The last time I put a tie on, someone had died. I did still remember how to make a nice dimpled Windsor knot, but it took me several attempts to get the resulting length correct so that the tip of the tie was slightly above the belt. Several attempts.
I have an image someday of someone having a garage sale with the contents of my closet, and draping the ties I have over say a ladder, and putting a price on any one of them, or making a 5-for- something offer. And no one buys a single tie. Why? Because very few men wear ties these days, no matter what their line of work. I mean, doctors aren't even running all around in white coats these days.
Lucy Liu looked cute in her necktie on this season's first episode of 'Elementary,' but woman don't count when they wear a tie. It is always about fashion with them. With men, it was a habit that became broken.
I have somewhere near a 100 ties, that if tied end-to-end could provide the escape rope to the ground for a convict, or a wife's lover, from a 12 story window. Not as many as the elderly gentleman in Burberry's whose attention I was drawn to years and years ago when I overheard his wife announce to a sales associate that she wanted to take a video, so she could record her husband's 500th purchase of a necktie. She might have been joking. She might not have.
Ties are passe. When AOL and Time Warner merged the CEOs had opposite ideas of what looked cool. The AOL guy showed up with a tie, and the Time Warner guy showed up without a tie for the news conference. No wonder the merger failed. They couldn't agree on the dress code.
The above picture is of former President Bill Clinton, tieless, after hoarsely speaking this past Monday in Flint, Michigan on several subjects, one of which was health care, remarks that are as funny as anything you've ever heard a politician, current of otherwise utter.
Bill, in animated fashion, made remarks that Republicans are having more fun with than perhaps what Republicans should be allowed to have, when the sound byte has Bill telling the crowd that the current Obama health care plan is..."a crazy system...it's the craziest thing in the world...where peoples' premiums are doubled and have their coverage cut in half."
If you've been reading obituaries you know that Eddie Antar, the founder of the Crazy Eddie electronics store chain that years and years ago lit up the New York, New Jersey area with, as Crazy Eddie's famous TV pitchman, Jerry Carroll proclaimed, "...prices that are insane!"
Mr. Carroll has been out of this kind of animated pitching ever since Crazy Eddie went out of business years ago, when a stock fraud scheme consumed its founder. Eddie Antar has only recently passed away, so any hopes that Mr. Carroll will find work hawking the virtues of an electronics store, Crazy Eddie or otherwise, are slim.
But, consider of what use the Republicans can make of the old Jerry Carroll commercials. From now until Election Day there's a window of time that Jerry screaming into a "Paid for By... I Support this Message..." TV ad can once again proclaim that prices are "in-sane!" Obama's. "His health care prices are in-sane!" There are people in advertising who are going to regret not reading my blog.
What has this got to do with ties? I think a loosened neck can be a good thing, or as dangerous as "loose lips sink ships."
Can wearing a tie keep you from saying dumb things? Not if you consider the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, who is always seen in a suit and tie, and probably wears one to bed, or maybe even to the bathroom at 3:00 A.M. when he Tweets about corpulent beauty queens.
The baseline for The Donald is only now being drawn. He's probably been like whatever you want to call him for decades, but is only now getting everyone's due to his presidential candidacy. Bill, on the other hand, was the president who did dress the part, for the most part, with suit and tie.
Bill, I've got a closet full if you want to go back to wearing one. It might help keep you out of being an ad for the Republicans.
http://www.onoffframp.blogspot.com
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