3 January 25

 It's the Tenth Day of Christmas! Significantly for our family, today is the birthday of Mark Wollenweber, my brother (-in-law)!!! Mark is a few years away from joining me (and his siblings) in retired life. He works today in the seafood industry, primarily resourcing squid and scallops. He gets to travel frequently to seaports in China, Vietnam, Croatia, Panama, Mexico and other places, getting home to Rhode Island once in a while. My Jerry Garcia tie is called Snail Garden, and I'm wearing it because snails are zoologically related to squid (and other mollusks)!

22-23 November 22

Happy Fibonacci Day, tomorrow! The digits 1-1-2-3 (as in 11-23) are the first four members of the Fibonacci series, the mathematical sequence where each number (after the start) is the sum of the previous two. So the series continues 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 . . . The spiral patterns of snail shells, flower petals, and ocean waves all conform to the Fibonacci series, and you can learn even more from watching a 6-minute "TED Talk" at https://goo.gl/uxDrlf. Tomorrow is a no-tie holiday, so I'm wearing my Jerry Garcia "Snail Garden" tie today. (I should have tried to tie it in some kind of spiral!)

23 November 21

Mathematicians around the world count on 23 November to celebrate the Fibonacci Sequence. The digits in the date, 1-1-2-3, are the early members of the sequence. Start with the numbers zero and one (0, 1). Add them together and continue the pattern, so that you get 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . . That seems like a simple arithmetic game, but the spiraling sequence turns out to have enormous significance in the natural world, in mathematics and throughout science. (Do you remember learning about the "binomial expansion"?) The properties of the "Fibonacci sequence" were first explored in Europe by "Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Bigollo Pisano" who was born around 1170 and who was "an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages." My tie is one from Jerry Garcia's "Snail Garden" collection, and I'm wearing it today because the spirals on snail shells are among the simplest examples of how the Fibonacci sequence shows up in natural objects.

23 November 20

Start with the numbers zero and one (0, 1). Add them together and continue the sequence, so that you get 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 . . . That seems like a simple arithmetic game, but the sequence turns out to have enormous significance in the natural world, in mathematics and throughout science. The properties of the "Fibonacci sequence" were first explored in Europe by "Fibonacci, also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Bigollo Pisano" who was born around 1170 and who was "an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be 'the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages'." We don't seem to know his actual birth date, but November 23 (11-23) is celebrated annually as Fibonacci Day. My tie is one from Jerry Garcia's "Snail Garden" collection, and I'm wearing it today because the spirals on snail shells are among the simplest examples of how the Fibonacci sequence shows up in natural objects. From the center of the spiral the dimensions grow "perfectly," "by the numbers."

23 May 19

Go ahead . . . stare into the swirls on this tie until you are fully mesmerized! That word honors the life of Franz Mesmer (1734-1815). He was "a German doctor with an interest in astronomy who theorised that there was a natural energy transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism, sometimes later referred to as mesmerism." The animals in this Jerry Garcia design are garden snails, which gives me the opportunity to recognize tomorrow's designation as National Escargot Day. I had no idea there were so many ways to "enjoy" eating snails.

6 May 18

Have you ever dreamed about snails? What do you suppose dreaming about snails might mean about your life? Such questions are appropriate when we celebrate the birthday of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), whose principles for psychoanalysis were founded on how dreams and other elements of our unconscious/subconscious lives might help us understand our conscious anxieties and phobias. My guitar tie tack shows that this "Snail Garden" tie is based on a design by Jerry Garcia (most famous as the lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead). Two "dreamboats" born on this date are Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) and George Clooney (1961), and I'll also note the birthdays of Orson Welles (1915-1985) and Willie Mays (1931).

11 May 17

The lines and squiggles on my Snail Garden tie (by Jerry Garcia) today honor the birthday in 1918 of master physicist Richard Feynman. His notation for subatomic particle interactions, known as a Feynman diagram, gives a pictorial description of the complicated mathematical operations at work. I'm including a typical Feynman diagram in the photos for today. The patterns of the lines and squiggles can be enjoyed simply for their beauty. But in technical terms -- are you sure you are ready for this? -- a Feynman diagram is a graphical representation of a perturbative contribution to the transition amplitude or correlation function of a quantum mechanical or statistical field theory. The chemist in me notices the resemblance to what we draw for chemical reactions, where the "reactants" are shown as leading to the "products." The Feynman diagram does have time coordinates, but we have to resist thinking that it says "this particle goes this direction and then this other thing happens." Unlike a chemical reaction or a bubble chamber picture, "only the sum of all the Feynman diagrams represent any given particle interaction; particles do not choose a particular diagram each time they interact. The law of summation is in accord with the principle of superposition -- every diagram contributes to the total amplitude for the process." (From Wikipedia.) Is that enough for today? (No, I do not really know what I am talking about. I just like learning about Richard Feynman, and I like this tie!)

26 April 16

As suggested by my sister Faith Lang, I'm recognizing the birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), the "father" of American landscape architecture. He is famous for the designs of Central Park in New York City, the U. S. Capitol Grounds in Washington, DC, and hundreds of city parks across the U. S. You can watch a PBS special production about Olmsted's work at http://www.pbs.org/wned/frederick-law-olmsted/watch/watch-film/. My Jerry Garcia tie is labeled "Snail Garden." I have recently disturbed some garden snails while weeding our strawberry beds.

23 November (11-23) 15

Happy Fibonacci Day! The digits 1-1-2-3 (as in 11-23) are the first four members of the Fibonacci series, the mathematical sequence where each number (after the start) is the sum of the previous two. So the series continues 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 . . . The spiral patterns of snail shells, flower petals, and ocean waves all conform to the Fibonacci series, and you can learn even more from watching a 6-minute "TED Talk" at https://goo.gl/uxDrlf. My Jerry Garcia tie for today is titled "Snail Garden." (I should have tried to tie it in some kind of spiral!)

5 January 15

Starting the new year at work with a new tie -- "Snail Garden" by Jerry Garcia. I found these snails in my Christmas stocking. I like the bright purple design, but we strive to keep snails OUT of our gardens. My next major opportunity to wear this tie comes up on May 24, Escargot Day.