23 May 25

My Looney Tunes jumble tie honors this illustrious mixture of birthdays on 23 May: Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952), Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), Robert Moog (1934-2005), Ken Jennings (1974), Reuben Shiffert (1811-1893) and William Kester (1787-1866). Shiffert and Kester are two of my 16 great-great-great-grandfathers. I hope the others are familiar names for you!

17 August 22

On this date in 1908, theatergoers in Paris were treated to the premiere of a cartoon! It was an animated film named Fantasmagorie.  My tie shows a jumble of Looney Tunes® characters, developed from 1930-1969 by Warner Brothers. The major stars for Looney Tunes were Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. The original ideas for Looney Tunes came from the desire of Warner Brothers to compete against Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse.

17 August 21

Bugs Bunny and the whole Loony Tunes® gang are here to celebrate today's anniversary of the very first animated cartoon, released in France on this date in 1908.

27 July 20

80 years ago today, a cartoon star named Bugs Bunny was first seen! He first appeared in "A Wild Hare," released on 27 July 1940.

    

20 September 18

On this date in 1941, Warner Bros. introduced us to a mischievous alley cat in the cartoon "Notes to You." This unnamed "pussycat" annoyed Porky Pig's attempts to sleep. In 1945, the character was transformed into the cat-personage named Sylvester J. Pussycat, who went on to great fame as the "puddy tat" nemesis of Tweety Bird. As reported in Wikipedia, "the name 'Sylvester' is a play on Felis silvestris, the scientific name for the wild cat species" (even though Sylvester is a domestic cat). He and Tweety are prominent figures on my Looney Tunes® chaotic jumble tie. Also to note for 20 September: in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan started the first successful circumnavigation voyage; the patent for nylon was awarded in 1938; and it's the birthday for James Dewar (1842-1923), the physicist/chemist who invented the vacuum bottle, known to scientists as a Dewar flask but more commonly called a thermos.

30 May 18

I'm wearing my Looney Tunes® "jumble" tie to honor the 110th birthday of Mel Blanc, voicer for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and many other animated characters. His gravestone bears the memorable words "That's All, Folks!" which closed all of the Looney Tunes cartoons.

26 April 17

The tumbling characters on my Looney-Tunes®-quake tie are celebrating the birthday (in 1900) of seismologist Charles F. Richter, who developed the Richter Scale of earthquake intensity. Each unit on the Richter Scale represents ten times more seismic activity. This is the same kind of "logarithmic" scale commonly used for sound loudness, light intensity, and pH of solutions. Charles Richter is often credited with the quotation "logarithmic plots are a device of the devil." Many students of science and mathematics agree with Richter about that!

11 February 16

This Saturday we will be long-distance-celebrating the birthday of David Anderson, our son-by-inclusion. David is on the student services staff at Florida State University, amicably handling student conduct cases; he also loves practicing pipe organ music! He chose my Looney Tunes® jumble tie for this occasion, because he's just a wondewrfully wwacky pewrson, and that's all, folks!

27 July 15

75 years of Bugs Bunny®! He first appeared in "A Wild Hare," released on 27 July 1940.

27 July 14

Today is the 74th anniversary of the first appearance of Bugs Bunny in a cartoon!

21 August 13

Today we're celebrating the birthday of "Friz" Freleng, one of the great animators for "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" cartoons. He was born in 1905 or 1906 (different sources) and died in 1995. Also please note today's math: 21 - 8 = 13. That's All, Folks!

10 July 12

Remembering Mel Blanc, the voice behind many Looney Tunes® characters. He died on this date in 1989.

27 July 11

What's Up, Doc? Today marks 71 years of Bugs Bunny cartoons!

30 May 10

Today marks the birthday of Mel Blanc (1908-1989), the voice behind many of the characters in in Looney Tunes® cartoons. His grave marker headlines the words "That's All, Folks!" which was the closing line, giggled by Porky Pig, for many cartoons.

19 October 09

This week is something called "Character Counts Week." I suppose that I agree with that vague proposition, but I prefer to count the cartoon characters on my Looney Tunes® tie.

28 April 09

Kurt Gödel was born on this date in 1902. He eventually became one of the most influential mathematicians and logicians of the early and mid-20th century. His most important contribution was the proof of the "incompleteness theorem" which states that for any system of axioms (basic assumptions) powerful enough to explain all the operations of basic arithmetic, there are true propositions about the natural numbers that cannot be proved from the axioms. Put very loosely, he proved that not everything in mathematics could be proven. I chose this tie to honor Gödel because its endless tangle of Looney Tunes® characters represents for me the "openness" of a system that always set its own limits by closing cartoons with the words "That's All, Folks!"

21 August 08

"Friz" Freleng was born on August 21, 1906. He is most famous as the animator, director and producer for many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, as well as the wonderful Pink Panther cartoons from the DePatie-Freleng studios. Among the characters he introduced or developed: Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the cat, Yosemite Sam and Speedy Gonzales.
This tie is a repeat from July 10.

10 July 08

On July 10, 1989: Mel Blanc, who supplied the voices for cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, died at age 81. "That's All, Folks."