26 June 19

The last Wednesday in June is designated as "Parchment Day." I think my tie is parchment-colored. (The primary association for the day is supposed to be with parchment paper for baked goods and other uses with food. Maybe next year.) Another more convoluted reason for this tie is the birthday of Lord Kelvin (William Thompson, 1824-1907). His scientific work established the first and second laws of thermodynamics, but his name is probably most famous for his pioneering measurement of the temperature known as absolute zero, -273.15 C or -459.67 F. And so that temperature is ZERO on the Kelvin scale. The solid, bland color of my tie seems to be the "baseline" for all the other colors and patterns that I wear. Yet it has an interesting texture and woven pattern, a beautiful metaphor for the fact that even under the "coldest" conditions of absolute zero, the atoms and nuclei of substances are still in motion!