I am proud to finally make it to journeyman. Not having a need to put on my slicker and search for anyone lost out in a dark and stormy night or the time to make 23! posts a day...I'm so happy not to be a newbie after so long!
Way to go, ladymoon, keep it up!
I have always thought the 25 posts as stranger weee the toughest, but now that you're a journeybeing, things can only get brighter for you. Next stop, member.
Congratulations, ladymoon! You can toot your horn as loud as you can, you deserve it!
chronist
Congrats Miss Luna!
In our eyes, your already a member ;-)
Ladymoon ... Permit me to suggest :
Put on a recording of "Fanfare For The Common Man" or "Ode To Joy" and dance madly about the room.... long flowing scarfs to swirl about add greatly to the abandon!
Hurrah!TA-DAH!
wow
High Priestess
P.S. For any gentlemen who feel inclined to celebrate a promotion : dancing madly about while wearing "white tie and tails" provides an ambiance to suit the occasion..
white tie & tails
I'm sure you have the notion that if a gentlemen dons full evening dress, a.k.a. white tie [& tails} a.k.a. soup and fish, for dancing, he will look like Fred Astaire. Aside from the fact that not one in 10 milllion men owns a full evening kit and the cost of renting one is outrageous, the unhappy fact is that not one in 10 million men will ever look anything remotely like Fred Astaire. Most look like a penguin, and nothing could look sillier than a dancing penguin.
But, but...I love dancing penguins!
Congratulations, ladymoon, and also BY, if I recall correctly.
not one in 10 milllion men owns a full evening kit and the cost of renting one is outrageous, ...
Certain situations call for laying out great lashings of cash. There are standards that must be maintained!
not one in 10 million men will ever look anything remotely like Fred Astaire. Most look like a penguin, nothing sillier than a dancing penguin.
Nonsense. White-tie-and-tails, properly fitted, give any man a certain panache, a je ne sais what.
White-tie-and-tails enhance a man, his bearing and his manners!
And if that weren't enough, consider that women ohhh and ahhh over penguins, dancing or stationary.
I'm with *you, Jackie!
Most look like a penguin, nothing sillier than a dancing penguin.
Nonsense. White-tie-and-tails, properly fitted, give any man a certain panache, a je ne sais what.
White-tie-and-tails enhance a man, his bearing and his manners!Sorry, wow, but I'm with Bob on this one. I
already resemble a penguin in stature, girth, and gait, and dressing up to look like one would do nothing to disguise the fact that I move with all the silken grace and deftness of a Dubya press conference. Sad but true.
Sorry, wow, but I'm with Bob on this one.
Sigh! One can but dream of gala evenings with the orchestra playing waltzes; women in diaphanous gowns; men in formal dress with tails awhirl in the exuberance of the dance!
If "tails" is not an option, surely a black tuxedo could be substituted. Please don't tell me you do not own a tux. I do not think my delicate sensibilities could stand the strain.
My younger son bought his when I pointed out three rentals pay for a tailored tux of his very own.
My older son has the advantage of being privileged to wear the dress uniform of the Army of the United States of America!
Now, let us return to words!
Sorry, Max and Bob--I'm with wow on this one.
all the silken grace and deftness of a Dubya press conference. Sad but true. Well, but Max, I (and others!) love you anyway. You wouldn't be who you are, if you were who you aren't.
(Got that?
)
No tuxedo, only white shirt and tie. In better times my brother rented one for 1 day.
jimthedog
The wise old woman asks: Please don't tell me you do not own a tux.
Very, well then, I won't. But I will tell you that I don't even own a T shirt with a tux design on it. Some people apparently can be comfortable all wrapped up in starched armor. I am not one of them. If you were to see me in a tuxedo or in tails you would be forced to admit that rather than having a certain je ne sais quoi* I had I don't know what.
*Ænigma suggests jealous Neal sake Quonset. I couldn't fail to disagree less.
coming in with Jackie and Wow-- (this is some issue-- an old lady from New England, a NY liberal, and southern belle all agree!)
There is some truth to the idea that "clothes make the man" -- and any man dressed up in a tux looks better-- doing anything-- even falling down a flight of stairs!
A well fitted tux is not a suit of armor-- the collar of the shirt shouldn't cut-- and in many ways the cut of the jacket makes it look good even when your arms are raised (as they would be dancing).
and gloves-- there is nothing that makes an outfit so finished looking as gloves... i wore a pair of antique netted gloves at a recent wedding. the only time I wish i was thin is for formal dress-- a long slinky gown, sleeve-less with gloves past the elbow -- still is the height of elegance!
The swan's daughter claims: A well fitted tux is not a suit of armor
Yeahbut, can you muck the byre in one?
coming in with Jackie and Wow-- (this is some issue-- an old lady from New England, a NY liberal, and southern belle all agree!)
Add a midwestern lawyer to that crowd. I think we just discovered a unifying political force. All men look snazzy in a well-fitted tux. And who wouldn't want to wear a suit named after a New York lake?
Sparteye wonders: who wouldn't want to wear a suit named after a New York lake?
Skinny Atlas?
...truth to the idea that "clothes make the man" This is just as (if not more)
obviously *true for women.
I wore a slim cut tux jacket for many years every Sat. nite gigging. I went through four jackets by ripping the sholder open with the weight on the guitar strap.
Every one looks good when they are having fun!
The swan's daughter claims: A well fitted tux is not a suit of armor
Hear! Hear! The operative words being "well fitted." My Dad was 6'4" and a BIG man all over ... Mother and I litterly press-ganged him to a GOOD tailor for the above! Think about it : if you're going out to a formal "do" you will probably get dressed about 5 p.m. and get home about 1 a.m. (if you're lucky) ... That's a minimum of eight hours...your tux should be as comfortable as your business suits, at the least. As for "sawed neck syndrome" -- it is unnecessary if the shirt and un-starched collar fit properly.
Dad once spent a long 14 hours in his tux and was gracious about crediting me and Mother for making him get a tailor- made tux that was comforable and fit!
And while I am on this //rant// please wear a real tie-it-yourself bow tie as a proper gentleman should. Yes, the skill can be mastered! And once mastered never forgotten.
Yeahbut, can you muck the byre in one?
Of course you can ... and look very elegant while you're doing it!
To the Ladies : Thank you for the support. Gratifying to say the least ... Now, if we can just get the dear men to fill the ice cube trays before putting them back in the freezer! Or is that really too high an aspiration?
wow asks: Now, if we can just get the dear men to fill the ice cube trays before putting them back in the freezer! Or is that really too high an aspiration?
Sure thing, wow. Soon's we get you guys to put the toilet seat back up when y'all're done with it.
[rant]bow ties (or tieing bow ties) reminds me of ballroom dancing-- You know how Ginger Rogers had to do everything Fred Astaire did-- only she did it on high heals and backwards-- and made it look easy.-
By age 10 or so-- I had mastered tieing a "Pretty bow" on sashes-- (remember when girls wore dresses that had fancy sashes tied in back?)-- and almost every woman can make a pretty bow on an apron-- that we tie behind our backs! So whats so hard about tieing a pretty bow under your chin! ---
some thread-- brought out the sailor in half the board-- and many knew the differerence between (among?) lines, ropes and hawsers..
tieing a square knot-- or bow is not a major skill-- this is a self select crowd-- we are all literate-- and not just any tom, dick or harry-- if we mastered reading-- surely we can master a bow![/rant]
Wow effuses about white tie and tails
when properly fitted. Aye, there's the rub. 9 times out of 10 when you do see a man in white tie, the waisted part of the coat is so short that the white vest is exposed beneath it. It's not supposed to; you are only supposed to see the vest in the front under the coat. Do you ever see Fred Astaire showing a ring of white under the front of his tailcoat, even when dancing on the ceiling?
As to the alternative: please, ladies, the word "tuxedo" is considered declasse in polite circles and "tux" is downright vulgar. It's "dinner jacket" or "black tie", or in French "smoking". It's certainly an elegant way to dress and the cost is not exorbitant. I have had my own since I was 18* and am now on the fourth one, having worn one out and outgrown 2. All black, of course; anything else, with the possible exception of midnight blue, which they don't make any more, is for musicians and other riffraff.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUSICK AND MANY MORE! And yes, every self-respecting gentleman knows how to tie a bow tie. It's the same knot you use to tie your shoes, except the perspective is different -- it's done from the point of view of your feet. (Why does this remark never make anyone more confident?)
*thereby hangs another tale. When I went away to University (1957), my father decided I needed a dinner jacket, so he gave me his old one, which he had bought in 1935 for $25.00, and stopped wearing about 1948 when he bought one of those horrible double-breasted ones which made every man look like a pickle barrel. This outfit was single-breasted, with the very wide satin lapels of the '30s, and, as they say, all wool but the buttons, and half an inch thick, or so it seemed. Since he was the only man in his circle who had his own dinner jacket, his friends were always borrowing it, so his grandmother would let it out as far as size 44 or take it in as far as 34 (my father was size 40) as needed by whoever was wearing it next. I wanted it updated, so I went to an old German tailor and asked him what it would cost to change the old wide lapels to the then-fashionable shawl collar. He quoted a price of $15, to which I agreed. When I went back to pick it up, he was greatly chagrined. He had not noted that the satin lining went all the way back more than a foot in the inside and he had spent $15 just on satin to re-do the coat. Tant pis, was my response. I wore that, sweating like a pig in warm weather because the material was so heavy, for 10 years, when my father took pity on me and treated me to a new Palm Beach dinner jacket in lightweight material.
Anyone can look good if it's wrapped around him; it takes a MAN to look good on his own!
Sure thing, wow. Soon's we get you guys to put the toilet seat back up when y'all're done with it.
If you are right and the bowl should be open I have a question : why did those male engineers design it with a COVER ?
Huh? Huh? Huh?
In reply to:
wow asks: Now, if we can just get the dear men to fill the ice cube trays before putting them back in the freezer! Or is that really too high an aspiration?
Sure thing, wow. Soon's we get you guys to put the toilet seat back up when y'all're done with it.
So, what prize does one get if one already does both?
wow wonders: why did those male engineers design it with a COVER ?
Oh, yeah, like you'd be happy if we left *both lids down.
According to Ramblin' Jack Elliott the top lid is for use as a bread board and the bottom lid is for framing pictures.
So, what prize does one get if one already does both?Max: If YOU are "the one who does both," I'd say Mrs. Max got the prize!
So, what prize does one get if one already does both?
The admiration of your gentlemanly ways from every woman on the planet!
Now as to dancing : I just read an article in the magazine published by the AARP. The article concerned a 50th college reunion. One alum, Ray Gardner, had spent the intervening years as a dance instructor. The author, Dan Wakefield, noted that Gardner arrived with his wife ..."a svelte brunette in a black dress and black high heels whom he whirled with Astaire-like elan to the DJ's music"
Gardner revealed his secret in a dance instruction booklet : "The vast majority of the feminine gender will step completely over, around, and through the good-looking, well-built, even wealthy man to get one ... who knows how to dance."
And if he's wearing a "tux" ... yes I know it's "black tie" or Le Smoking" ... but everyone is familiar with "tux" ... and can dance...WELL!...Be still my fluttering heart!
So, a word to the wise gentlemen!
You really mean to say, Wow, that the ice cube trays are never filled by my father or myself?
jimthedog
You really mean to say, Wow, that the ice cube trays are never filled by my father or myself?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, dear Jimdog, I am sure you and your Father are paragons among men.
However there are some among your gender who will persist in taking all the ice cubes in a tray and either replacing the tray without refilling or leaving the empty tray on the drainboard as if it will magically fill and freeze itself!
Ladies, even the quote from today's word sides with us:
" "What was on Hannibal's mind as he drove his elephants over the Alps?
Looking good, apparently, because on Hannibal's head was a wig, which
he wore into battle to cover his lack of locks. Julius Caesar used
his chaplet for the same purpose, the comb-over having not yet been
discovered."
Jack Reed, Men Want to Look Good, Too, St. Petersburg Times (Florida),
Jan 28, 2001."
So, even back then, men wanted to look as good as possible!
Musick and Bob, please pardon me for drooling in public...
Max--you are indeed an angel of a guy!
Ladies, even the quote from today's word sides with us:
"What was on Hannibal's mind as he drove his elephants over the Alps? Looking good, apparently, because on Hannibal's head was a wig, which he wore into battle to cover his lack of locks."
And look what good it did him.
When we remodeled the kitchen and bought a new refrigerator with an ice maker, I thought it was a bit of an extravagance. Now that we've had it some years and see what our sons go through wthout it, I have to say it's worth every extra penny we spent not to have the annoyance of filling ice cube trays. And anyway, it was always myself who filled them; my wife is too short to reach them even if she were inclined to do it, which she never was. [So There! emoticon]
this soon to be exhaustive study will glean nothing substantive from our house; this arduous task is performed by either myself or teenage daughter, or we go without.
I sooo agree, my husband and I have a current project going on, when I complete my side of the bargin, he's going to take dancing lessons. His lack of ability the one thing keeping him from being perfect, as the quote implies "all other faults are forgiven in a man who can dance."
I can't believe the lack of evening dress in this group. Even I used to own a black dinner jacket, I used to work in a theatre. Unfortunately it also fit my brother, who took possesion of it, a sad tale. All the men in my family own dress clothes, as uncouth as they choose to be otherwise.
I say! Doesn't ice always come in plastic bags from the gas station? Wow, what a discovery. Do you mean you can actually
make it? Is that what that ice-maker doohicky in the freezer actually does? Well, I never! You learn something every day, don't you?
We just moved in to our new house & I still haven't found the packed ice cube trays, but last night I found 2 that were left by previous occupants. That will be one of the only times I fill them, it will return to being the duty of my older daughter, along with the water bottles that everyone takes everywhere.
I'm with the other ladies, a man who can dance has something real good going for him. I was so surprised the last time a gentleman asked me to dance, I didn't know what to say, think part of it may have the setting.
Hurrah I spelled checked and every word was understood
CJ
every word was understoodWhen Ournigma understands, be worried. Very worried...