Imagine My Surprise. . .

The repp stripes point in the wrong direction, but otherwise, there is a striking similarity between this tie and the kind that might have been worn by Messrs. Wooster, Glossop, et al in the dining room or bar of Wodehouse's Drones Club.

Late last Friday afternoon, as I wasted a few minutes online before the Grand Duchess arrived home with some fabulous Middle Eastern take-out dishes for supper, I stumbled onto a description of the Drones Club necktie. That's right, the Drones Club as mentioned in numerous P.G. Wodehouse stories. "My, that sounds awfully familiar," I thought. "I believe I have something similar hanging from my own tie rack."

Demonstrating with no apologies what a truly frivolous and empty-headed popinjay I am, I threw open the doors of my wardrobe to check, where, lo and behold, I discovered that there is indeed an old Brooks Brothers necktie bearing a striking resemblance to the plum, black, and yellow colors described on the webpage at which I looked. I am not sure whether to feel slightly embarrassed, horrified, or tickled pink to discover an item in my wardrobe so much like the fictitious Drones Club necktie pictured below. Ah, well. I'll wear it anyway with careless abandon when Monday morning rolls around.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

The apparent necktie color and stripe configuration of Wodehouse's The Drones Club.

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