Q: I see men throwing their neckties over their shoulders while sitting down for lunch or dinner, not just on informal lunch breaks but also in fine restaurants. In my opinion, this is as unattractive as tucking a napkin into one’s shirt collar like a bib. Is food spillage such a problem that this behavior is warranted?

A: There is a bar in New York City called Hogs & Heifers Saloon, where girls who saw the film Coyote Ugly go to dance on the bar and businessmen who would prefer to be cowboys go to act like them. The decor of this desperately funky establishment features many discarded brassieres and, I believe, quite a few severed ties. Apparently, men committing the stuffy, patriarchal sin of wearing a tie here are forcibly relieved of their neckwear by scissors-wielding fun lovers. This is just one reason I don’t patronize this fashionable meatpacking-district saloon. To me the only legitimate excuse for cutting off a man’s tie is that he’s an affected chowhound who has thrown his tie over his shoulder. In other words, no.

August 2003

print
SUBMIT