3 November 23

Today marks the 230th birthday of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas." I'm wearing my Texas longhorn cattle tie! We bought it somewhere in Texas in 2007.

3 November 21

Today is Stephen F. Austin Day, honoring the birthday of the "Father of Texas" in 1793. My tie features Texas longhorn cattle on sagebrush-y land.

3 November 20

Today I'm wearing my Texas longhorns tie, to honor the birthday (in 1793) of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas." His father Moses had received a grant from Spain to colonize the Texas territory, and after his father died Stephen renewed the grant from Mexico. By 1825 he had brought 300 families from the United States to the region. He died in 1836, and the independent Republic of Texas survived (primarily under the leadership of Sam Houston) until the end of 1845.

8 October 19

My Texas longhorn cattle tie needed to be worn, and this turned out to be the chosen day!

5 September 17

Last Saturday was International Vulture Awareness Day, and I missed it! So instead I'm wearing my Texas longhorn cattle tie today to honor the 1836 election of Sam Houston as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

26 May 16

Looking through the list of famous people born on this day, I noticed three names related to "Western" movies and television: John Wayne, Jay Silverheels and James Arness. Wayne (1907-1979) starred in "True Grit" and many other movies. Silverheels (1912-1980) was most famous as Tonto in "The Lone Ranger." Arness (1923-2011) portrayed Marshal Matt Dillon for 20 years on "Gunsmoke." My tie features Texas longhorn cattle and scrub grass.

3 November 15

Today turns out to involve two celebrations. My tie has Texas longhorn cattle, to honor the birthday (in 1793) of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas." Yesterday's email notified me that this is NATIONAL SANDWICH DAY, with a special offer from Subway to buy-one-get-one-free! I guess the meatballs on my sub sandwich might contain some Texas beef.

3 November 14

Today marks the birthday (in 1793) of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas." My tie features Texas longhorn cattle.

3 November 13

Today marks the birthday of Steven F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," born in 1793. My tie shows Texas longhorn cattle grazing in scrub brush.

5 June 13

Today is World Environment Day, a United Nations-sponsored day to "raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action." WED has now been celebrated for 40 years, honoring the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. My tie celebrates the sagebrush environment for longhorn cattle in Texas.

3 February 13

Joyeux Vache! (Happy Cow Day!) Today is 15 Pluviôse on the French Republican Calendar, which was designated to honor the cow (in agriculture). My tie celebrates Texas longhorn cattle, grazing on scrub grasses.

3 November 11

Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," was born on November 3, 1793. This tie features Texas longhorn cattle looking at you from a pastureland (?) of scrubby green plants. Oh, by the way, today is also National Cliche Day, in case anybody wanted to know; it hasn't gotten much buzz nowadays and I guess that it's just gone past its sell-by date.

03 November 10

Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) is known as the "Father of Texas." He is credited with colonizing the territory and with founding the Republic of Texas. I don't know if he liked Texas longhorn cattle, but I like this tie.

10 June 10

Texas longhorn cattle . . . why not?

10 September 09

Today in Honors Seminar we are discussing an essay on "the ethics of eating meat." So I chose my tie featuring Texas longhorn cattle.

14 July 09

I am working from a computer lab today because it's much too hot in our offices. But my life promises to get MUCH hotter in a few days, as Beth and I head to the southern tip of Texas to work with Mission Discovery. As we did in 2007, we will be "cook's helpers" at the camp where short-term mission teams stay for housebuilding and community VBS projects. This is my Texas longhorn cattle tie.

23 April 09

Today marks the birthday of Max Planck, a German physicist who was born in 1858. He basically invented what we know as quantum theory. This is the understanding that energy states and transitions at the atomic level come only in discrete units (called quanta), not continuous variation. It's a little like the difference between riding an elevator, whose doors open only at individual floors, and an escalator or moving walkway, where in principle you could step off at any height or distance. I chose my longhorn cattle tie because the cattle and plugs of grass come only in discrete units.

27 May 08

I like this tie (featuring longhorn cattle) a lot. Its significance for today comes from the fact that my son Benjamin is flying to southernmost Texas to begin his summer mission term with Mission Discovery. You can read more about his trip at http://benkleppinger.blogspot.com.