22 October 23

National Color Day is celebrated on 22 October. It originated with a promotion by General Motors in 2009 to name the color of its newest vehicle, the Chevy Volt. The main point now is to be overwhelmed by the impact of color in your world. Beth helped choose this tie for its bright red, green and yellow. We are currently foster-caring for a very gentle male (?) gray kitten who loves to climb all over us. He (?)  glommed onto me in the parking lot at the Berea Food Bank. If you want a housemate, let us know!

3 October 22

Please look at wonderful colors and shapes on leaves today (or tomorrow), for Look at the Leaves Day. Ours are not exceptionally bright but I found a full range of reds, greens, oranges, golds and browns to share with the students in my Beginning Ethics class. They also enjoyed my tie with leafy shapes and seasonal colors!

3 October 21

 I'm wearing red-gold-green-and-brown to celebrate "Look At  the Leaves Day." Our own trees are mostly green but there are a few with other colors in our neighborhood.

13 October 20

 My nephew Matt Lang asked me to wear this fall colors tie to honor his 29th birthday today! And in this time of falling temperatures I'm happy to wear this clever thermometer tie clip (thanks to Jennifer Woodruff Tait).

 

24 July 19

On this date in 1967, Dr. Cicely Saunders founded the first modern hospice, St Christopher's, in London, England. This was the beginning of modern palliative care and the hospice movement. As they came near their deaths, my parents and my brother were served very well by hospice volunteers, in Pennsylvania and in Florida.The beautiful red, green, gold and brown designs on this tie always remind me of trees, leaves and the peaceful motion of time.

22 October 17

Today is Mother-in-Law's Day! Wilma Wollenweber asked me to wear a tie with fall colors, so I chose this one!

7 February 17

Today is e Day! 2 and 7 are the first digits in the number e = 2.718281828459..., and so the seventh of February is particularly significant for mathematicians, statisticians, physical chemists, nuclear scientists, botanists, artists, . . . anyone who deals frequently with limits and boundaries and infinite series in the natural world!  My tie features abstract colored leaves, with interesting curves, edges and intersections, to illustrate limits and boundaries. The number e (usually written in italic font) is defined as "the base for natural logarithms," but its incredible significance as a universal constant shows up as soon as you start trying to calculate the growth rate of bunnies or bacteria, or to understand how a drug's concentration in your body decreases with time, or to describe how the petals on a dandelion are distributed in space. Read more about e at http://www.intmath.com/blog/mathematics/today-is-e-day-4133. I'm also proud to claim e Day as my own, because it's my first initial (as Eugene)!

4 October 15

Today is my brother Richard Arthur Kleppinger's 69th birthday! At his request, I'm wearing the same tie as last year, when he wanted a tie suitable to mark the Day of Atonement, celebrated at this time by Jews, Messianic Jews and Hebrew Christians. I think this tie's pattern of fall colors is deeply introspective, reminding us of the need to reflect on our pasts and seek fuller communion with God.

`

5 October 14

I asked my brother Dick what tie I should wear to commemorate his birthday (yesterday). He requested a tie suitable to mark the Day of Atonement, celebrated at this time by Jews, Messianic Jews and Hebrew Christians. I think this tie's pattern of fall colors is deeply introspective, reminding us of the need to reflect on our pasts and seek fuller communion with God.

13 October 13

I'm wearing fall colors today, to honor the birthday of nephew Matt Lang! Our local trees have just begun showing some color, and leaves are falling gently around our house. I'm also showing off Mallie, wearing her plaid jumper!

10 September 13

Various events for Sept. 10: In 1946, Mother Teresa of Calcutta received her vision for her life's mission of caring for the poor. 100 years earlier, Elias Howe received his patent for a sewing machine. In 1918, the dog who became Rin-Tin-Tin in movies was born. People born on this date include Henry Purcell (1659), Arnold Palmer (1929), Charles Kuralt (1934), Christopher Hogwood (1941), José Feliciano (1945), and Bill O'Reilly (1949). My multicolored tie reflects the wide variety of possible celebrations!

13 September 12

Beth found an appropriate occasion to celebrate today, and chose the tie to go with it. Organic chemist (Sir) Robert Robinson was born on Sept. 13, 1886. He won the 1947 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research with anthocyanins, the compounds that give plants their colors (as reflected in this tie). In the early 1950s, Robinson famously remarked that, among those developing the analytical technique of paper chromotography, "They are not chemists there, just a lot of paper hangers."

29 August 11

August 29 is always "More Herbs, Less Salt Day," so it is thyme for this sage to wear something oregano. Beth and I decided that this colorful tie is both tasteful and well-flavored.

19 April 11

At today's annual Poetry Marathon at EKU, I am reading Walt Whitman's "To Think of Time," which is a great meditation on the idea that immortality is all there really is. Take some time to think about that! To flow with that theme I am wearing a tie with a truly timeless pattern containing hints of nature, ambiguity, conflict and peace. It's new to me but it already has a past with someone else . . .