Ties And Other Items Of Clothing

Here's some more correspondence from my friend Frank. I post it here for your illumination:

i don't know why men wear ties ... do you? ... they're as relevant to clothes as the appendix is to your body ... we need to wear clothes because a lot of us just aren't reading for those nude modeling jobs ... it's obvious why you wear pants ... and you wear belts to keep them up ... shirts you wear for the same reason as pants ... and you wear a coat to keep warm ... ties don't keep your neck warm in cold weather ... at least not my neck ... scarves do that very well ... men wear ties so guidos can't unbutton their shirts and show of their chest hairs at work ... some men who wear ties with fancy patterns like paisleys ... do those patterns say i might be a dullard and my suits have no flair but this tie i'm wearing shows to those in the know my inner freak because it's in a paisley pattern ... it's an LSD thing ... tripping on acid ... you just might understand...

More Of The Sounds Of My Life At The Time

About a year ago, I posted the names of some albums that were playing through the air and my mind during my senior year in high school. The list, if you want to see it, is here.

Recently, I remembered another album: There's A Riot Going On, by Sly and the Family Stone, especially the three singles from it: Running Away, You Caught Me (Smilin'), and Family Affair.

Oddly enough, it was the only record where the musicians were mostly black.

Loyalty

Simon Smiddo had decided this about loyalty: He would be loyal to those who shared his beliefs. If that alienated any member of his family, that was the way it would be and tough shit for them.

As for his profession, he would not be loyal to those who were terrible at it or immoral in practicing it. If this alienated anyone he worked with, that was the way it would be and tough shit for them

Tearing

Up and down are opposites. But if you use the word tearing with them, you might think that they mean about the same thing.

But they don't, truly.

At first, I thought they did. But after I gave it more thought, I realized this:

• Tearing up is usually something you do with your hands, such as tearing up a piece of paper.
• Tearing down is tearing on a bigger object that you can't hold, such as tearing down a ruin of a house.

Before The Fact

I found this on the net while surfing it last month. It comes from a blog written by Luc Sante, a native of Belgium who moved to the United States with his parents as a youth and has written about New York things.

If you want to read the entire post about it, and I recomment that you do, the link at his blog is here.