29 June 25

A few days ago I wore giraffes. Today it's elephants! I'm making up for missing the International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos, scheduled annually on 8 June. When I was growing up, one regular summer activity for our family was visiting the zoo in Philadelphia, PA, where we watched elephants in an outdoor concrete yard, chained in place with iron shackles around their feet. Things have changed enormously since then! Elephants in most (?) zoos now are given open green spaces to roam freely, and in many cases they can get some privacy (away from prying human eyes) if they desire it. But there is growing action worldwide to reduce the harboring of elephants (and other animals) for human entertainment. It's not realistic to return them to their Asian and African homes, but many options have been created to care for "retired" elephants from circuses and zoos.

27 June 25

It's National Sunglasses Day! "It's a day to raise awareness about the importance of wearing sunglasses to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays. The Vision Council founded this day to encourage people to share pictures of themselves in sunglasses on social media using the hashtag #NationalSunglassesDay." My giraffes are practicing safe sunwatching, and my tie clip looks appropriate on the black part of my tie.

24 June 25

My O.N. (Original Nephew) C. Nolan Huizenga is celebrating his birthday today! He is the pastor at Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville. I met him when he was a few days old (and I was a young teenager). He loves astronomy and chose this tie because "On my birthday I celebrate the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory and all the discoveries that it will make possible. Hope we humans keep working to understand the universe, as well as each other." I've been wearing a tie to honor his special day almost every year since 2008.

22 June 25

As soon as I heard that the United States military had bombed Iranian nuclear development sites (on 21-22 June) I decided that I had to use my Sunday tie to proclaim a message of peace. This "peace cross" unites the images of the peace sign and the Christian cross, with a reference to Romans 5:1: "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And Jesus commanded his followers to spread that peace throughout their world.

20 June 25

Grandson Joel chose pink and purple stripes and diamonds to celebrate his birthday!

17 June 25

Happy Birthday, Gary Kuhnhenn! Gary is a donuts comrade and geology professor at Eastern Kentucky University. Besides serving in the geology/geography/physics/astronomy department, he has served many roles in other areas of the university, including the Honors Program and Enrollment Management. Gary and I are both now retired but we see each other almost every Friday morning. 

Two years ago Gary gave me several ties from his collection, including this one featuring the art of Edward Gorey, as presented on Masterpiece Mystery! on PBS.

Recently Beth and I were very happy to help Gary and his wife adopt a tiny orange kitten who showed up in our neighborhood in Berea. At first they called him Orange Crush, but he quickly became "CRASH" due to his boisterous exploits in their house in Winchester.

15 June 25

For Father's Day 2025 I'm wearing my tie that I think resembles one my father Arthur Jeremiah Kleppinger (1916-2004) wore. He wore ties to work every day at Bethlehem Fabricators, which became part of Whitehead & Kales. Today also marks 85 years since Arthur married Ethel Howland York. My tie clip says "Papa Seeds," what my grandchildren call me!

13 June 25

I think this tie has great potential for celebrating electricity -- I see the dots as electrons and the stripes as wires or charged plates. I'm currently honoring the birthdays of James Clerk Maxwell (today) and Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (tomorow). James Clerk Maxwell FRSE FRS (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish scientist in the field of mathematical physics. His most notable achievement was to formulate the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism, and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon. Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism have been called the 'second great unification in physics' where the first one had been realized by Isaac Newton. (Wikipedia). Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806), for whom the unit of electrical charge is named, was a French physicist who wrote Coulomb's Law of electrical charges and invented the torsion balance. I might also mention the shocking event on 10 June 1752 when Benjamin Franklin used a kite to demonstrate that lightning is, in fact, electricity.

8 June 25

Wearing RED for Pentecost Sunday, celebrating the birthday of the Christian church (around 30 CE), and sporting my Web-addresses-and-symbols tie, to honor the birthday of Tim Berners-Lee (1955). In 1989 he created the standards for hypertext transfer protocol (http) as the language (or "tongue"?) for what became Internet communication.

6 June 25

The first Friday in June is always National Donut Day. You and Krispy Kreme® may prefer the spelling "doughnut" but Dunkin'® and many other makers use the shorter word. It is based on the donut event created by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to honor those of their members who served donuts to soldiers ("doughboys") during World War I. Today I am enjoying donut holes!

5 June 25

My niece Kirsten (Huizenga) Caminiti celebrates her birthday every year on 5 June! This time she asked me to wear this Zambia animals tie. It features a lion, a secretary bird, some elephants and a nyala (spiral-horned antelope). She chose this design "out of my affection for animals, fascination with sun/clouds, and in honor of Zambians and other people of color around the world." Happy Birthday, Kirsten!

1 June 25

Once again we have reached Pea Day, on the French Republican Calendar (Pois, 13 Prairial). I''m happy to show the grinning French Peas and Junior Carrot on this Veggie Tales® tie. I hope you have visited the French Republican Calendar to see which crop, animal or farm tool they honored on your birthday or other special days!

25 May 25

Mom Wilma Wollenweber asked me to wear my Zambia letters tie today. It's one of the ties she and Dad brought back to me from their 2000 short term mission trip to that country. Yesterday (24 May) was Dad's birthday, and he would have been 100 years old! We have a family tradition of celebrating "Soup Sunday" near his birthday every year, to remember one of his most loved foods. This time we are preparing cheesy corn chowder, using a very easy recipe from the More With Less Cookbook.

23 May 25

My Looney Tunes jumble tie honors this illustrious mixture of birthdays on 23 May: Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952), Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), Robert Moog (1934-2005), Ken Jennings (1974), Reuben Shiffert (1811-1893) and William Kester (1787-1866). Shiffert and Kester are two of my 16 great-great-great-grandfathers. I hope the others are familiar names for you!

22 May 25

Today is Aimee Moiso's birthday! She is my niece-in-law, married to my nephew Nolan Huizenga. They live in Louisville, KY. Aimee is celebrating completing her first half-century! Because she is thinking a lot about "circles of life," we settled on this tie featuring multicolor rings with a peaceful, centered feeling. I added a tie tack with a nice silver-blue center.