4 October 26

The fourth of October is the Feast of St. Francis, and it is also celebrated as World Animal Day, in honor of St. Francis' love for animals. I chose my "bears" tie for this occasion, because bears certainly represent animals (although St. Francis is traditionally associated with birds, rabbits, fish and wolves, not bears), because we have a new "house bear" named Opal (discovered while cleaning out Wilma Wollenweber's car), and because I haven't worn this tie since 2023!

The extra image is from a Web site offering a plush "St. Francis of Assisi Bear."

   

2 October 26

The Peanuts comic strip debuted on 2 October 1950! My tie shows all of the well-known characters using cell phones; Lucy is holding one up to Snoopy who has an ear extended. The extra image shows the first three strips, from The Complete Peanuts collection.

27 September 26

Where's Waldo? Martin Handford, Waldo'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. 99% of the characters on the tie are Waldos, but there are also mermaids and wizards and warriors!

26 September 26

Tomorrow (27 September) marks the 121st anniversary of Albert Einstein's paper "Ist die Trägheit eines Körpers von seinem Energieinhalt abhängig?" ("Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?". This was his fourth paper in 1905, which has been recognized as "the miracle year in physics." It contains the first complete presentation of the famous formula E=mc², expressing the equivalence of matter and energy through the proportionality of the speed of light squared. I like my tie that shows his face in bronze.

25 September 26

Today marks the birthday of Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945), early-20th-century researcher in genetics. He was born in Lexington, KY, and his childhood home "Hopemont" is preserved as a museum and special events venue. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933, becoming the first Kentuckian on the Nobel lists. His work with fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) came at a time before genetics was recognized as a distinct field of study, but his experiments with inherited factors led directly to establishing the theory of chromosomes as the carriers of genetic information. My tie shows other flies along with moths and beetles.

20 September 26

I'm wearing my "computer motherboard" tie today to honor the 72nd anniversary of the first FORTRAN program (1954). If you remember computer punch cards, you may also recall creating nested DO loops, calling subroutines, and declaring INTEGER variables. I'm including an image of a short FORTRAN program. 

The word FORTRAN came from "formula translation" because the language was designed to process mathematical and statistical formulas. I learned to program with FORTRAN for the IBM 1130 at Houghton College, around 1972-73. You might be surprised to learn that FORTRAN is still in use, although it has been superseded by other programming languages like C++, Java, SQL and Python.

18-19 September 26

Ahoy mateys! Weigh anchor for International Talk Like a Pirate Day on the morrow! I've just learned that one part of the phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism" (used by Spiro Agnew in 1969 to refer to anti-Nixon politicians) has its roots in pirate-speak where "nattering" equals "talking." My tie shows several symbols related to buccaneering. 

The history of this Day is tied into an incident from a racquetball game in 1995 where an injured player yelled "Aaarr!," and they decided to celebrate pirate-speak on the birthday of one player's ex-wife.

17 September 26

Today's "Norton" tie celebrates the 167th anniversary of the self-declaration of Emperor Norton I of the United States, who was born in England in 1818 or 1819. On 17 September 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton, of San Francisco, declared himself Emperor. As related by Wikipedia, "Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humored by those around him, [Norton] was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented. Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing and a tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay. Norton's orders were ignored by the Army, and Congress likewise continued without any formal acknowledgement of the decree." Joshua Norton died in 1880 and his grave bears the inscription "Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico."

14 September 26

 Today is National Coloring Day, so I'm wearing crayons.

13 September 26

 Today we're celebrating grandaughter TR's fourth birthday! Her favorite colors are pink and "pur-pur." I offered her four ties with those colors and she chose this one, with pink and purple stripes and diamonds. We had a great meal and party together!

11 September 26

September is always National Piano Month and also Classical Music Month. My tie is always musically appropriate.

8 September 26

A few weeks ago my EKU friend Philip Gump alerted me to September 8 as Star Trek Day, celebrating the premier episode "The Man Trap" on this date 60 years ago! My tie shows planets and galaxies and comets all in close proximity, which is how the travels of the USS Enterprise made us think about space. I am not sure how early my family began watching Star Trek, but I know we saw many of the original episodes on our black-and-white television.  (The series was filmed in color but that didn't arrive in our home until about 1970.) It was exciting to see the adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Scotty, "Bones" McCoy, Lieutenant Uhuru and the rest of the crew on their "five year mission" to boldly go where no one had gone before. Please live long and prosper!

6 September 26

6 September 2026 marks the 534th anniversary of the day Christopher Columbus sailed from the Canary Islands, his last port before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It also marks the 504th anniversary of the return of one of Magellan's ships to Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the Earth, and the 406th anniversary of the sailing of the Pilgrim's "Mayflower" from Plymouth, England. A few great events in sailing history!

My tie shows compasses used for navigation. Perspicacious son Ben  noticed that one of the compasses has the letter "O" diametrically opposed to "W," where we would usually see "E." I immediately suggested that it must represent a German compass, where east is der Osten. Images of German compasses confirm that!

4 September 26

Today is "Wear Something Teal Day," a promotion for awareness of ovarian cancer treatments and research. I chose my Pennsylvania tie with its colors that fit somewhere between cyan and teal (although Google Lens calls it plain blue). It's also National Wildlife Day, honoring the life of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin (1962-2006).

2 September 26

Today is National Blueberry Popsicle Day! My colorful tie shows lime, cherry, lemon and blueberry flavors. The tie's label (from Save the Children) says it was designed by "Merrick, Age 4." We have a few Otter Pops on hand in the freezer -- but today there are only grape, lime and orange.