18 May 25

Today is a "pick your holiday" Day! My tie is simply a plaid one that I like but haven't worn since July 2022. Here's a list of occasions for 18 May:

• Bertrand Russell's birthday (1872-1970)
• Other birthdays
• I Love Reese's Day
• NATIONAL NO DIRTY DISHES DAY |  
• TAKE YOUR PARENTS TO THE PLAYGROUND DAY |  
• NATIONAL CHEESE SOUFFLE DAY |  
• NATIONAL VISIT YOUR RELATIVES DAY |  
• NATIONAL HIV VACCINE AWARENESS DAY

7 July 22

Today is a special day to celebrate pattern making and pattern discovery, and it even looms large in the history of computers. It's the birthday of Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834), a French weaver and merchant. He is credited with developing the programmable loom, and the Jacquard name has long been associated with repeating patterns woven into fabric. My bright plaid tie is one of several in my closet with woven patterns. Jacquard's programming for the loom was based on a sequence of punched cards, directing the operation of hooks to guide the yarn. This idea eventually became the basis for all sorts of calculating machines, down to the 20th-century "modern" computers receiving their instructions from decks of punched cards.

28 March 21

Happy Birthday, Amanda Wheeler! Our daughter (-in-law) asked me to wear this tie with bright spring colors today. Amanda recently became a Discovery Educator for the Living Arts & Science Center in Lexington, KY. She is also the director for the Center's planetarium, the only one in Lexington.

14 April 20

Happy No-Occasion Tuesday! This is one of those increasingly-rare dates when I have nothing special to note through my ties. It is Christiaan Huygens' birthday (1629-1695), so you could celebrate his invention of the pendulum clock or his improved eyepiece for telescopes. It is also International Moment of Laughter Day, which you could celebrate many times today. In our own family, today is noted as Shuttle Surprise Day, marking Beth's invention of a potatoes-onions-cheese frypan dish while we watched news about the safe return of the first space shuttle, Columbia, in 1981. So, my tie for today is this bright plaid on yellow, which I haven't worn since May, 2018. And in case you are interested, this is my post #2,485 in my tie blog -- yesterday started my 13th year of recording my neckwear selections.

22 May 18

Happy Birthday, Aimee Moiso! Aimee is my niece(-in-law), married almost two years to my oldest nephew Nolan Huizenga. Aimee's favorite color is yellow, and when I suggested two bright options for my tie today, she chose this one!

28 March 17

Happy Birthday, Amanda Wheeler! Our daughter (-in-law) is the Children's/Teens' Services Librarian at the Lincoln County Public Library in Stanford, KY. She has graduate work in zoology and a personal attachment to manatees. She chose this tie for me to wear today for its bright spring colors!

19 April 16

Today marks the birthday of famous chemist Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999) and personal friend Michael Kneff (1981-many more years). Seaborg won the Nobel Prize in 1951 for his work on the transuranium elements. Kneff is on the staff of Mission Discovery, supervising short-term mission experiences in Texas, Tennessee and Timbuktu (actually Antigua, Guatemala). My tie simply has excellent colors for Spring!

18 March 15

No occasion today! Very special!

17 September 13

This is the traditional feast day to honor Hildegard of Bingen, 12th century mystic, who was also a composer, artist and philosopher; she is known primarily for her nearly-psychedelic artwork and fantastic literary descriptions of her dreams (more like hallucinations). I think Hildegard would really like the bright bold colors on this tie. Also of note for September 17: This is the date when, in 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton, living in San Francisco, declared himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.

14 September 09

On September 14, 1752, people in the British Empire--which included the American colonies--were not really sure what day it was. The previous day was September 2, and the intervening eleven days simply disappeared because the Empire was adopting the Gregorian calendar, matching much of the rest of Europe. This bright plaid is for bright ideas like calendars.

30 September 08

Hans Geiger, who invented the Geiger counter to measure radioactivity, was born on this date in 1882. I have no tie (yet) that represents radioactivity. But today's plaid tie was apparently sufficiently scintillating to draw compliments from several people.

Last worn on 06 August.

06 August 08

Among those born on August 6:

• Sir Alexander Fleming (1881) (discovered penicillin in 1928)
  
• Lucille Ball (1911)
• Andy Warhol (1928)
  
• M. Night Shyamalan (1970)

So a plaid tie for all the different stripes and dimensions of those people . . . also, introducing our latest vehicle, "Joseph" the '04 Camry . . .