25 February 24

The theme for the worship service at Richmond First United Methodist Church on 25 February is "sheep," as in John 10:1-21. So I'm feeling sheepish, and this tie proves it. Beth is playing "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" and "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah," and the congregational hymns include "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" and "He Leadeth Me" -- all pointing to the desire/need for Christians to follow the lead of Jesus Christ.

30 October 22

Today's tie celebrates yesterday's designation as Hug a Sheep Day! We don't have any live or stuffie household sheep, but I found one to hold from our Christmas decorations. I'm not sure why my tie is designed with one black sheep.

2 August 21

Today's tie was chosen by granddaughter Evelyn Marie, to honor birthday number 2! I offered her a selection of five ties and she grabbed this one, saying "sheep" and "black."

23 July 20

Today is "Ram Day" (Bélier, 5 Thermidor) on the French Republican Calendar. I am not sure how you distinguish rams from ewes drawn as cartoons, when none have horns. But I'm going to state that the black one on my tie is a ram!

11 February 20

Today is National Inventor's Day, honoring the birthday of Thomas Edison (1847-1931). So I'm inventing my own good reason to wear my one-black-sheep tie. I suppose that's baaa-d humor -- maybe three bags full. A Google search unearthed a song by Matt Kearney titled One Black Sheep, with chord progressions like the children's song!

7 February 19

It's fairly hard to find an occasion suitable for this one-black-sheep tie, but I'll wear it today for no particular reason. Birthdays for today include Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) and John Deere (1804-1886). This is also the anniversary of the first recognized "table of elements," in 1863, when English chemist John Newlands published a chart that organized the then-known 56 elements into 11 groups based on the "Law of Octaves." This preceded by six years the better known periodic table of Dmitri Mendeleev.

26 July 17

Those born on this date include Carl Jung (1875-1961), Mick Jagger (1943-), Helen Mirren (1945-), Kevin Spacey (1959-) and Sandra Bullock (1964-). No particular tie seemed appropriate to honor those celebrities, so I've stepped back sheepishly to Sunday for "Wool Day" (Bélier, 5 Thermidor) on the French Republican Calendar, to wear this wonderful tie which was gifted to me last August by Mallie Jayden Elizabeth Kleppinger.

27 October 16

Coming up on Saturday is (Inter)National Hug A Sheep Day! It is scheduled annually on the fourth Saturday in October, but as the originator says, "every day is a good day to hug a sheep." The original date was associated with the birthday of "Punkin'," the first sheep owned by Ewen McTeagle, aka thecrazysheeplady, of Equinox Farms in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Events to celebrate Hug A Sheep Day now extend all over the world. My tie was a birthday present from Mallie Jay, and the document I got with the tie says that she is not a "black sheep" -- but she knows what sound they make!