The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: Arachno-capitalist on December 07, 2010, 01:19:15 am
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I was reminded today how it was that I came to learn how to tie a tie. It was Easter and I had to know this process, but did not have anyone to ask. So my genius idea was to search AOL profiles for the word "CEO" - because a CEO needs to know how to tie a tie. So there I was, a young naive kid, IMing random CEOs to find out how to tie a tie. Eventually I landed on a private pilot in Florida who walked me through the process via Instant Message as we sat simultaneously tieing our ties in front of our computers. :-\
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That is mind-boggling to me, for three reasons:
1) That's an incredibly clever way to use the tools you had available, kudos on thinking outside the box
2) I didn't have internet access at home until my junior year of high school
3) There wasn't anybody you could ask how to tie a tie on Easter? That might be the Saddest Thing.
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jay-ell the internet wasn't available at home until we were juniors in high school. i learned how to tie my tie from esquire magazine, which i've been subscribing to since i started college. until then my dad just tied a tie and loosened it for me to put on over my head
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This is mind-boggling to me because this is so clearly the child who grew up to be A-Cap.
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Word.
My dad showed me how to tie a tie, but I think I've always disappointed him because I don't tie 'em full Windsor anymore. I got internet at home maybe a week before I discovered Achewood/WiGU/Diesel Sweeties/Dumbrella.
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I mean my mom was great and all, but I think she enjoyed the theater of watching me find new and different ways to do basic stuff. The result of that process is this eccentric dude who feels like no problem is too large.
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This is mind-boggling to me because this is so clearly the child who grew up to be A-Cap.
OK, yes, that too. But in a way, it kind of explains a lot.
I learned to tie a tie when I was in grade school. My mom taught me at the same time she taught my brother. It was a given that women needed to know how to tie ties, too, so we could teach our sons.
Later, when I worked at a restaurant, the skill came in very handy.
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Shouldn't you have called a haberdasher?
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my dad talks frequently about how he had to teach himself to shave. His mom decided it was a "man thing" that she couldn't teach him, even though... girls shave. This process involved a lot of a product called "liquid skin."
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there was no dad, but there were family friends who were dudes that showed me and my younger brother how to tie a tie(i was twelve, he was ten, and the youngest two didnt need to care). i only knew the half windsor until last year because of curiosity and a video on artofmanliness.com.
those same dudes explained shaving, but i had to do the actual learning on my own.
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my dad talks frequently about how he had to teach himself to shave. His mom decided it was a "man thing" that she couldn't teach him, even though... girls shave. This process involved a lot of a product called "liquid skin."
And I get where I am because people like your dad recognize my plight and guide me. See you fell into a situation that was created by your father's endless hard work, I didn't. People like your father are caught in a conflict where they have figured out how to get where they are, but do not know how to make their children recreate that situation. So here you are working at a grocery store at an age where he was trying to take over the world.
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I was taught how to tie a tie by my second grade teacher. It was part of the curriculum at Sydney Grammar Prep. Full Windsor, no less.
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My dad taught me the Windsor, but I can't think of the last time I used it. I stick to the simpler Four-in-Hand.
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People like your father are caught in a conflict where they have figured out how to get where they are, but do not know how to make their children recreate that situation. So here you are working at a grocery store at an age where he was trying to take over the world.
actually at my age he still thought he wanted to go into government, and was working at a job that made him so nervous that he puked in the bathroom, every single day.
weird.
but I do think about the things you just said a lot.
I think this job is changing a lot of my priorities in re: "I want to have a job where I get to make decisions, and earn money."
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His mom decided it was a "man thing" that she couldn't teach him, even though... girls shave.
Not so much. Not back then.
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Not so much. Not back then.
In my head that sounds weirdly ominous.
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actually at my age he still thought he wanted to go into government, and was working at a job that made him so nervous that he puked in the bathroom, every single day.
weird.
but I do think about the things you just said a lot.
I think this job is changing a lot of my priorities in re: "I want to have a job where I get to make decisions, and earn money."
Yeah I mean, I know you're a smart guy and I've talked to you on the phone so I know you're generally kind, but at some point along the road you were able to say "I'll study anthropology" and remain comfortable. Taking 4 years out of my life to study how people did shit in Egypt wasn't going to pay my bills so I went into finance.
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This is mind-boggling to me because this is so clearly the child who grew up to be A-Cap.
Well I know there are some aspiring authors kicking around here. If someone wants to jot down some of my adventures and misadventures I'd be willing to talk to them. I've been told numerous times that the story of my being carjacked at gunpoint is nothing short of a short-film worth of entertainment. (Guys.... I had a gun to my head and I told the asshole he couldn't smoke in the car he was trying to jack... while I was "kidnapped" in the car with him)
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In fact my first thought was "I have to use that in a book." Although my second thought was not being sure anyone would believe it.
I mean my mom was great and all, but I think she enjoyed the theater of watching me find new and different ways to do basic stuff.
If this had occurred to me, I might have had children.
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Yeah I mean, I know you're a smart guy and I've talked to you on the phone so I know you're generally kind, but at some point along the road you were able to say "I'll study anthropology" and remain comfortable. Taking 4 years out of my life to study how people did shit in Egypt wasn't going to pay my bills so I went into finance.
This reminds me of what a friend of mine said about being worried that her children would grow up without all the disadvantages.
Although, some of us were stupid enough to do that sort of thing even though it didn't pay the bills, which just shows exactly how poor my grasp of finance is. "Oh, they will pay me a stipend that is just enough to share an apartment and buy groceries for five years of grad school? So I can get a degree that qualifies me for, like, five job openings a year in the whole country? Sign me up!"
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So there are different ways to tie a tie? On the rare occasion I wear one I tie it the way that was in the cub scout handbook circa 1988.
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I remember the carjack deal. Those were fun times.
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wasn't going to pay my bills so I went into finance.
You must have some freaky high bills.
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I mean my mom was great and all, but I think she enjoyed the theater of watching me find new and different ways to do basic stuff.
If this had occurred to me, I might have had children.
I'm watching my kid figure out how to make words out of letters. It's actually REALLY COOL to see him take a pack of alphabet stickers, sit down for twenty minutes, and then bring me a sentence that is more or less phonetically readable. It is hard not to correct him or offer him a spelling he is struggling with, but I am actively trying to create the "figure it out" experience here, too.
He has got sounding-out down pat, as long as there are no curveballs like silent letters.
Also, I always planned to make my kids pay their own way through college, even if I could afford to send them, but having a kid with autism forces me to rethink that. Attending classes might be all he can handle, if he chooses to go (which, given his strong academic leanings even at Kindergarten-age, I think he will). I don't think there is a significant risk of anything being "too easy" for him, ever.
The girl, on the other hand...
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I'm bought my own degree and I think I'm better off for having done it. Maybe especially because my mom could have paid for it, having transitioned from nursing to real estate by taking classes in the evenings as a single mom raising 4 boys. I think that sort of inspired me not to whine much about how hard it all was.
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My dad taught me the half-Windsor years ago. But about 15 years back, GQ or Esquire published an item with four different ways to tie your tie. I tried them all and settled on the Shelby knot (http://www.tieguide.com/pratt-shelby.htm), in which you start with the back side of the tie facing out.
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I'm bought my own degree and I think I'm better off for having done it. Maybe especially because my mom could have paid for it, having transitioned from nursing to real estate by taking classes in the evenings as a single mom raising 4 boys. I think that sort of inspired me not to whine much about how hard it all was.
my childhood was essentially the same, except my mom raised me and my 3 brothers while going to Penn State-Mon Alto to study Child Psychology and Early Childhood Development, working full time at an agency that helped migrant worker families, AND doing spanish-translation-for-cash on the side. she wasnt able to finish her degree, though.
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That's pretty benevolent. My Mom did deliver food to needy families (feeling the need to stick up for Mom, here).
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I'm bought my own degree and I think I'm better off for having done it. Maybe especially because my mom could have paid for it, having transitioned from nursing to real estate by taking classes in the evenings as a single mom raising 4 boys. I think that sort of inspired me not to whine much about how hard it all was.
I paid my own way, and in fact am still paying it (thanks, Sallie Mae!). My brother got a scholarship and my parents covered his room and board, so he didn't have to work (it was a soccer scholarship, though, so he wouldn't have had time to get a job even if he'd wanted one, what with soccer practice every night and games all weekend most of the year.)
I didn't get a scholarship, and I chose an expensive private school, so I took out student loans on top of working part-time. Mom and dad offered to cover my room and board, to keep things fair, but I opted to live at home. So they bought me my first car, instead. It seems I got the better end of the deal, actually.
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Yeah I mean, I know you're a smart guy and I've talked to you on the phone so I know you're generally kind, but at some point along the road you were able to say "I'll study anthropology" and remain comfortable. Taking 4 years out of my life to study how people did shit in Egypt wasn't going to pay my bills so I went into finance.
Like I said (vaguely), my dad was a poli-sci major and worked for the department of education. I still have time to have a change of heart and get an MBA, I guess.
My parents still believe that any college degree will get you a good job. I am trying to explain to them that that is not true anymore, but they do not believe me. Even more so with the idea that people go to grad school and can't get jobs afterwards.
It is not OK for me to say "mom, you have a PhD, how many jobs have you had in the last 25 years?"
the experience of paying their own way through college made my parents swear that they would not make their kids do that. Their view is: what is the point of making money if we're just going to make our kids go through the same shit we did.
I dunno, I don't think I'm a lost cause yet.
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You're definitely not a lost cause, but it can be tough to overcome not growing up with all the disadvantages.
I had a friend whose father said when she was trying to decide where to go to grad school, "Just get your first PhD." Like he thought, just worry about it later, I guess.
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So there are different ways to tie a tie? On the rare occasion I wear one I tie it the way that was in the cub scout handbook circa 1988.
There was a Nature paper (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v398/n6722/full/398031a0.html) about this. That link probably won't give you the whole article unless you're affiliated with a University, but here's the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_85_Ways_to_Tie_a_Tie) about the book the authors wrote on the same subject.
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No you're not a lost cause at all. You're primed and ready for some action.
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It's one of those lessons that would best serve the people who don't have to learn them. I just got my end of year results back and I was a few percentage points shy of bumping up to the next grade, which I'm sure I could have done if I wasn't working to pay my rent and eat as well as studying, but would I have appreciated the extra time if I hadn't had to work? Probably not, probably would have spent my extra time playing video games or something.
I'm got accommodation at a hospital next year and so I won't have to work (or at least not as much) so I guess we'll see if I've learned anything.
While we're correlating work-ethic vs. tie knowledge I learned how to tie a windsor at age 11 and used it exclusively for years as I'd decided it was the 'proper' way of tying a tie but I've started switching it up with a four in hand because it makes one look less of a prat.
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While we're correlating work-ethic vs. tie knowledge I learned how to tie a windsor at age 11 and used it exclusively for years as I'd decided it was the 'proper' way of tying a tie but I've started switching it up with a four in hand because it makes one look less of a prat.
Oddly enough, of all the tie knots, the Pratt knot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_knot) is only the fourth most likely to make one look like a prat.
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reading these wikipedia pages, I do a four-in-hand. When my dad taught me he apologized that he didn't know how to tie a tie the "grown up" way.
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:o
I'm glad I was already sitting down. This whole time I've been tying a Pratt knot, not a half-Windsor.
(Apologies for the smiley, but I'm pretty shaken right now.)
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Mom taught me the Half-Windsor, but I also learned the four-in-hand when I was working at the aforementioned restaurant because it was quicker to do while walking from my car to the employee entrance.
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My dad taught me the half-Windsor years ago. But about 15 years back, GQ or Esquire published an item with four different ways to tie your tie. I tried them all and settled on the Shelby knot (http://www.tieguide.com/pratt-shelby.htm), in which you start with the back side of the tie facing out.
Turns out I've been using the Shelby knot for years without knowing the name. A Can, fair Mayor, for enlightening me.
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Sounds like more of a.... Shelbyknot thing.
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I tie nothing but a full on windsor. The reason for this is simple, it allows me to not button the top button of my shirt.
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a-cap i used my first full windsor this winter, with a tux and vest, and i couldn't stand it with the top button done. thanks for the tip.
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A-Cap is subverting the system from within.
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I was always of the understanding that the full windsor is sort of the king of knots. It's a pretty stout tie, that's for sure.
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Yeah theres like no tail on that kind of knot if you wear the length of the tie down to your belt buckle.
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A important addition to this thread:
The Lovecraft. (http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/2699728808/jeffrubinjeffrubin-love-this-article-by)
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A important addition to this thread:
The Lovecraft. (http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/2699728808/jeffrubinjeffrubin-love-this-article-by)
What ever it is, your facination with it has broken their server.
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It is working for me now. It is Tumblr, it gets the hiccups several times a day most days.
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That is awesome.
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Related (oldish):
(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/ff23baa3ad.jpg) (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)
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That is wonderful.