23 November 25

We're having lunch today (as usual) with Mom Wilma Wollenweber. This family tradition has been followed roughly weekly since mid-2008. My purple shirt and purple-patterned tie were a birthday gift to me from Mom and Dad in August 2009!

23 March 23

On this date (23 March) in 1857, Elisha Graves Otis demonstrated the first safe passenger elevator, at a department store in Manhattan. Earlier inventions had resulted in injuries and deaths when suspension ropes broke, but Otis included a safety catch, which was patented a few years later as an "Improved Hoisting Apparatus." I chose my purple-boxes tie to represent the familiar chambers (or cabs) we use to rise high above the ground. Some elevator plans include horizontal as well as vertical motion.

3 March 21

 Today counts 176 years after the birthday of {Georg Cantor}, the German mathematician who created set theory. I put his name inside curly brackets to symbolize the fact (in standard set notation) that he is the unique member of the set containing Georg Cantor (1845-1918). My tie for today is covered with tiny boxes which you could assemble into whatever sets you choose. Set theory provides the foundation for counting things, which is pretty important for many parts of our lives. I asked my mathematician friend Margaret Yoder for some authoritative quotations about set theory, and she provided this one:

"Set theory has a dual role in mathematics. In pure mathematics, it is the place where questions about infinity are studied. Although this is a fascinating study of permanent interest, it does not account for the importance of set theory in applied areas. There the importance stems from the fact that set theory provides an incredibly versatile toolbox for building mathematical models of various phenomena." -- from Jon Barwise and Lawrence Moss, Vicious Circles: On the Mathematics of Non-Wellfounded Phenomena, CSLI, Stanford, 1996.

So now I hope you can see the incredible versatility of noting that the {small bottles in my left hand} and the {red blocks in my right hand} are well-defined, finite sets that share the same cardinality (the number of distinct elements) as the set containing the first two elements in the set of natural numbers (N), which we associate with the "number 2."

Other dimensions of set theory are revealed in statements like these from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "The axioms of set theory imply the existence of a set-theoretic universe so rich that all mathematical objects can be construed as sets. Also, the formal language of pure set theory allows one to formalize all mathematical notions and arguments. Thus, set theory has become the standard foundation for mathematics, as every mathematical object can be viewed as a set, and every theorem of mathematics can be logically deduced in the Predicate Calculus from the axioms of set theory."

As mentioned in the first long quotation, Cantor's set theory applies especially to studying infinity. "One might say that set theory was born in late 1873, when he made the amazing discovery that the linear continuum, that is, the real line, is not countable, meaning that its points cannot be counted using the natural numbers." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

I could go on and on . . . 

7 April 19

For the fifth Sunday in Lent I'm wearing my tie with small purple boxes on a bright purple shirt!

20 August 17

Robert and Wilma Wollenweber were married on this date in 1949, so this would have been their 68th anniversary! (Dad died last October.) They gave me this purple boxes tie some years ago, and I am wearing it again to honor their great witness to long lasting love.


1949

21 August 16

Today we are helping Bob and Wilma Wollenweber (Beth's parents) celebrate 67 years of marriage! They gave me this tie some years ago, and I am wearing it today as a tribute to their great example of lifelong loving commitment. They were married on 20 August 1949, in Babylon, NY.

29 November 15

For the first Sunday in Advent, I'm wearing this tie with purple boxes on a purple shirt!

2 June 15

Today marks the 99th birthday of my father, Arthur Jeremiah Kleppinger (1916-2004). For many years he was the corporate secretary (or chief accountant) for Bethlehem Fabricators, and as far as I know he always wore a tie to work. I think he would have approved of this tie!

13 January 14

According to one of my Internet calendars, today is "International Skeptics Day." But I'm not sure I believe them.

22 February 12

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent; traditional liturgical color = purple, for repentance and preparation.

28 November 10

Thoroughly purple for the first Sunday in Advent . . .

28 March 10

This is Amanda Wheeler's two-dozenth birthday. She and Ben Kleppinger will be married in Berea, KY on 16 October 2010. Amanda chose my black-and-purple pattern tie. The color in the detail photo is oddly blue; the patches on the tie are truly purple!

25 October 09

The fourth Sunday in October has been designated (since 2002) as Mother-in-Law Day. My mother- and father-in-law are visiting with us this weekend, so I took the opportunity to wear a shirt and tie they gave me for my birthday. I love passionate purple!