A wife finds a note from her husband on the fridge one morning..
My dear wife,
You will surely understand that I have certain needs that you, being 57 years old can no longer satisfy. I am very happy with you and I value you as a good wife. Therefore, after reading this letter, I hope that you will not wrongfully interpret the fact that I will be spending the evening with my 19 year old secretary at the comfort inn hotel.
Please don’t be upset – I shall be home before midnight. When the man came home late that night, he found the following note on the dining table…
My dear husband,
I received your letter and thank you for your honesty about me being 57 years old. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that you are also 57 years old.
As you know I am a maths teacher at our local college. I would like to inform you that while you read this, I will be at the Hotel Fiesta with Michael, one of my students, who is also the assistant tennis coach. He is young virile and, like your secretary, is 19 years old.
As a successful businessman who has an excellent knowledge of maths, you will understand that we are in the same situation, although with one small difference – 19 goes into 57 more times than 57 goes into 19. Therefore, I will not be home until sometime tomorrow.
Here’s what this loop on your shirt is for
The subtle details of clothing often hide interesting stories. Take a look at the back of your shirts, ever noticed that little loop? You’ll often find it on dress shirts for men, seemingly inconspicuous but with a couple of intriguing purposes you might not have known about.
While dress shirts are typically part of more formal attire, they can also be dressed down for a casual look when paired with the right pants and accessories. But that loop on the back? It wasn’t just arbitrarily placed there.
Originally, it was a thoughtful addition for those hitting the gym frequently. Its purpose? To make hanging the shirt on a hanger a breeze, especially when you’re on the go and need to transition from one place to another without fussing about where to put your shirt.
Interestingly, that little loop had a flirtatious function too. In the past, it was used as a subtle signal of relationship status. If the loop was out and visible, it supposedly indicated that the person was taken, hence not needing to hang around looking for a place to hang their shirt. However, over time, its significance has faded away, becoming just another mundane part of shirt design.
Fashion trends may have evolved dramatically over the last century, but some elements remain unchanged. Men’s clothing, in particular, holds onto certain timeless features. Case in point: the back-of-the-shirt loop.
Often termed a “locker loop” or even a whimsical “fairy loop”, it’s stitched onto most Oxford or button-down shirts. Its primary purpose? Hanging up the shirt. Legend has it that these loops trace back to U.S. sailors who used them to hang their shirts aboard ships.
During the 1960s, they became an integral part of mainstream menswear, especially on college campuses as part of the “preppy” look. Gant, a clothing manufacturer, is often credited with popularizing this button-down style across Ivy League campuses. The man behind the brand initially introduced this shirt design to Yale University’s shop for male students, and from there, its popularity spread far and wide.
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