during Ugly Tie Week.

Here is reprise of the PCC, the Pop Culture Corner…I should have been doing this more often. I have always strived (striven? strivated?) to educate our youths with the wisdom of 60s, 70s & 80s culture. Wisdom may be a stretch…

Since it’s Stripes Week, let’s talk about Fruit Stripe Gum. It was the cool gum for a while during my youth, but you’ll have to read the Wiki link to get some real history.

Thanks for reading, patiently…Brooke

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Can’t spell ‘Schnitzel’ without T-I-E…

August 26, 2010

Don’t order the schnitzel; they’re using schnauzer. — Murray/Winger to random German couple.

I’m afraid I haven’t been able to come up with any deep, philosophical tie-in (ha!) with schnitzel. Or schnauzers. Or random German couples. Just a funny line, delivered perfectly.

Getting to the blog a bit late…again. This Tie Week Month just takes a lot out of me. I mean, I’m massaging all these egos, ties that wish to make it to the big time, and not just on a random day. There’s a light purple knit tie that technically has stripes, and it really has been selling itself. But, I’m afraid it’s still just 50-50 for being tomorrow’s Friday Freebie.

Am I blue? if this tie could talk (and if it were sad), it's answer would be 'Yes'

My Tie du Jour (as of now it’s the Tie du Yesterday) is from Haband, cool in its simplicity. Three tones of blue in bold stripes give it some standing on this light plaid shirt. Wow, is that a bunch of BS or what? I guess my initials make me able to pull that out every once in a while.

Well, we have a Girl With Tie, or more specifically a DWT, today. My wonderful daughter Julia went garage saling/antiquing with my wonderful parents (well, wonderful except that they didn’t take me). They found this awesome-awesome-so-perfectly-awesome lampshade made out of–what else?!–ties!

This lampshade/hat will be so versatile. I was always amazed that the lampshade has the reputation for symbolizing a great party, or at least one that got out of hand (at least for the wearer/bearer of said accessory). I say it’s time to bring that back! Lampshades for everyone! Baseball caps are so…everywhere. Let’s have  a BYOL party, and really get down. Plus, in my case, I’ll not only be wearing a tie, I’ll be wearing 12.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

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You can’t go! All the plants will tie!

August 25, 2010

One of the most ultimately desperate “stay-with-me” lines ever uttered in the history of moviedom, narrowly edging Julia Roberts/Anna Scott’s “I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy…” speech to Hugh Grant/Brit Everyman in Notting Hill. After losing his job and his car, not to mention his pizza, Bill Murray/John Winger gets lower than low to save his relationship with topless Anita. Unfortunately, she does leave, and even more unfortunately (hey, I was, like 13 when i saw it!), she does don a sweater, despite his green (before green was cool, n’est-ce pas?) protestations.

It’s funny how, since it’s Stripes Week, I’ve noticed many more striped ties around than usual. As I’m nearly positive they aren’t all reading 100 Days, 100 Ties, it’s likely just my observation being a bit more keen. I need to get more ballsy and go ask to take photos.

Got a Basketball Jones...

And here we have Striped Tie No. 2, and Tie No. 109, if my counting skills haven’t eroded (not a stretch, actually). It’s from Jones New York, and I love this red. It defines the ‘POP’ that a tie should accomplish, and if there is such a thing as a ‘power’ tie in my collection, this is it.

I wore it, not only to conform with the spirit of Stripes Week, the final installment in Tie Week Month, but also because yesterday morning the Chamber hosted our monthly Networking Breakfast. As the name implies, breakfast is served, and there is networking going on. Actually, despite its simplistic name, it is pretty popular among our membership, as we had 60 or so people there.

One giant leap for Mankind (Project)

Apparently I got a wee bit ballsy, and I did manage to snap a shot of one Guy With Tie. Chris Jaffe, Executive Director of the Mankind Project, came as a guest of my good friend Eric Schneider, owner of Huron Paper, home of the oldest paper recycling plant in Chicago. You may recall that Eric is a GWT alum (along with his son, Levi), as he borrowed one of my ties recently for a wedding. It was his first tie worn in 8 years or so.

Thanks so much for reading…Brooke

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Stubbed my big tie…

August 23, 2010

An army without leaders is like a foot without a big toe. And Sergeant Hulka isn’t always gonna be here to be that big toe for us. I think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest, bestest buddy, and big toe… Sergeant Hulka. — Bill Murray (as Pfc. John Winger), Stripes

For our final week of Tie Week Month, we are celebrating stripes. Striped ties will be featured, along with one of my favorite comedies of all time. Um, it’s Stripes, if you couldn’t tell from the opening quote.

As many of you know, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis were the stars of the film, but the other characters added so much more: Francis “Psycho”, Dewey Oxburger (late great John Candy), the perfect 80s hotties PJ Soles and Sean Young, Cruiser, Judge Reinhold’s “Death Before Disco” guy, Capt. Stillman (John Larroquette was dead on) and the perfectly cast Warren Oates as Sgt. Hulka.

It’s not a stretch to say this for many boys/men of my and my brother’s ages, but this flick (along with Caddyshack and Fletch at 2nd & 3rd) gave me and my brother a great deal of our lexicon that we used growing up. To this day, I can call my brother Grant out of the blue, and we’ll go through about 7-15 seconds of the script and hang up.

A couple of years ago, I had the chance to thank Harold Ramis himself for gifting us this banter. He, his wife and kids were at the movie theater here in Evanston, and I gathered my thoughts, approached him and said, “Mr. Ramis, I want to thank you for making my brother and I laugh for decades.” Or some piece of crap like that. What a speech fart on my part…he winced, his wife chuckled, I groaned. I couldn’t have made him feel older if I’d tried. I retreated to a corner of the lobby and thought of 5,832 ways I could have said it better.

Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear.

Oh, yeah, my striped tie for the day…it’s a peach/pink and blue and brown number from Calvin Klein that I picked up a couple weeks ago at TJMaxx. I love the blue in here, perhaps because it’s squeezed in between the other colors.

A couple of weeks ago I busted out a couple of postcards from the collection Catalog Man: Mail Order Fashion Hunks, that was given to me by my friend Susan Frischer, proprietor of MarketFresh Books. Here are some good (read: bad) pics of Guys With Bad (read: still bad) Ties.

Two Outta Three 'Staches Ain't Bad

Crimplene: an affliction of the crotch?

Flare Play? What miserable copywriting...

Enjoy the cheesy pix.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

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A tie in the ointment…

August 22, 2010

Ick. ‘Ointment.’ That is my least favorite word. It’s so abrupt, and nothing good is ever treated with–gulp–ointment. But, you can’t spell it without T-I-E, so perhaps there are some endearing qualities. Maybe not.

Ugly Tie No. 5

Well, Ugly Tie Week ended with a truly ugly tie. Oh, sure, it’s paisley, which can be cool, but it’s a heinous paisley, blue and red with watermark-lookin’ patterns. And the cheesiest label I’ve seen yet: City Gold. I was almost afraid of googling it, petrified of learning that it was some superstar designer that could do no wrong, and had even saved 100 children with life-threatening diseases throughout the course of his or her lifetime. Come to think of it, no way a woman is the designer behind this tie. Just too damn ugly. Unless, she designed it for an ex-boyfriend and she didn’t want him to ever ever EVER get kissed by another woman. It would be so ugly that, even on days when he wasn’t wearing it, it would so uglify him that he would never be besmooched. By a woman.

Okay, yes, I’m stretching this out because I didn’t do very well with my UTW selections. And, I’m upset with myself for taking all of the weekend to write this blog entry. Totally takes me back to my high school and college days, saving homework until the last minute.

I have some Guys With Ties I need to get out here, too. Barney Peterson, from the Hilton Orrington, makes a second GWT appearance after his visit to our Business After Hours this past Wednesday at Old Neighborhood Grill.

Ambassador Orenstein

Another visitor to the BAH at ONG was Robert Orenstein, a sales agent for New York Life. He is a Chamber Ambassador, and a great, um, well, ambassador for the, um, well, chamber.



I'm somebody now!

Of all the pictures I took last week, to celebrate 100th TieDay, everyone was a really nice person. But, I have to say that I took a pic today of a real jerk. Oh, I can’t keep this ruse going, it was really Steve Martin from the motion picture “The Jerk.” Oh, do I jest. He had this teeny-tiny tie in this scene (his first date with Bernadette Peters, where they eat Cup-O-Pizza, or is it Pizza-In-A-Cup?, and he licks her face and gets in a fight with his tattooed, slutty girlfriend) and I think it’s hilarious. The tie, AND the movie.

And my last one is Marcus Harris, a fella I met through our Lawyers, Guns & Money events (no Guns allowed). I ran into him over on Sherman, and his tie-wearing-status just forced me to snap a shot.

Oops, one more…Greg Washington, a very cool dude who was at the last LGM event, works with Fidelity Bancor. They are a brand new member of the Chamber…huzzah!

Thanks for reading…Brooke

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How to beat the tie cost of living…

August 19, 2010

We’re gonna have a guest tie-story teller here. My cousin, Beaux Jones (son of Bert Jones, former LSU & Baltimore Colts QB) had quite the financial adventure in the famous Aidan Gill for Men grooming shop in New Orleans.

Hey Brooke
This is your cousin Beaux. I talked to your mom a few months back and she told me about 100 ties 100 days and as a fellow daily tie wearer (law clerk in New Orleans), I have been checking in periodically. I have enjoyed the blog and due to a recent interesting tie purchase I thought I would send you an email. I am sure that you are familiar with the Aidan Gill Barber.

Well, a few weeks back, I went in to get a haircut and a shave (oddly enough, these days both require the same razor) and I remembered that they sold fine ties. Perfect… I needed a tie, a purple one if possible. I had just bought a lavender colored shirt to try and spice up one of my cheap suits and my traditional ties just weren’t cutting it. I found the perfect tie…it was purple with diagonal grey stripes. I grabbed the tie and headed to the counter without checking the price.  When the nice young cashier rang the tie up, I noticed the price…$100!

As I was fighting off hyperventilation from the price, I was distracted by Aidan Gill himself (bow-tie and all) walking up to greet me. He politely asked my name and asked how I enjoyed my shave. While I was responding, he noticed the tie on the counter and reached for it. I was sure he was wondering why a young bum like me was buying a $100 tie. Then, with the tie in one hand and the other on my shoulder, Aidan Gill directed me to turn our backs to the counter. In my head, I was thinking that he was about to give me a discount on the tie but just didn’t want me to be judged by the gorgeous young saleswoman. He didn’t say a word… he just opened the back of the tie; then looked at me as if to say… “Go get em pal.”  The price no longer mattered.

Hope all is well. Peace and Love,
Beaux

Quite the story, Cousin. I hope that tie has brought you a good return on your investment. Can’t wait until I’m down there and can check that place out. And maybe the salesperson.

Well, my 4th attempt at a truly ugly tie was met with agreement by my mom. And in case I haven’t mentioned, my parents have been staying with me for the month of August. So, this month they have been the first arbiter of my TdJ’s worth. My pink and black diamond-esque-apade was met with an immediate “Now THAT’s an ugly tie!” Excellent! Mission accomplished. Only took me 4 days.

While I’m at the guest-writer phase of the day, I wanted to share a comment that my good friend, Jennifer Lazar, sent to me regarding Ugly Tie No. 1 (the Guy Laroche pink one with tiny, marching paisleys). She’d prefer not to comment on the blog itself, but she is more than happy for me to cut/paste.

So there’s a qualification about the ugliness of this tie…

When I saw it on you I didn’t immediately think “that’s one ugly tie”. My thought was…ewww, not on him. That tie will work really well on a particular type or look of guy. It needs a 50’s ish, tire around the middle, sophisticated guy who is also wearing french cuffs with gold cuff links and a beard. He might even be French…which I know you are but it’s not you. He has a booming voice and I can picture him being in the hotel business. I have no idea why this is so specific. I usually have some opinion about ties but not quite this weird. Sorry.

Love it! Specific is good!!

This is a great shot of Guy With Tie alum, Zach Selch, when he is (much) younger. He tells me that this tie was handmade by his mom. A bespoke bow tie at 6 (is that the age, Z?), wow!

Dr. Tom

Okay, I’m going to run through the last of the PWT pix…thanks for your patience. Here is

Dr. Tony

Dr. Tony Breitbach and Dr. Tom Livermore of Wellness Revolution. Tony got in touch with me to say that he had a great tie for me to have. I can’t describe it until I wear it, and I can’t wait to wear it, it’s just simply classic. Thanks, Tony!

Dan - Tie No. 97

The rest of the SOHO folks are here! Dan Schwarz, owner of Well-Balanced Living, is a fellow Lincoln School dad. A good sport, too, apparently, putting the tie over the t-shirt!

Diana - Tie No. 39

Diana Groth Krasnansky is a new friend who just started her new business, Diana Groth Design. We at the chamber love to help small businesses, and it will be great to get Diana involved.

Joe Smith - Tie No. 95

Joe Smith is a financial planner with his own firm, JAS Financial Services.

Dan Kowal

David - Tie No. 74

Dan Kowal is the owner of Parity Systems, who office in our same building. He and 3 other employees (including David here) came to hear our featured speaker…

Malik - Tie 97

…Malik Turley! Owner of the brand-new Hip Circle Studio, at 709 Washington, Malik is also hosting our next Networking Breakfast. They offer Zumba, belly-dancing and childbirth type classes at Hip Circle. One of these days I will take Julia over there for family Zumba. I promise, Malik!

Maureen - Tie No. 39

The moderator for this quarter’s SOHO events is Maureen Glasoe, founder of Until Now LLC. She tells personal histories for loved ones, for CEOs, for anyone really. She’ll do personal research through interviews, and record your story for future generations.

Penelope - Tie No. 77

Penelope Johnson works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but is deciding whether or not to start her own business. Best of luck, Penelope (psst…keep coming to our events and your business will grow).

Okay, that’s that for the PWT pics. I’ll give them a count. Please, if you can donate, please send a check (made out to me, or you can make it out to Evanston Community Foundation or Salvation Army Evanston Corps).

Thanks for reading (and thanks, Beaux and Jennifer, for writing)…Brooke

Posted in Girls With Ties, Guys With Ties, Tie du Jour, Ugly Tie Week | 1 Comment »

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