Apr 7, 2009 10:07 am US/Eastern
Keller: Should We Tie One On? The Great Tie Debate
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Are ties a dying breed or are they making a comeback?
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Once upon a time, finer restaurants wouldn't seat a man without a tie.
Those days, of course, are long gone. In the runaway trend toward tielessness, one local voice is speaking out against it.
"My fellow men. Stop dressing like children, start dressing like grownups and acting like grownups."
Those are the words of CBS News commentator Ben Stein, who is fighting a tide that went out as the Woodstock generation was coming in.
Up until the mid-sixties, professional men wouldn't think of going tieless. OK. Maybe they didn't all wear them to family dinner like Ward Cleaver, but even the Beatles wore ties when out in public, most of the time.
"I would just like to slow down the inexorable march to a tieless society," said freelance writer Guy Darst.
But this tie-loving local writer suggests the pendulum has swung too far the other way. "It's a dis to me if I go in to see a doctor and he's not wearing a tie. If I go into a banker and he's not wearing a tie. It says to me he thinks this is a casual transaction," said Darst. "There are occasions where the tie conveys: 'I respect you.'"
And candidate Obama seemed to agree. He was rarely seen tieless after evolving from long shot to frontrunner.
There's no question that tielessness rules in our culture -- the most recent Gallup Poll on the subject found only 6 percent of men wear a tie to work every day, while 67 percent never do. But I notice in some corners of youth culture, there are signs that the habit is becoming hip again.
I'm willing to back that observation up. If I'm proven wrong about them making a comeback, I'll eat my tie.
What do you think? Are ties a dying breed, or do you agree that they're making a comeback.
Share your thoughts on Jon Keller's blog.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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