Isn’t the fact that they’re asking an indication that they’re willing to learn?
A few times I was going to start a thread on this very subject. Not that I need to learn how to tie one, but that I wanted to learn how to tie one BETTER. Mine sometimes get twisted around and look funny.
As for ties being an outdated and useless accessory, I actually take great pride in my tie collection. I get compliments on them all the time. I guess that they look good on me because I take the time to pick ones that are actually stylish rather than a necessary evil. A throwaway nylon clip-on is going to look like a throwaway nylon clip-on.
Oh, and Lynn, I don’t care where the narrow end starts out. The wide end starts at the bottom of my crotch. That way it ends up hanging just about to my belt. Too short and it looks clownish, too long and it looks derelict.
I have to hold tie-tieing lessons every year for my debaters. Most of them have never worn one until then, or have had them tied by others. We keep it simple and teach them the Half-Shelby (aka The Debate Knot). Fast, easy and can be done on a dead run if you are late to rounds.
That’s not what you said in your OP. What you said in your OP was this:
So people have been answering what you wrote in your OP. Why are you so upset about it? Further, if you want to participate in these forums, you should consider developing a bit of patience and politeness. (Those things are helpful in real life too, as it happens.) Using less profanity and treating other people with respect will get you responses a lot faster than throwing a temper tantrum.
To answer you questions: 1. Did you come out of your mother’s womb already knowing how to tie a neck tie? If not, then you should understand that people don’t know how to tie a neck tie until they learn it.
See 1.
It’s the most common question for the obvious reason that nearly all men (and a few women) have to learn it at some point in their lives, yet it’s not the sort of thing that most people learn in school or from parents. Hence it’s exactly the sort of thing that one would expect people to look up in the internet.
In any case, knowing how to tie a neck tie does not make you superior to everyone who doesn’t. There are plenty of things which millions of other people know how to do, but you don’t.
Not with me. I mean, my God, have you seen the amount of plain-out wrongness on the Internet? If curing ignorance on the Web was acceptable, Cecil would have been out of a job more than 10 years ago! Taking it for Gospel just because “it’s on the Internet” is a bad mistake most people make.
Not a joke. The clip on bow tie I wore in the theater was part of the uniform, and most of the workers were kids. However, my husband only needs to wear a tie once every 5 to 20 years. Why bother spending the money for a good one? He’s only going to wear it for a couple of hours, tops, so it makes no sense to us to spend the money to purchase a good one, or the time to fiddle with it. He’s only wearing it because his family expects certain dress in certain circumstances.
However, the men all got together before the last funeral (earlier this year) and decided that they were NOT going to wear neckties, just business casual dress. And I applaud them. Neckties are evil. The only good thing I can say about them is that if I am obliged to get a man a gift, and I know he wears ties on a regular basis, then I can safely get him a decent necktie.
I think the “how to write a resume” question may be a clue as to why so many people are asking about ties. Job interviews are one of the handful of circumstances where I’ve actually worn a tie in recent years.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that lots of people search the web for instructions on how to tie a tie.
I went to a selective boarding school, and in the winter term we wore ties to school every day. 25 years later, even though i rarely ever wear a tie, i can still put together a perfect Windsor knot.
But if i hadn’t spent 6 years of high school doing it, i’d probably still need to look it up on occasion.
What’s funny is that my father taught me when I was maybe 15 or 16. From then until I was around 23, I almost never had occasion to wear one. But I never forgot how to tie one.
It would be interesting to see how often this question got asked in other years. It’s true there are a lot of people out of work, but that was true last year, too. My guess is there are always a lot of guys asking how to tie a tie. People graduate from high school and college and go to proms and weddings and things every year. I’m not very good at it myself. I can fake it but it doesn’t look as good as I’d like. I think the last time I wore a tie (which might’ve been Halloween 2009) I untied the tie after I was done with it. I either needed it cleaned, or maybe I wanted to take another stab at it the next time I was going to wear a tie. Whenever that is, I’ll probably be using the internet again.
Some googling fails to turn up the Half-Shelby. Are you thinking of a Pratt-Shelby or a half Windsor or something else? I always tied a windsor for debate because it is the knot my dad used and he is the one who taught me. A lot of the guys used what appears to be a four-in-hand. I wasn’t much for the narrow lopsidedness, but it’s an easy knot and beats no tie at all.
Yeah, my dad taught me when I was a teenagers as well. The difference is, I did have occasion to wear them. I went to a surprising number of formal events when I was a kid, and afterwards as well – weddings, bar mitzvahs, that sort of thing.
When you’re a Jewish teenager, and you have a lot of Jewish friends, you go to a lot of formal events when you’re about 13 years old.
I guess there isn’t any, but at least you can say you learned something new. Which I understand is meaningless to many people, but that’s what comes from the ability to have immediate access to just about any piece of information. It goes to the larger issue of “I don’t have to know it- I can find out in a few seconds, and then forget it again.”
And if everyone learned the first time they looked it up, then we could get on with the really important things in life, like “how to lose weight”, “how to kiss”, and “how to write a resume”, and all will be right with the world.
My dad taught me how to tie a tie (Full and Half Windsor) when I was about 9 or 10.
I am a girl.
I still tie my husband’s ties when we are going out somewhere (he still can’t get the full Windsor and if we are going somewhere that needs a tie, I believe it should be a full). When he goes to work he just does a half (and he chooses to wear a shirt and tie instead of a golf shirt. He’s weird that way).
We used to wear ties in band in highschool. Every year I would teach the new members how to tie a tie. I was the only girl. It was pretty bizarre.
I also agree that if you are a grown person, you should wear a tie that requires tying not a clip on. It’s just not that hard to do and they are cheaper than clip ons (if you get them at second hand stores or at walmart, anyway). And if you get a fairly boring pattern, it should not go out of fashion.
A Half-Shelby skips one of the wraps of the Shelby. Start from the same position. Under, over, around, tuck. Makes for a tighter knot and saves seconds.
I like learning new things, IF they are things that I’m interested in. I’m not interested in learning how to tie a tie properly, and since it’s not something that I need to know, I’ll go on and learn about that new type of life form they found in a salty lake or something like that. Heck, I’ve studied up on random things just out of curiosity, and learned how to do things just to say that I can do them. But tying a tie, either long or bow, just doesn’t interest me, and I have no intentions of learning how to do it unless I can see a benefit for me in it. Note: the sheer joy of learning is enough of a benefit, for some subjects. But not tie tying.