If you love books, dig my tie

Recently some of you had disparaging things to say about traditional men's neckwear. Well, this should
turn you around — at least, it should win over those of you who have enjoyed our discussion of good books back on this post.

Both p.m. and I put pretty much anything Mark Twain wrote on our favorites list, and I doubt that we're alone.

Anyway, I acquired this cravat a couple of years ago — it was a Father's Day present that I sort of picked out myself. I had seen it in the gift shop of a museum/performance hall in Harrisburg, Pa. I don't know where you would find it closer than that. The label says "Museum Artifacts," which led me to find one on this Web site. Just don't wear it to any event I'm likely to attend, 'cause I found it first!

There's a tantalizing detail on this tie: One of the book covers at the bottom is of a book called Innocents at Home, which I had never seen or heard of, much less read. And I find few references to in on the Web, although Amazon does seem to have a line on A copy.

Something to add to my "to read" list, for sure — if I can get my hands on one. I loved Innocents Abroad.

19 thoughts on “If you love books, dig my tie

  1. Doug Ross

    Wednesday, January 29, 2009:
    The fashion concept known as the “tie” died today. Brad Warthen is at large as the suspected killer.

  2. Brad Warthen

    Hey, I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on that tie, I’ll have you know.

    Specifically, I remember Belinda Gergel commenting admiring it. Of course, she WAS running for office at the time, and hoping for an endorsement…

  3. bud

    Brad, did you have to tie one on in order to tie that tie on.
    Does anyone remember the fish tie craze? A couple of guys I work with wore those ugly things as a way to protest the tie rule we once had. It didn’t take long for the tie rule to disappear. That was the tie-breaker.

  4. p.m.

    Would it be sporting of me to say that tie is not just like kissing your sister, but worse?
    Suppose I said of that tie and my collar, “Never the twain shall meet.”
    Actually, though, I like it — on you.

  5. KP

    p.m., that made me laugh. So did Bud’s attempt at Shakespeare on the previous post; go see it if you missed it.
    So guys, why is Anna Karenina not on anyone’s list?
    Today I bought Crime and Punishment and, God help me, Moby Dick. (And when I told my daughter I planned to read Moby Dick, she said this, in that incredulous teenage tone most of us are all too familiar with: WHY?!? I had no good answer.)
    But I’ll report back.
    Thanks to everyone for all the inspiration.
    Brad, that’s a really bad tie.

  6. p.m.

    KP, right after I check out bud’s Bard, I think I’m going to try to dig up that copy of Ulysses I never quite finished.
    See you in September.
    If then.

  7. Brad Warthen

    Anna Karenina is not on my list because it’s written by Leo Tolstoy. I never finished it or War and Peace. I just don’t think he wrote compellingly enough to keep me reading the way Dostoevsky did. Maybe it was the translation. Maybe Tolstoy is a heckuva read in Russian.
    I did sort of like The Cossacks, though. Of course, it was WAY shorter.
    Bless you for resolving to tackle Crime and Punishment and Moby Dick. We should compare notes on the Melville. You’ll likely catch up with me; I’m an excruciatingly slow reader — although I have good retention of what I read, so that’s something. You’ll probably get to the “boggy, soggy, squitchy” part at your first sitting with it. It’s at the start of the third chapter, and the chapters are short, as I mentioned before.

  8. CFLPO

    “The Hoke, the poke — banish now thy doubt
    Verily, I say, ’tis what it’s all about.”
    bud — why couldn’t you have just said as much, in just those words? I’m digging it…ummmmmmmmm
    🙂

  9. KP

    Ugh, Ulysses. Quite possibly the worst thing I never read, having thrown it down after the first 10 pages. Better you than me, p.m.

  10. bud

    Full disclosure on the Shakespeare. I didn’t write it. This was the winning entry for a contest to write the best Shakespeare version of the Hokey Pokey. The author’s name was by Jeff Brechlin.

  11. p.m.

    Now, KP, Joyce spent 7 years writing it. Why can’t we give him 7 years of our lives to read it?
    According to Wikipedia, the Modern Library ranks Ulysses No. 1.

  12. p.m.

    Now, KP, Joyce spent 7 years writing it. Why can’t we give him 7 years of our lives to read it?
    According to Wikipedia, the Modern Library ranks Ulysses No. 1 amongst English-language novels of the 20th century.
    June 16 is Bloomsday. Start planning now.

  13. KP

    Maybe it took him seven years because it even bored HIM to death. You go first. If you make it, I’ll consider trying again.

  14. Karen McLeod

    Brad, That tie is interesting visual art; so put it on a wall and enjoy a loose collar for a change.

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