public class CaseInsensitiveComparer : IComparer<string>
{
    public int Compare(string x, string y)
    {
        return string.Compare(x, y, true);
    }
}

public static void ThenByDescendingEx1()
{
    string[] fruits = { "apPLe", "baNanA", "apple", "APple", "orange", "BAnana", "ORANGE", "apPLE" };

    // Sort the strings first ascending by their length and 
    // then descending using a custom case insensitive comparer.
    IEnumerable<string> query =
        fruits
        .OrderBy(fruit => fruit.Length)
        .ThenByDescending(fruit => fruit, new CaseInsensitiveComparer());

    foreach (string fruit in query)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(fruit);
    }
}