Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Laughter is the Best Medicine - Tell us a joke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (10948)	8/6/1999 3:28:00 PM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 62549

Dentist's New Tie Line Is Infectious Friday August 6 2:42 PM ET dailynews.yahoo.com By Sarah Tippit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nice tie, man. Is that pattern Gonorrhea? Malaria? Black Plague? Herpes? An Encino, Calif.-company, Infectious Awareables, has introduced a line of silk and cotton garments featuring the patterns as seen under a microscope of more than 15 different infectious diseases and bacteria. They come in bright colors. The line's developer, Roger Freeman, a dentist and lecturer on infectious diseases, said Tuberculosis, Herpes, AIDS, Chlamydia, Ebola, the Black Plague and Influenza are among the diseases included as tie and underwear patterns. ''The Gonorrhea tie is the best looking tie in the whole lot,'' Freeman said. ''The Syphilis tie is gorgeous, the Plague tie is pretty. It's sold out. The Malaria tie, well the artist may have been on something when he did that one, it's really psychedelic, but then, Malaria is a tropical disease. Staph comes in three colors: blue green and red.'' Freeman said he stumbled on the concept when someone presented him with a Herpes necktie at one of his lectures. He called the company that manufactured the ties and found they were having difficulty placing them in department stores and were willing to sell Freeman rights to the whole line. ''The problem was you plop down a Gonorrhea tie in the middle of a department store and people aren't going to get it. Timing is everything,'' said Freeman, who saw the ties more appropriately niche marketed in the scientific and biomedical communities. Freeman built on the idea. He began using actual medical slides of a host of different diseases provided by medical centers. He then hired artists to transfer the accurate patterns to silk and cotton fabrics. Each tie features facts about its disease on the back. Four percent of profits go to education or research. That the ties are conversation pieces is a good thing, he said, citing the day he went to a dinner with five businessmen wearing a ''Chlamydia tie,'' bearing a pattern of the most common sexually transmitted disease. ''They were talking about a joint venture until conversation turned to my tie. I said I'm wearing a Chlamydia tie. They said what's that? Where else can you have dinner in a restaurant and talk about Chlamydia with five computer professionals?'' Freeman said he plans to include additional disease patterns, as well as biohazards. But he added that he draws the line at parasitic worms and fungi.