Fashionably Weird

[Alan H]

I have several bow ties, but only for wearing with formal attire. These days, since I'm not doing any symphony playing, they mostly sit in my closet with their matching cummerbunds.

Four in hand ties are a pain. I wear them because sometimes it's expected, but they're just a pain. Bow ties are admittedly less so...they catch the wind a lot less, for example. Fifty years ago, bow ties were commonplace. Now, they're not. Things change, it's not a bad thing or a good thing, it just *is*.

[bikeolounger]

I thought I had posted on this, but apparently the computer dropped it...

My grandfather wore bow ties to work for many years--it's one of my enduring images of him. He was a Chemistry professor, and a conventional tie would have gotten in the way of the lab work. He was a practical man in many ways, and one of his practicalities was that an adjustable tie was simpler than a self-tied one. I used to think he had a bow tie in our family tartan, but one never surfaced after he died almost two years ago.

Kilted Wonder, you may have heard of my grandfather--Alfred Armstrong was part of the William & Mary Chemistry department from the 1930s until he moved out of his office twelve or fifteen years ago (I'm almost embarrassed to admit I don't remember what year it was--he kept overseeing a lab section way past his retirement). I do have one of his Armstrong four-in-hand ties, and wear it periodically (although I make a point of not needing a four-in-hand tie often).

Like many of you, I tend to be one of those "different drummer" type people. I'm a bit of an iconoclast, in short. I'm just the sort who would go to my bicycle club's banquet wearing a UK Mocker in brown heather, a light blue shirt, and an Armstrong tartan bow tie (with tan kilt hose and dark brown shoes). Just to mess with folks.