16 April 23

 I'm celebrating the fun side of Dilbert® today, on the 34th anniversary of the very first comic strip. Scott Adams has recently taken some dark turns with his political and social views, and Dilbert has disappeared from newspaper comics. But there were plenty of funny episodes starring Dilbert, Wally, Pointy-Haired Boss, Alice, Dogbert, Ratbert and others! I'm showing the one strip that is frequently cited as the best.

8 June 20

Today is Scott Adams' birthday! The creator of Dilbert® is now 63 years old. My flipped-up tie mimics how Dilbert appeared for many years (1989-2014) until the office standards were relaxed. Back in May 1991, Dogbert attempted to find the explanation for his curled neckties, but there were only more questions. I continue wearing neckties on workdays, even during these weird months of working at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Other people who share this natal holiday include Francis Crick (1916-2004), Tim Berners-Lee (1955), Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959).

16 April 19

The comic strip featuring Dilbert® turns 30 years old today! For the first 24 years, Dilbert wore his signature upturned red-and-black striped tie almost every day. Beth gave me this tie three years ago. I really enjoy following Scott Adams' highly philosophical portrayal of life in the business/engineering world, and I urge you to bookmark https://dilbert.com for your daily amusement. (I am aware of Scott Adams' conservative political views, and I disagree strongly with many of his personal opinions, but he seems to have built a very effective wall separating the humor he finds in organizational incompetence from his analysis of politics and economics in general. In some recent blog entries he has even defended Bernie Sanders against the criticism that he is an extreme socialist.)

7-8 June 18

Tomorrow (8 June) is Scott Adams' 61st birthday! The creator of Dilbert® began chronicling the engineer's office life in 1989. The curled-up striped tie was Dilbert's personal trademark until 2013, when Adams let all the company staff except the CEO and the Pointy-Haired Boss dress casually.

8 June 17

Happy 60th Birthday, Scott Adams! To honor the creator of Dilbert®, I'm wearing my own version of an upturned red/black striped tie. The comic is from 22 April 1989.

16 August 16

Today is a Dilbert® Day for me. EKU has its opening convocation where we will learn wonderful new strategic directions, and our Blackboard system upgrade continues, very sluggishly. This tie was a birthday gift from Beth, and she tells me that the photo on the site where she ordered it had diagonal stripes, like Dilbert's own tie. This one arrived with horizontal stripes, so we'll have to blame either marketing or engineering for the screwup (but I like it!).