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Weekend


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April 5, 2002

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Ah, those infernal neckties! Aside from a hangman's noose, was there ever a more dread thing strung around a guy's neck. So, what's the point?

    A. Neckwear goes back thousands of years, to neckwraps of Chinese soldiers circa 221 B.C. and Roman soldiers a few centuries later, says Kathleen Huun, Ph.D. The modern necktie is traced to the cravat worn by Croatian mercenaries brought in by Louis XIII during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), soon to be copied by the French.


     
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