Classic Rant #1,028 (August 24, 2013): Fit To Be Tied

As I have written about numerous times here, I hate to wear ties.

To me, it is a noose around one's neck, just a modern equivalent of when they used to string people up for what they said or what they did, or both.

Well, here is a tie that goes beyond anything I have ever heard of.

This tie I wouldn't have minded owning.

News reports are that a tie that once belonged to Beatle John Lennon sold for around $5,600 at an auction in Liverpool, England this weekend.

The story goes that Lennon gave the black knitted tie to a young fan way back in 1962, a few years before the Fab Four became famous across the globe.

Evidently, the kid he gave it to was onto something, and this kid regularly attended the Beatles' lunchtime sessions at the legendary Cavern Club, the place John, as well as George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Pete Best, and later, Ringo Starr, honed their craft onto future success.

Joyce McWilliams was the fan, and she was sitting on the edge of the stage holding a microphone stand for the boys during rehearsal. McWilliams said it was very warm in the place "and John asked me to lend him a handkerchief to mop his brow with," according to the Liverpool Echo. "He handed it back to me and loosened his tie."

He then gave her the tie, and she had a keepsake for life, until this weekend.

She had just found the tie again when she was cleaning her house.

In the intervening years, McWilliams' mom had actually washed the tie, but she still had that tie buried away in her belongings.

I wonder who bought that tie, and he or she must be somewhat wealthy, to throw around more than $5,000 for a tie.

And how did they authenticate that the tie had been Lennon's?

Heck, that person can have any and all of my ties at any time, and I would authenticate them right on the spot..

I hate them all, including the one I am wearing today, a black number that actually is my "favorite" tie of the bunch.

I guess that is why I am wearing it to honor Monday, the beginning of the dreaded work week.

Heck, I would give it to anybody right off my neck, and you won't have to spend thousands to own it.

But I guess, in the end, it is the neck that counts, and, well, my neck is not as famous or important as Lennon's was.

Except to me, of course.