August 2, 2015

Who is this?



How old is he in this picture?

Do you like his tie enough to recommend that men today wear something like that? I do.

34 comments:

PB said...

Warren G Harding? About 23?

Swifty Quick said...

Let's talk about how women ought to dress.

PB said...

Google image search says Wiliam McKinley.

walter said...

Yeah...nice...just so long as they don't wear shorts. Find any chaps yet, Meade?

Virgil Hilts said...

I was going to guess Ted Bundy, but the hairline is not quite right. I think Ted helped drive bow ties out of style.

tim maguire said...

Not a fan of the tie, but yes to dressing better generally.

Ron said...

Meade....obviously!

gadfly said...

A man who cannot tie a Half-Windsor Knot is certainly not high up among male fashionistas - and if that tie effort represents the out-of-fashion bow-tie - good luck.

I look at this guy and start humming "Short people got no reason to live . . ."

Michael K said...

I wore bow ties for years. My students gave me some psychedelic bow ties. I'm getting to old to worry now.

Michael K said...

Changed my profile photo to the bow tie.

gadfly said...

William McKinley was 5' 7" tall. Sometimes you just have to go with your instincts.

"Don't want no short people 'round here."

steve said...

Althouse hates shorts on men but likes that tie?! It looks like the guy got tired of trying to tie it and just said "what the hell".

JCC said...

William McKiney at age 15, so...he didn't want to wear a tie but was forced to by his mother. "You want a tie, I'll show you a tie."

Alternate explanation: The mirror was broken and it was too windy to look in the stream.

traditionalguy said...

Pat Garrett?

Etienne said...

He's the man Emma Goldman had killed.

J. Edgar Hoover "called her one of the most dangerous women in America."

Leon Czolgosz attended her anarchist talk, and then followed his destiny, killing the war hero McKinley with a belly shot.

Scott said...

Watch the electrocution of Leon Czologosz here. A film from 1901.

Scott said...

Actually according to one commenter, the film was a reenactment by Edison's movie company.

Humperdink said...

They could have at least spelled "electrocution" correctly.

Michael K said...

McKinley was a sergeant at Antietam and a war hero. Times have changed with presidents.

David said...

Just goes to show you that good looks are not a recent boost in the quest for political office.

And at 5-7 in his era, McKinley was not short. He was about average.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm amazed that he is 15 there.

People used to look so old.

Balfegor said...

That bowtie is way too long. But trimmed down it would be fine. I do prefer the batwing style to the usual butterfly, so a uniform width is the next logical regression, but I don't think anyone makes them anymore ...

Lewis Wetzel said...

The pic is a young Joe Biden, ca. 1967. Not many people know this, but Joe Biden led the charge up San Wong hill in the Vietnam-Spanish-American War.

The Godfather said...

McKinley was the last US President to have served in the Civil War. He was one of only two Presidents assassinated in the 20th Century. He is not known to have worn shorts after his 8th birthday. So who cares whether he can tie a bow tie!

The Godfather said...

McKinley was succeeded after his assassination by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, who famously served in the Spanish American War.

After TR, there's a long run of Presidents who did not have military experience -- although Taft had been Governor of the Phillipines, Hoover, a Quaker, had headed up relief efforts during The World War, and FDR had been assistant secretary of the Navy during The World War (and was a "war lord" in WW II).

Starting with Truman, who succeeded to the Presidency on the death of FDR in 1945, to the present day, a period of 70 years, every single President served in the military except Clinton and Obama. Interestingly, both Clinton and Obama defeated candidates who were genuine war heroes (in Clinton's case, twice: Bush 41 and Dole).

Does it matter? Probably not any more. I'd vote for Carly Fiorina over John Kerry without hesitation. Jim Webb over Donald Trump? That's harder.

richard mcenroe said...

He refused to fix his tie, and that's why Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her father forty whacks...

richard mcenroe said...

Trump and Webb have similar temperaments in several ways (not a compliment) but at least Trump never planted a handgun on an aide...

richard mcenroe said...

Herbert Hoover was also active in humanitarian relief in China, in the course of which he had dealings with several militaries and limited operations.

Tyrone Slothrop said...

In those days, the purpose of a necktie was to keep one's head from falling off. The rough-hewn young McKinley exhibits a preference for the practical over the aesthetic. Later, when neckties became more decorative in nature, there began a rash of spontaneous decapitations which continues to this day.

chuck said...

People used to look so old.

Nah, they just looked grown up. Not many grow up these days. Do you think Bill Clinton is a grown up? I think it is debatable.

MacMacConnell said...

Balfegor

Bow tie styles,

http://bowties.com/pages/bow-tie-styles


My guess is that McKinley just like the GTH aesthetic.

Crimso said...

Garfield was also an ACW veteran. COS to Rosecrans, his predecessor having lost his head (literally, to an arty round, spattering Rosecrans with his brains) at Stones River. Three of the four assassinated Presidents were in the ACW (Lincoln, of course, as CinC).

Bill said...

People were older then.

jr565 said...

I thought it was John Rocker, the old pitcher from way back when who got in trouble for making disparaging comments about New York that some called racist.