17 November 24

For my annual celebration of the birthday (on 17 November) of August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868), I'm wearing my self-crafted ribbon Möbius loop. It's a circle of ribbon including a single twist. This object has a single side and a single edge, which you can prove by working to paint the loop or to trace along the edge; as you progress in your work, continuing down the path, you eventually reach the point where you started, having traveled twice the circumference of the loop. Put somewhat differently, what seem to be two sides of the ribbon are just one. Mr. Möbius explored the topology of this kind of object and other continuous surfaces.

10 November 24

The second week in November is Young Readers' Week. I'm starting one day early!  We have eight grandchildren who are all avid young readers. Today's weather in central Kentucky is hardly suitable for a picnic, but nothing stops picnics in the Hundred Acre Wood. The idea of Pooh and Piglet sharing a picnic became real in a Disney animation, including the words on my tie -- "Piglet, you don't suppose the bees want to join our picnic, do you?" But A. A. Milne's illustrator, E. H. Shepard, left us with a sketch for what Christopher Robin and his friends might do.

2 November 24

I'm wearing my "heraldry" tie today, to mark the birthdays of several of our ancestors. Beth's great-grandfather Frederick Bukowske (1856-1947) was born in November, but I don't have a specific date. In my family, Hermanus Kester (1703-1780), born on 2 November, became one of my sixth-great-grandfathers, TWICE -- you can read about the interrelations at my blog post from 2022.  Joseph Kuntz (1799-1873), also born on 2 November, is one of my third-great-grandfathers. The Kesters and Kuntzes are tied together for me through my father's parents. Finally, one of my fourth-great-grandfathers, Samuel Webster (1759-1829) was born on 3 November. He is part of the Kester line! (Of course the first days of November are not extraordinary.  Once you reach back eight generations you will find ancestors born almost every day of the year.)

31 October 24

A few days ago Jennifer Fairchild celebrated her birthday! Jennifer is in the communications faculty at Eastern Kentucky University, and we both worked in the Combs Classroom Building. She is a fan of everything related to Harry Potter, especially concerning Hermione Granger. Harry and Hermione were students in the Hogwarts house of Gryffindor. Jennifer says that Hermione "shows the world that frizzy haired, smart girls are the ones who get stuff done!"

28-29 October 24

As far as I know I have never met Sarah Ruston in person. She and I are Facebook friends, connected through my sister Faith Lang and the Transfiguration Spirituality Center. Sarah works with an orphan support group in Antalya, Turkey. She found this tie (labeled "Çağrı İpek -- Hand Made Bursa/Türkiye") among donations to a clothing drive and, having witnessed my obsession with neckties, channeled it through Faith to me! I chose to wear its amazing flowers today to help celebrate Republic Day of Turkey, an official national holiday on 29 October.

27 October 24

 On 27 October 1961, NASA launched the first test flight for the Saturn rocket, which was to become the basic design for all of the launch vehicles for the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo missions and Skylab (1961-1973). "The Saturn I made its maiden flight on 27 October 1961 with a dummy upper stage and partially fueled first stage. Tension in the blockhouse was high as no launch vehicle to date had been successful on the first attempt and there was the widespread fear of a pad explosion. As the Saturn was the largest booster yet flown, such an event was sure to be extremely destructive, possibly putting the launch complex out of use for six months. In the end, however, these worries subsided as the booster lifted and performed a flawless test flight."

24 October 24

Today's Jerry Garcia tie was chosen by grandson B, to help celebrate his birthday -- number 6! He is a fan of bright colors, especially green.

22 October 24

Tomorrow (10-23) marks the annual Mole Day chemfest. I'm celebrating a day early because I am attending a special lunch for Berea Home Village and the organizer wondered what tie I would wear! Mole Day is special to chemists because its date (10-23) corresponds with the exponential part of Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 10**23), which is how many things (atoms or molecules) there are in one mole of a substance. Moles are the fundamental units for chemical equations, such as "Na + 1/2 Cl₂ -> NaCl" which means that one mole of sodium (Na) reacts with one-half mole of chlorine (Cl₂) to produce one mole of sodium chloride (table salt, NaCl). My tie celebrates the periodic table and all sorts of chemistry lab equipment.

20 October 24

For International Sloth Day I borrowed a “Rainbow Sloth” from my grandchildren. My tie shows a sloth with the words “don’t hurry . . . be happy”!

13 October 24

Today is Matt Lang's birthday! He and Carter Rae Beatty survived through Hurricane Helene's recent ravaging floods around Asheville, NC. He gave me this moonscape tie for Christmas in 2016. Other years I've worn my steam locomotives tie for him, but this time I'm happy to show off these craters.

6 October 24

 It's National Noodle Day! Tomorrow (7 October) is National Flower Day! The latter might be better styled as National-Flower Day, because it marks its origin in the 1986 presidential proclamation of the rose as the national flower of the United States. My tie celebrates roses and my tie bar features a bow-tie pasta.

29 September 24

It's National Coffee Day! I don't like coffee myself, but I fully support and enable Beth's several-cups-a-day passion/dependence. My steaming coffee tie originally belonged to my friend Allan Stephens (1940-2010).

27 September 24

Hurricane Helene (now a tropical depression) has been with us in central Kentucky for two days now. We have been staying "Weather Aware"! My tie shows two radar maps for past storms in a region near Lake of the Ozarks, southeast of Kansas City, MO. One section runs north-south from Warsaw to Aldrich, and the other from Camdenton to Lebanon. The TV image shows our local radar map from Friday afternoon, after the big winds and very heavy rain had passed us. Our family in Asheville, NC saw a lot more activity from Helene. They lost power but had no property damage.

22 September 24

Where's Waldo? All over my tie! The first "Where's Waldo?" book was published on 21 September 1987 -- titled "Where's Wally?" in Great Britain. And Martin Handford, Waldo/Wally's creator, was bon on 27 September 1956. This wonderful tie came to me from the collection of my EKU comrade Richard Day, who wore it when he was an elementary school principal to the great amusement of his teachers and students.

17 September 24

Grandson BM's school is having a "Grandparents' Ice Cream Social" today, along with a book fair to sell Scholastic® books. So I'm wearing my ice cream cone tie!