Today we're celebrating the birthday of grandson Paul and granddaughter Dana Rose! (They are not twins.) Paul loves orange and asked me to wear this diagonal plaid tie. I think Dana Rose will like it too. It's accessorized with my orange gummi bear tie tack and my Papa Seeds tie bar, and my hair tie is also bright orange!
For National Crayon Day I'm wearing my Crayola® tie, on a shirt whose color corresponds with the "official" color Vivid Tangerine. You can get your own Crayon Day Coloring Pages from this Crayola site. Surely you have a box or bag of crayons somewhere? Do you say "cray-awn" or "craown"?
It's National Pencil Day! It honors a patent issued to Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia on this date in 1858. Lipman's pencil combined pencil lead and an eraser embedded in a long cylinder made of wood. His idea was that the writer would sharpen both ends of the pencil, revealing new lead and eraser as needed. My tie shows pencils, scissors, pens and other tools for learning.
I've been celebrating Amanda Wheeler's birthday with a special tie since 2009! Amanda is married to our son Ben. She asked me to wear this lion today because she loves wild animals and I hadn't worn this tie in a while. Our cat Portia Anne is the most leonine of the four cats in our house.
The last Wednesday in March is always Manatee Appreciation Day, so I'm wearing my manatees tie. It's also Little Red Wagon Day, created in 2016 by Radio Flyer on its 100th anniversary. My photo shows my sons in 1990 in a Radio Flyer wagon from my own childhood, at my parents home in Bethlehem, PA -- but it was painted GREEN when the original RED surface got rusty.
The special reason to wear this Zambia animals tie is simply that granddaughter Evelyn saw it in my closet and wanted me to show it off! The tie clip features a pink elephant, a treasure from Mary Lou Stephens.
One year ago today we witnessed the adoption of our grandson! For this special day he chose my ice cream cone tie.
My mother's York family traces to England, Scotland and (Protestant) Ireland. So she joked that we should wear orange on 17 March. I still choose to celebrate green for St. Patrick's Day with this tie that makes many people smile.
Happy National Panda Day! It's also Freedom of Information Day (honoring the birthday of James Madison, 1751) and Lips Appreciation Day.
It's π Day! The irrational number π has a decimal value that starts 3.14159.... and so the 14th day of the 3rd month is a time for special celebrations. Pi equals the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. My tie celebrates cherry pie.
Two birthdays noted on my genealogical calendar: my great-great-grandfather (on my father's side) David Dreibelbis (1792-1886) was born on March 14 in Richmond, PA, and my great-grandfather (on my mother's side) Royal George Kinner (1843-1900) was born on March 13 in Cato, NY. March 14 is also the birthday of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), and marks the date in 1912 when the name Oreo was trademarked for that cookie.
Today (9 March) marks the birthday of Heinrich Klöppinger (1916-2002), my father's seventh cousin, who lived in Pfungstadt, Germany, and who became a special transatlantic friend to the Kleppingers around Allentown and Bethlehem, PA in the 1960s-2000s. Heinrich and my father (Arthur) shared a common birth year, and each was exactly seven generations from Johann Christoph Klöppinger (1683-1747). Heinrch's daughter Renate Kloppinger (one of my eighth cousins) lives in Arizona, and we are friends on Facebook. I'm wearing my "heraldry" tie and my "K" tie clip today for my Klöppinger/Kloppinger/Kleppinger connections, and also to point to the birthday (on 7 March) of my 4th-great-grandmother Rachel Kester. (But Rachel K. is on my mother's side.)
On 7 March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received his patent for the telephone. The famous "first call" -- where he said "Mr. Watson. come here, I want to see you," took place three days later. This is also the 99th anniversary of the first transatlantic telephone call (using shortwave radio). My tie shows many Peanuts® characters using portable phones -- and Snoopy has his ear raised to listen. The drawing is from Bell's patent application.
Today's tie honors the birthday of Michelangelo (1475-1564). His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. This image is the famous detail of the creation of Adam, from his painting of events in the book of Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), best known as "Dr. Seuss," was born on 2 March. His birthday is widely celebrated as Read Across America Day. My tie shows red, yellow, green and blue fish in a bubbly ocean scene. He published over 60 children's books. A few of them have been criticized (appropriately) for some racist expressions, but the great majority of his works bring out joy and laughter for children and adults. Here is a link to a (very silly) video recreation of "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish."
Prelude to a Boycott . . . On Friday, 28 February 2025, millions of people have agreed to a stage a major economic boycott, focused on NOT shopping at big retailers. The targeted companies include Walmart, Amazon, Lowe's, Target, McDonald's, and Meta (Facebook), who have abandoned or retreated from support for diversity, equity and inclusion. More broadly, the boycott aims to push for economic justice for all (including protesting the actions of Trump's "DOGE"). I'll be wearing my solid black tie to show my solidarity with the boycott, but I'm posting this on Thursday evening as a preview because I will not be using Facebook again until Saturday. We are restructuring all of our shopping to support small businesses and DEI-friendly companies like Kroger, Meijer, Ace Hardware, Home Depot and Grove Collaborative.
