5 December 23

Purple is the traditional color associated with the Advent season. My tie has purple and gray stripes! It was a Christmas present in 2012.

13 June 22

Today is National Sewing Machine Day! On my ties the seams and sewn labels are always on the underside and the tail, but I still appreciate all that sewing machines contribute to my wardrobe. Ours is a Kenmore from the 1970s and it still zigzags and straight-stitches well, and makes nice buttonholes. My mom had a Singer that swung up from inside the wooden sewing table. My tie for today simply has nice purple and gray stripes.

27 August 20

Today I'm honoring the birthday of philosopher-hero Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). He is known as the "father of the dialectic" for his study of the emergence/evolution of thought (and Being). Hegel interpreted all of history, all of science, all of life as the continual development of syntheses, from the natural interaction of a "thesis" with its opposing "antithesis." Every thesis is accompanied by, or triggers the emergence of, an antithesis, and "life" (and Being) proceeds through their opposition to develop a synthesis, which in turn becomes a new thesis . . . Some examples of these natural oppositions are wealth/poverty, reactants/product, war/peace, life/death, center/circumference, eggs/chickens, background/foreground . . . 

My dual purple-stripe ties serve as a crude example of a dialectic. They exist in my collection as "opposites" because the stripes on one (a thesis) go "one direction" while the stripes on the other (an antithesis) go "the other direction." Yet their interaction creates a new pattern (a synthesis!), forming "arrows" pointing up to my chin - or even an alternate synthesis forming "arrows" pointing down to my waist.

Philosophy is fun.

30 May 20

Today I'm serving as Registrant while Beth plays organ music preceding the memorial service for Anna Way (1929-2020), friend from Richmond First United Methodist Church. It's a rare Saturday for me to wear a tie.

8 April 18

My purple-stripes tie for today is to help us celebrate Amanda Wheeler's birthday (on 28 March). Another event in today's history is the first patent for a fire escape, in 1766. It was a contraption built from a wicker basket, a chain and a pulley. Fire escapes today are increasingly rare, and are primarily outdoor stairways.

7 November 16

This is one of those increasingly rare Days When Gene Wears An Ordinary Tie. I happen to like the strong purple in this striped tie! If you remember popular music in the 1960s and 1970s, you might enjoy thinking about Johnny Rivers (born in 1942) and Joni Mitchell (born in 1943) today.

30 September 15

What else can you do when the tie jumps off the rack, calling "Wear Me! Wear Me!"?

13 May 14

No special occasion for 13 May -- it is Stephen Colbert's 50th birthday but I did not ask him to choose a tie. So I am wearing a pleasant purple-striped tie, and enjoying the elderberry blossoms in our yard.

15 January 13

Today's tie is yet another present from Christmas 2012. It came with a tie bar, an accessory I have not used for at least several decades. I think the silver bar looks very good with the purple and gray stripes.