Double Marble

This hand-marbled tie from Cosette Originals of Austin, Texas, has two layers of marbling: a freeform layer in predominantly golds and greens underneath, and a darker layer of the "feather" pattern on top, applied sparsely to let the base layer show through.

Paul Klee - Legend of the Nile

Egyptian motifs can be found throughout the works of Paul Klee, and Egypt is the primary subject of his 1937 pastel Legend of the Nile. Klee used shades of blue for the background of his piece; Christina Desiree has transposed the blues into a yellow and brown colorway for this tie from the Gallery Collection.

Jacks Are Better

Guess what? I'll be reviving the blog, now that I work in a more necktie-ish establishment than I did for the last 3+ years. First I have a little catching up to do; I wore this wide, vintage polyester number last November. Inside each little box is a jack (as in playing cards); see below for an enlargement of the detail. Why jacks? Beats me, but they remind of me of the cut-price cigarettes formerly sold at Sheetz with the slogan "Jacks Are Better" (taken from the oft-invoked poker rule "jacks or better [to open]"). What Jacks were better than was never specified, which was a smart move, because they were certainly not better than any name-brand cigarette, and it's doubtful they were better than any other budget cigarette either. Plus they burned down really fast, or so I am told. ;-)

Sheetz is also home to the elegantly-named Shmuffin, though they have retired their most glorious hot food name ever: Hamzel & Pretzel (the only name more ridiculous than Denny's Moons Over My Hammy). It's now just a Ham Pretzel Melt. Why they got rid of that and kept Shmagelz and Shmiscuits (Sheetz's brands of magels and miscuits, apparently) is one of a million marketing decisions that don't seem to make any sense.