14 April 26

I'm wearing my "spy code" tie (from the International Spy Museum) for two occasions on 13 April (yesterday): (1) the birthday of cryptologist Herbert Osborne Yardley (1889-1958) and (2) the creation of MK-ULTRA by the CIA in 1953. 

MK-ULTRA was a program to develop various methods for "mind control," including drugs such as LSD and mescaline. The name is a "cryptonym," meaning that it combines elements of "code" which are familiar to its personnel but are intentionally misleading to others. (If you are familiar with the Jason Bourne stories, you will recall Treadstone and Blackbriar.) "The CIA sought, through its research, to devise a truth serum to enhance the interrogations of POWs and captured spies. The agency also wanted to develop techniques and drugs – such as "amnesia pills" – to create CIA superagents who would be immune to the mind-control efforts of adversaries." According to Wikipedia it was officially halted in 1973 (but nobody knows for sure!).

My blue armband is not spy-gear; it signifies my blood donation today to the Central Kentucky Blood Center. 

12 April 26

Celebrating 18 years (plus four days) of blogging about my ties. This one features a cascade of an image of about 25 ties as they hang in my closet. I have some 360 ties, and most of them hang on five motorized racks. A few others are pre-tied or too strange in other ways to hang on the tie rack hooks. 

This is entry number 3,788 in my blog, which works out to wearing ties on 57.6% of the days since 8 April 2008. Borrowing a phrase from Douglas Adams, I think my obsession is "mostly harmless."

8 April 26

My "sculpted" tie features a New York City taxi. I doubt that Beth will ever drive one, but today we're celebrating her delayed visit to the driver's license office to renew her license!

6 April 26

It's National Tartan Day! By Congressional actions in 1998 and 2005, and a Presidential Proclamation in 2008, April 6th of each year is National Tartan Day. The day recognizes Scottish Americans and their achievements and contributions to the United States.

On this day in 1320, Scots signed the Declaration of Arbroath, formally declaring their independence from England.

My tie's plaid design is not an officially registered tartan, but it closely resembles Clark Ancient, Arbuthnot Ancient and Scott Dress Turquoise. If I have any Scottish heritage it comes from the British Isles ancestors on my mother's side (York).

5 April 26

Happy Flowery Easter! We've seen croci, bluebells, daffodils and many fruit blossoms. Redbud trees are exploding everywhere. Lawns are full of dandelions and other bright  "weeds." My tie shows flowers of Hawai'i.

3 April 26

Two of my eight grandchildren were born on 3 April, in 2017 (Paul Robert) and 2022 (Dana Rose)! My tie shows a cascade of Mallie, Nate and Paul, created when Paul was a newborn.

2 April 26

Snoopy and the rest of Charlie Brown's team are helping me celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first National League game, between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Caps, in Philadelphia, 1876. The history after that is very convoluted . . . 

 The Red Caps had been the Boston Red Stockings in the earlier National Association, but when the National League was formed, the Boston team became the Red Caps to avoid confusion with the new Cincinnati Red Stockings. Over the years this team changed names several times: Beaneaters, Doves, Rustlers, Bees, and finally Braves. In 1953 the franchise moved to Milwaukee, and then in 1966 to Atlanta, where the Braves continue to play in the National League. 

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Athletics team that played in that first game was expelled from the National League at the end of the season. Other teams with the Athletics name played in Philadelphia from 1882-1891, in different leagues, but the Athletics team that started there in 1901 in the American League existed through 2024 as the Oakland Athletics (moving from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955, and then to Oakland in 1968). That franchise plans to move from West Sacramento to Las Vegas in 2028!

31 March 26

National Stripes Day is observed annually on 31 March. It's sponsored by the J. Crew company, intended (of course) to inspire you to buy more striped clothing. I have about 20 striped ties, all gifts from friends and relatives. This one with bold horizontal stripes came to me from EKU philosophy comrade Minh Nguyen when he moved from Kentucky to super-sunny Florida. My shirt is also striped, and I'm wearing more stripes where you can't see them.

28-29 March 26

Happy Birthday (yesterday), Amanda Wheeler! Amanda is our daughter-in-law whom we met with Ben's help some 20 years ago. Amanda creates and manages Makerspaces for Lexington Public Library. When I asked her to choose a tie for me to wear today, she surprised me with this basketball tie! It's very appropriate for NCAA March Madness. Our Kentucky teams have not survived past the Sweet Sixteen this year, but Amanda's bracket champion Arizona is playing in the Final Four next weekend.

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27 March 23

I'm wearing my birch trees tie today to honor Birch Tree Day (Bouleau, 7 Germinal) on the French Republican Calendar. It was created after the French Revolution, expressing deep connections to nature by correlating each day on the calendar with a plant (a crop, flower or tree), a farm animal or an agricultural tool. Yesterday marked the birthday of Robert Frost (1874-1963). My birch trees tie is related to his wonderful poem Birches. We have large river birch trees which we planted 26 years ago.

25 March 26

Our tortoiseshell cat Portia Anne joined our family in 2022, as a two-year-old neighborhood wanderer. She adopted our porches as her territory, and so on 8 April 2022 we called her in "from the porches" and named her Portia. She enjoyed almost four years with our other cats Andrew, Esther and Muffin, and with our dog Belle Pepper. She liked us too, often sleeping right over our heads early in the morning. Recently she ran out of energy and appetite (due to feline leukemia), and today she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. We will miss her!

24 March 26

My tie today features IBM "AT" desktop computers, which were sold from 1984-1987. The letters "AT" stood for Advanced Technology. The typewriter-style keyboard from 40 years ago is essentially the only component that is directly related to our current hardware. I last wore this tie in November 2021. My calendar shows three historical events for 24 March: in 1980, Roman Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated in San Salvador; in 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated his Brandenburg Concertos to his patron, Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt; and it is National Chocolate-Covered Raisin Day.

22 March 26

Today marks the coincidental birthdays of Beth's grandmother Helen Anna (Bukowske) Wollenweber (1892-1976) and her great-grandmother Anna Margareta (Schacht) Eggers (1848-1928). Beth asked me to wear this fruity tie, which originally belonged to her father -- Helen and Fred's only son -- Robert Wollenweber. Beth remembers visiting Helen and Fred in Dearborn, Michigan! Anna Margareta lived in Hamburg, Germany. Helen was born in Germany and emigrated to Missouri as an infant.

20-21 March 26

The third Saturday in March is National Quilting Day! My patchwork quilt tie was a gift from a resident at the Telford Terrace nursing home in 2012, where I was a weekly visitor from 2000-2020. My Sunday evening visits began when my father moved into assisted living in Allentown, PA, much too far away for frequent contact. The director at Telford Terrace suggested that I could visit with those residents instead, and so I read Bible stories and shared hymns with them for twenty years, until the COVID-19 pandemic closed those meetings down.

19 March 26

Today marks the first round in this year's "March Madness" NCAA basketball tournaments. The men's and women's teams from the University of Kentucky are dancing again! My brackets culminate in championships for other teams, but we will be watching UK and hoping for major successes. You can expect us to be cheering for whoever is playing against Duke or Tennessee or Louisville. On my tie, Bugs and Daffy and Taz are just having fun.