TTF T-Shirts, Et Cetera

[David Pence]

I've been asked quite a few times over the last year or so to put the TTF t-shirts back online, so, here you go ... http://www.cafepress.com/thetolkienforum ...

I chose CafePress, because I still have some of those I had made some ten years ago and they're still in pretty good shape.

 

[Halasían]

Cool! I never did get one of these back in the day.

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

I never knew these were ever a thing, awesome!

 

[David Pence]

Well, CafePress told me ... not get this ... I'm violating MY trademark by putting MY artwork on THEIR site. That's just crazy.

When I complained, they then told me that the name Tolkien was trademarked ... which it's not ... you can't trademark or copyright a personal name. They also don't seem to understand just what my relationship with the Tolkien family is to begin with, even when it was proved to them.

At any rate, I'll need to find a better place to offer these T-shirts.

 

[Halasían]

Interesting. Anyway, I got confirmation that my order had shipped.
Elora also ordered so we'll get doubles. I'll let you know when they arrive.

 

[David Pence]

Yes, I'd like to know ... CafePress is really good, to bad they don't have a backbone.

 

[Halasían]

Both Elora's and my orders arrived on the doorstep yesterday afternoon!
Good quality shirts too!

 

[Halasían]

Well, CafePress told me ... not get this ... I'm violating MY trademark by putting MY artwork on THEIR site. That's just crazy.

When I complained, they then told me that the name Tolkien was trademarked ... which it's not ... you can't trademark or copyright a personal name. They also don't seem to understand just what my relationship with the Tolkien family is to begin with, even when it was proved to them.

At any rate, I'll need to find a better place to offer these T-shirts.

I was curious if this ever happened?

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Unfortunately, I don't think it ever did

 

[Halasían]

I seem to have lost my shirt somehow. Elora still has hers as she was wearing it the other day.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Can you post a pic?

 

[Halasían]

Can you post a pic?

It's somewhere in the laundry cycle so I will when it makes a re-appearance.

... and here it is...

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Egad -- a tank top? I'd be afraid to be seen in public.

Of course, your physique may differ from mine!

 

[Olorgando]

I seem to have lost my shirt somehow. Elora still has hers as she was wearing it the other day.

Can you post a pic?

It's somewhere in the laundry cycle so I will when it makes a re-appearance.
... and here it is...

Egad -- a tank top? I'd be afraid to be seen in public.
Of course, your physique may differ from mine!

And never mind the difference between your physique and Elora's ...

 

[Halasían]

Well... she got the tank and I got a t-shirt... but mine has gone AWOL...

She defo looks quite hot in this tank...

 

[Olorgando]

Interesting, so that's a called a tank top.
As far as I know, that is by far the most common form of "undershirt" ("Unterhemd") for men (and women) in Germany (and perhaps much of - Continental? - Europe).
Same with underpants, which might be referred to a "briefs" - right, as per Wiki they are, and the tank tops are also called sleeveless shirts or singlets - rather than the more popular boxer shorts (or boxer briefs) in the US.

Egad -- a tank top? I'd be afraid to be seen in public.

I can second that, for sure! I have, at most, worn one of mine (usually with one of my various sports shorts - NOT only with one of the briefs!) when sitting on our loggia - a balcony indented into the building rather than protruding from it, kind of a "room" with the outer wall missing - on hot days during the last few (especially last two) summers. Usually, though, I'd be wearing a polo shirt and Bermuda shorts during the heat waves - these then outside of our apartment, too.

 

[Halasían]

Hmm.... I always equated 'briefs' as tighty-whiteys and 'Boxers' as loose shorts.
'Tank' is an American thing I believe. the white undershirt of this type is commonly called a 'wife-beater' due to all the Hollywood depictions of sweaty unkempt brutes, etc... Its commonly called a 'singlet' here in Oz

 

[Olorgando]

'Tank' is an American thing I believe. the white undershirt of this type is commonly called a 'wife-beater' due to all the Hollywood depictions of sweaty unkempt brutes, etc... Its commonly called a 'singlet' here in Oz

Now I would certainly not consider Hollywood a reliable source of anything historical. My fading memory of films of the early-to-mid 1970s is those white undershirts being worn by what the respective film considered underprivileged recent immigrants into slums - basically Italians and Irish, both belonging to the, by WASP standards, despicable or at least doubtful "papists". The young Marlon Brando in the film "A Streetcar named Desire" certainly wore one in the iconic scene where he screams "Stella!", a scene stuck in my mind (I never saw the film itself) by the endless repetition of it in later decades.

 

[Halasían]

Historical? I'm talking about terminology today.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

"Streetcar" was credited with the resurgence in sales of both wife-beaters:

And T's:

This must have come as a relief to underwear makers, whose sales plunged after Gable's lack of any undershirt in "It Happened One Night":

And of course the T's popularity only grew, after its adoption by another Rebel:

Sorry, Olorgando -- there's no escape from Hollywood!