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6月29日 Mary, Milton, MooseI wore Mary's necktie yesterday. (See the previous entry.) I am impressed. I felt every inch of the tie, amazed at the good work she put into it. Even the label was sewn just on the ends, so that I could slip the tail of the tie through the resulting loop. She must be quite a seamstress, and she certainly brightemed up a dreary day for me. When I got home, it was raining, and I took the tie off in the car so it wouldn't get wet.
I have the feeling that a good bit of love went into this tie, that I was an interloper for wearing it. With her tie around my neck, I may have stolen Mary's hug for a day. Wherever you are, Mary, your tie is honored and appreciated... and so are you.
I look back on a week full of frustrations. You do not want to hear about my frustrations with three computers today. More than once, I have told elderly students, who say they are frustrated by their inability to operate a computer, not to be frustrated by themselves. If they aren't frustrated by the computer, however, they aren't doing as much work as they should.
Monday, spent waiting to hear whether or not I would be called to serve on a jury (I wasn't), made me think of a sonnet by John Milton, on a topic that my work constantly reminds me of: "On His Blindness." Consider its best-known line, "They also serve who only stand and wait." I would need to change the word stand to sit in terribly uncomfortable seats.
I couldn't help but notice the obesity plague among my fellow jurors (another poem comes to mind, "to see ourselves as others see us"). For a couple of hours, I sat next to a man who hung over the sides of his seat to take up about a third of mine. When we stood to be sworn in, I expected to hear a pop as he pulled himself out of the arms of the seat.
Sad news: Moose died. He was better known as Eddie, the irrepressible Jack Russell terrier on the television series Frasier. He was also a member of a tag-team of four-legged thespians who handled the title role of My Dog Skip. Time and tide wait for no man... or dog. Moose was quite a Method actor, because among Jack Russell terriers, there always is much more madness than method, while Eddie was always the most methodical member of the crazy Crane establishment.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 6月25日 Flowers of SummerThis mysterious month of June - which will be explained later this week - comes to a close. Also, this week marks the end of the first six months of ties being blogged. (I started the blog in December, but I did not start my regular entries until January.)
So, flowers seem appropriate, mainly because I have so many floral ties. Also, this will be the last week in which I wear representational ties for a long time, since next week, I'll begin an epic exploration of a particular element of necktie design.
Monday (26th) - Cabralli Collection, silk, US.
Tuesday (27th) - Roffe, silk, New York/Paris.
Wednesday (28th) - "Specially handmade by Mary." (So many questions...)
Thursday (29th) - Specially made for Markhams, no material or place of origin specified.
Friday (30th) - Windsor, silk, US.
As far as I can tell, Wednesday's tie is handmade and homemade, very nicely, I might add. I look forward to tying it and wearing it.
Tomorrow, I have jury duty. I suppose I should wear a necktie so obnoxious that it would get me excused. Here in Polk County, Florida, that might well be my Democratic donkey and US flag tie.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved
Click on photos to enlarge. 6月22日 And Away He Goes!This has been a strange week, with my attempt to relate the problems of people who are blind to transportation - with sailing ships, paddle-wheelers, and old cars. But, tomorrow (Friday), we finally make the connection, with this lovely necktie with what appears to be vintage illustrations of science fiction. Why? Well, check this out. As you read this, there is a young man planning and getting educated to be an astronaut... and he is blind.
I noticed, belatedly, that I made no mention of the solstice. A co-worker asked if I had found a solstice tie, and if I hadn't, suggested I might buy myself a similarly named vehicle. (No link for that!)
Actually, I feel that I did have a solstice tie. Monday and Tuesday, the ties were polyster. Tuesday's tie, even with about a third silk, was the most uncomfortable tie to wear or to tie that I have worn during the time of this blog.
Wednesday, the solstice, I returned to silk... and remembered why I had gotten rid of most of my polyester ties.
Friday's tie is an orphan, with no label identifying the manufacturer. There is a label identifying it as silk, handmade in Italy. I love the color, and I can tell it will be a comfortable necktie to wear, even in our central Florida heat.
But a little more on the Solstice, celebrations of which overlap with the Festival of St. John. In English-speaking countries, it doesn't have much importance, but it does figure significantly in two works of literature: Edmund Spenser's Epithaamium and A Midsummer-Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. (Might I immodestly add my review of a film of Shakespeare's play?)
Update: Will has a vintage Solstice tie.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved
Click on photo to enlarge. 6月20日 More TransportationFor Wednesday (21st) and Thursday (22nd), we're looking at another way to manipulate little repeated images. These ties are both silk, thank goodness. (I had forgotten why I got rid of most of my polyester ties.) These designs are looser. In fact, the cars and ships (paddle-wheelers) are used almost like dots.
The tie for the 21st is by American Gallery, made in the US. The tie for the 22nd is by Expressions, made in China.
Stay tuned for Friday's special!
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved
Click on photo to enlarge. 6月18日 TransportationOf course, my necktie-wearing is associated with my job, teaching computer skills and the use of adaptive software to people who are visually impaired. One of the major problems for these folks is transportation. Ours is a car-centric society, so if you can't drive, you are going to have problems. So, this week's theme - transportation - relates to that.
I'm going to stretch this week out across three separate posts, rather than do a single weekly post.
For Monday (19th) and Tuesday (20th), I'm submitting for your pleasure and enlightenment two ties that illustrate another arche-tie-pal design for ties. This time, we're looking at the repetition of a single image in diagonal bands. On Monday, we have a green tie with a ship that is almost too large for the pattern, since you can't get more than two images across. The burgundy tie with old cars fits the pattern a little better. By the way, I have previously posted one tie and another that fit this idea better. I could do a week of these, with lobsters, flies, beer bottles, and other such images in proper diagonal arrangements.
Monday's tie carries one label "Mariners, US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Port, NY" and another "Polyester, Resisto." There is a sewn- in price tag, $7.50. Tuesday's tie reads "Robert Talbot for The Peddler, San Francisco" and "70% silk, 30% dacron polyester."
More later...
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved
Click on photo to enlarge. 6月17日 So Many Holidays, So Few Ties...If there were any one holiday that might be subtitled National Necktie Day, it would be tomorrow, Father's Day... although not in my family. My father was not a wearer of neckties. I remember he had some old ties (of the sort I now lament not being able to find in thrift shops) hanging in his closet, but for as long as I can recall, he rarely wore a tie, and then, a clip-on. Of course, since he served twenty years in the Air Force, I assume he had known how to tie a tie.
My two brothers and I have produced, to the best of my knowledge, one member of a new generation, my niece. I'm sure she'll remember my brother, her dad, on Father's Day, but I am just as sure that the remembrance will not involve a necktie. But, Rick, happy Father's Day, anyway!
Today, against my better judgment, I went to see the film Prairie Home Companion. I believe if it had been called Oceanfront Condo Buddy or anything except PHC I would have enjoyed it more. Oh, well, I may yet write a review of it (it's my blog, and I'll review if I want to).
But, there are so many holidays backed up here that I will only remark that Kevin Kline as Guy Noir wore a necktie that stopped a few inches above his belt. And, Garrison Keillor is first spotted wearing a shirt and tie... but no pants. I thought about wearing a tie, honestly, I did, but simply wearing long pants on a Saturday in June made me seem enough of a misfit in central Florida.
Thursday, the 15th, was Flag Day and also a day of some importance in the necktie-blogging community. Friday, the 16th, was one of my favorite days, Bloomsday, as I've previously mentioned, mainly because it is a day on which I do absolutely nothing special. I had a strange thought this morning, while hanging out my laundry. Ulysses was published in 1922. I first bought a copy and began (trying) to read it in the summer of 1966, forty-two years later. It is now 2006, forty years after that. So, I have been involved in some way with Ulysses for almost half of its published life.
And today, the 17th of June, is one of the happiest celebrations of the year, Juneteenth, to commemorate the end of slavery. It's not just a black holiday. The end of the enslavement of black people in the United States was a giant step toward liberation for us all.
Much to deal with tomorrow... and so, to bed!
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 6月11日 Playing with Your FoodToday, I did a presentation for the adult discussion group (more or less the equivalent of adult Sunday school) at the local Unitarian-Universalist congregation on the role of play in spirituality... or is that, vice versa? A newcomer, at the end of the session, said that he had thought we were going to play. "No," I explained. "UU's don't play; they talk about playing."
I had planned to wear a necktie that Peter Max designed for the 1994 World Cup, a treasure I found when I first started to snoop around for ties, complete with the original tags. I thought it would be appropriate to wear this tie, since I made a couple of references to the World Cup in my presentation, but to remove the tags would drastically lower its value, not that I have ever sold a tie. I decided against wearing it, but instead, wore a rather playful bowtie (Rothschild's Exclusively; no information on material or country).
If you are not familiar with the construction of a bowtie, you may think that each lobe makes one side of the knot, but that is not the case. The two lobes are folded on top of and looped around each other, so that what finally appears is not as wide as the length of a lobe (which is about six inches long).
For the rest of the week, for the Monday-Friday span of most of my theme weeks, the neckties are all unified around the theme of food. So, with play on Sunday and food for the rest of the week, the title for this entry was inevitable. Again, this theme week links to events of this month which will be revealed later.
Yes, here we have (after the rather sedately equine week just past) more oh-no-you-AREN'T-wearing-THAT-are-you? ties. Oh, yes, I am wearing these. What can I say? They are fun.
Sometimes, I refer to having lunch in a thrift shop, that is, stopping by a thrift shop on my lunch time. This week, that expression is especially appropriate.
The tie for Monday (12th) was the first vegetable tie I had ever seen, when I found it on a thrift shop marathon recently. At the very next store, I found another veggie tie, which I am reserving for another time. (S & H, cotton)
Tuesday (13th) offers an assortment of mushrooms. I don't know if they are edible, hallucenogenic, or what? (Land's End, silk) I like the colors on the dark background. The tie, by the way, will be worn with an orange shirt, which I hope will bring out the color of the mushrooms.
Wednesday (14th) offers a fruit salad. (Perry Ellis Portfolio, silk, US) I have a strawberry tie which I had planned to wear to the nearby Florida Strawberry Festival... but I missed the festival this year, the first time in some years.
Thursday (15th) brings a celebration of seafood; perhaps it would be more appropriate for Friday? (Museum Artifacts, silk, US) I have a lobster tie, so a second week of food may be in the cards... uh... ties.
Friday (16th) finishes up with dessert: cherry pie. (Pirelli Collection: New York, London, Paris) Maybe I can pretend it is rhubarb pie and pass if off as my Prairie Home Companion tie... although, every review I read about that film, even the favorable ones, convinces me that I don't want to see it.
I wish I had an appropriate tie for Friday, Bloomsday, so I suppose I shall have to content myself with keeping Bloomsday in my heart, and maybe rejoicing that I cannot find a Bloomsday tie, to resist commercializing the holiday. Keep the bloom on Bloomsday! And, if you start now, you could get some chapters into Ulysses by then! This is the second Joyce-ful holiday I've blogged about. I found a tie for Joyce's birthday.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved
Click on photo to enlarge. 6月3日 Horsing Around This week's theme is straightforward: horses. As I mentioned during dog and cat week, horses and dogs are the animals most commonly shown on neckties. But, I have two reasons for wearing ties with horses this week. One refers to activities during this mysterious month of June, which I shall explain in July, and the other is to welcome back Karen, a horse-owning co-worker who has been away a week. Her horse and I shall be glad to see her back where she belongs.
I suppose we might dedicate the week to John Wayne or Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, who supposedly appreciated horses... Oh, well... I do want to keep this a family-friendly blog. So, let's just have a little riddle: which person, previously referred to in this blog, provides a link between the Duke and the Empress? (The answer is at the end of this entry.)
For Monday (6-05) through Thursday (6-08), the horse images are reduced to repeated elements in a design. These are not aggressive thematic neckties portraying horses. They are ties - all silk - with designs based on horses. about as boring as the stripes and dots of my Lenten ties. In fact, they are dotted ties, with horse-shaped dots. So, what can I say, except:
06-05 - Club Room
06-06 - Structure
06-07 - Churchill Collection
06-08 - Silverwoods (with a sewn-in price tag, $7.50)
But, there is a lot to say about Friday's tie. It is one of my older ties, typical of the time in which it was made. I would guess the late 1940's or early 1950's. It is significantly shorter than contemporary ties and so requires patience to get it tied in such a way that it will hang to an appropriate length. I have no idea what the material is, and the only word on the only label on the tie is, appropriately, "Sweet."
Now, back to the opening question. The answer is: Marlene Dietrich (click to read her birthday greetings in this blog). She and John Wayne allegedly had an affair. The story goes that she saw him around the studio and told her director, "Buy him for me, Daddy." Dietrich also played Catherine in one of the weirdest films I've ever seen, The Scarlet Empress. The 1934 film, directed by Josef von Sternberg, seems to be a parody of the Dietrich-von Sternberg collaborations, with her icy non-performance and his scenery that, for a change, seems to chew up the thespians.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved
Click on photo to enlarge. 6月1日 Fantastic Animals in New York City We won't deal with many neckties today, since I've already covered this week's wearings. But, these animals this week have a deep resonance for me... well, not the lion rampant and the griffin, since I confused them.
I had a dog named Snoopy (also, earlier, one named Rin Tin Tin). There is about Snoopy and the whole Peanuts gang a bittersweet qualty that I still cherish. I have several ties with their pictures on them, and, I am pleased to note, those ties are all silk.
The unicorn and Winnie the Pooh have particular connections to the two years I lived in New York City. Besides encountering a number of writers and various old Greenwich-Villagers, I also met unicorns and Winnie the Pooh himself in New York City. There was, a few blocks from where I lived, a little shop that offered a unicornucopia of all things single-horned. A friend who visited gave me a unicorn from there.
Apparently, unicorns are like hamsters, because I soon ended up with a herd. As with the neckties, just possessing the things wasn't enough. I had to read about unicorns and learn as much as I could about them.
Once, I took a friend to see the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters. As we walked through the gallery, I shared (inflicted?) all my accumulated unicorn lore. "Excuse me," someone said. I looked around to see that I had about fifteen or twenty people following the tour guide.
The unicorns, I am pleased to report, take up a shelf in the room with the computer, where as I write this, Lady, the very real resident Manx cat, is sprawled on the desk.
I have never read the Winnie the Pooh stories. In fact, the only connection I feel with the images on this tie is that a friend recently sent his precocious little granddaughter a birthday card with a picture of - I believe - an angel or a princess. She announced her displeasure, saying that she had wanted a Winnie the Pooh card. So, Miss Mary, this tie's for you!
But, one day in New York City, I had to go to the offices of Dutton, the US publisher of the Winnie the Pooh books. I saw a glass case with some rather scruffy stuffed animals in it. They were Winnie and his pals, Christopher Robin Milne's toys on which his father based the famous stories. Want to visit Winnie today? Check on his current residence.
So, perhaps, Winnie doesn't belong in this celebration of imaginary animals. I really saw the real Pooh. But, fantasy, playfulness, and imaginary animals (not to mention nutty neckties) give us something we need, spontaneity, dreams, hope, something as unexpected as - another real animal - the goose which I used to see someone walking on a leash down the fabled (and dog-poop smeared) sidewalks of Greenwich Village.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved |
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