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2月27日 Lenten Ties III Back to plaid in my Lenten observance, and this year, I have a couple of beauties. The basic definition (check that link) specifies wool, and the necktie for March 1st is, in fact, made of wool, from Scotland (Lochcarron). I believe it is my only tie from Scotland, so it could have been worn when I was showcasing ties from different countries.
I'm finishing up February with a somewhat less authentic tie (Courchevel, silk from Italy, union made). I almost wore this one a while back when I was planning a series of bold ties.
Although I include plaids among my generics for Lent, along with solids, dots, stripes, and paisleys, plaid is not very common for neckties, and it is a pleasure to wear such distinctive neckties as these.
By the way, I was out of work yesterday (Monday) with some sort of bug making me feel miserable, so the tie appointed for Monday the 26th was worn today (27th).
Of course, with all this plaid, today's venture into the Internet Sacred Text Archive has to have a Calvinist turn, so take a deep breath and plunge into the Westminster Confession of Faith, which, according to a Wikipedia article, "became, and remains the 'subordinate standard' of doctrine in the Church of Scotland and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide." That may be enough to make these ties feel a little too snug.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月22日 Lenten Ties II Perhaps my favorite subset of neckties for Lent is paisley, and so, here we are. Certainly, the paisleys offer the most variety, as these two show. Tomorrow (2-23), I'm wearing a red tie with little paisley critters on it. (Saks Fifth Avenue) Monday (2-26), I'll be blue, and the paisley shapes will be larger, swirling. (Surrey, US). You can learn about paisley here.
And since paisley and Zoroastrianism both originated in Persia, guess which part of the Internet Sacred Text Archive you are linked to today?
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月20日 Lenten Ties I Once again, I turn to what I refer to as generic ties for Lent: stripes, solids, plaids, and paisleys. But, last year, despite the renunciation, I managed to have a bit of fun with kinds of neckties that I usually leave in the drawer.
Tomorrow (2-21) is Ash Wednesday, and frankly, I would not consider ashes on the forehead to be any more a reminder of mortality than a tie with diagonal stripes - even a pleasant silk tie with such strong colors as his one. (Aquascutum, London, All Silk, Made in England)
Then, again, the tie for Thursday (2-22) has a built-in joke. Its diagonal stripes provide a sort of sampler of square dots and paisleys which will figure in other neckties for Lent. (Don Loper, Beverly Hills; do check this odd website)
Last year, during my Lenten observance, I included a bit of lore about the origins and meanings of the Christian season. This year, to add a different perspective, I'm going to refer in each entry to a text from the Internet Sacred Text Archive, one of the very great online treasures. Today, I am going to refer you to A Buddhist Bible, not one of my favorite books from the Buddhist tradition, but a good starting point for a study of Buddhism or of the beats, and a great way to discover just how good the Internet Sacred Text Archive is.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月19日 Mysterious Eastern Mardi Gras With these two neckties, I conclude my round-the-world series with a tie from Korea (not all that unusual in my collection) and my only tie from India. After these two ties, I'll move into my Lenten devotion.
On February 18th, I wore a bright blue tie from Korea. I'm including this tie in my international series (although I have many ties from Korea) becase the keeper label is in Asian script with theRoman letters "JIN LI MEI." There is another label in English, "Real silk 100% | Made in Korea." To be honest, I don't believe that this tie is made of silk. It does not feel or tie like a silk tie. It does have a fabulously messy design.
I cannot say that about the other tie, my only necktie from India ("Passports of Pier 1 Imports"). I wore it on Sunday (18th), when I went back to my south Georgia hometown to visit my mother. I felt two connections to India. First, when I was in high school, I persuaded an English teacher to include the Bhagavad Gita in a course. That was in 1968; today, I imagine there would be demonstrations in the streets. And, another Indian connection: I stayed in a motel, run, like many motels in this area, by a family from India. One day, one of the women wore a Mahatma Gandhi teeshirt and told me that there is a statue in Jacksonville, FL (of all places) of the great man.
I enjoyed wearing this luscious tie with its elegant design so much that I decided to break my pattern and wear it again tomorrow, February 20th, which is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday this year. That will be the extent of my celebration. I'm tired from the drive to Georgia and back.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月13日 Valen-Thais? For Valentine's Day, I'm passing over a necktie full of hearts and lips, choosing a rather conservative green necktie (green for Valentine's?) bearing a multilingual assortment of Valentine's sentiments:
I love you - Te amo
Yo te quiero - Je t'aime
Ich liebe Dich
Those are the only words on this modest little tie, which, alas, no longer has any labels.
It continues the international theme I've been developing lately, and so, I return on the 15th to Thailand, "Thai Silk 100%, Made in Thailand, Hand Made." Like the other two Thai ties this week, this one has shiny gold accents.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月11日 Thai-ing Two On How many puns can I milk from these two neck-Thais from Tie-land? Oh, well, you get the idea... These two Thai neckties deserve better. Tomorrow (2-12, my mother's birthday), I'm wearing a wild semi-abstract floral and the next day, a lush, more realistic floral on a dark background. Both ties have gold metallic highlights outlining shapes in the design. They have identical labels, "Hand Woven Thai Silk 100%, Made in Thailand." They also share a slghtly rough texture, which, I suspect, will make them a little difficult to Thai. (Sorry.)
Hmm... a Thai tie? It almost sounds as if I am referring to a little town from my native south Georgia.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月7日 The Polish/polish Problem I don' remember when I first noticed the difference in pronunciation between Polish and polish. Although I have never thought about it much, I cannot think up any other words in which capitalization so alters pronunciation.
But, that has nothing to do, really, with these two neckties from Poland. The blue tie (2-8) has a label reading "Ortal / 100% Poliester" (note spelling) and then "Made in Poland" (in English). The other (2-9) has a black label with white writing. First there is what appears to be a Polish name in script. I cannot read the first word, but the second seems to be "Mienkowski," and underneath, there are the words "Warszawa / Solec 50."
These ties are not quite three inches wide at their widest, and the second one is about six inches shorter. I don't know if this was an effort to save fabric or if it reflects the styles of the time.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月5日 Good Neighbors While I have many neckies from France, Italy, England, and Korea, there are other countries not so well represented in my collection; for a couple of weeks, I'm going to wear and highlight some of these.
Tuesday (2-5), I'm wearing a tie from Mexico. I have a few ties like this, with a Countess Mara label but no CM monogram embroidered on the tie or embossed on the lining and without the typical reinforced Countess Mara neckband. But, they do have tags proclaiming "Hecho en Mexico." Silk, I think, but who knows?
Wednesday (2-6), I'm wearing a necktie with the label Maldivé, with a palm tree, but this lovely silk tie with its homey coffee scene is made in Canada. As far as I remember, it is the only Canadian tie I have.
Since both of these ties have fairly small patterns, I am posting close-ups of them, the better for you to appreciate the ducks and hunting horns in one, and so you can almost smell the coffee in the other.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge 2月4日 Another Urban Nocturne When I lived in New York City (1974-1976), one of my best friends was a co-worker, born on St. Patrick's Day, with a colorful history, a dry sense of humor, and hardly anything in common with my parents, who were more or less of her generation.
Widowed by the time I met her, she had once had a happy marriage that ended when she and her husband met another couple at a party, and she and the husband of the other couple fell in love. Two happy (but childless) marriages ended, and a third soon began. By the way, her new husband was blind, a fact that, she said, never entered her mind, even when friends of her told her she was crazy not only to end a happy marriage but also to marry a man who was blind.
One night, the lights went out in New York City (the blackout of 1965, as far as I can figure out), and my friend Helen was sent home early from her job. This was long before the day of cell 'phones, and she had no way to get in touch with her husband. As the hours dragged on, and the city grew darker, she was in a state of panic by the time her husband and his guide dog got home.
He calmed her down, mixed her a drink (it must have been very dark, because she said it was too dark for her to mix a drink), and cooked dinner (on a gas stove). It turned out that he was aware of something going wrong, but he did not know what. Once he found out, he became a hero to some people by guiding them through the dark that was not strange to him.
I know, there is nothing here about neckties, but I really love this story.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 2月1日 Flowers for Guys A friend of mine says that he would never wear a floral tie. Fine, that means more florals for me. These two neckties have a twist, in that they are in rich, warm earth tones, not exactly the pale pastels one associates with florals.
Tomorrow (2-2, Groundhog Day), I'm wearing a tie that is either a floral tie or a diagonally striped tie by Mondo di Marco, made of silk in Italy (Firenze, nonetheless). It's a great tie, with a separate keeper loop, in addition to the label, and an especially lush lining.
Monday (2-5), I'll be wearing a necktie that no words can do justice to. It's a cotton tie from Key West Ties, with a really rugged, slightly goofy assortment of big flowers, paisley, and who knows what?
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge |
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