4 June 26

As requested by (nephew) Nolan Huizenga and Aimee Moiso, the colors on my tie and shirt recall the wonderful celebration of their wedding ten years ago today! Nolan pastors Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville, KY, and Aimee is the manager for Social Policy Witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA). I've known Nolan his whole life!

24 January 23

Wearing shiny yellow-gold today to mark the 175th anniversary of the discovery of gold in California, at Sutter's Mill, near present-day Sacramento. A construction worker named James Wilson Marshall found some gold flakes (tiny nuggets) in the South Fork American River. He and mill owner John Sutter agreed to be partners for exploring, and news about the gold soon leaked out and inspired 300,000 would-be prospectors to descend on the area, creating the great "Gold Rush" of 1848-1855. One more bit of history: "The first flake found by Marshall was shipped to President James K. Polk in Washington DC, arriving in August 1848. It is now on display in the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution."

1 November 21

 My tie is golden yellow for All Saints' Day. I'm holding it fast to my shirt with my gold "K" tie bar, honoring the memory of my parents and several other Kleppinger saints. The "K" is from my mother's jewelry.

2 September 21

 Wearing bright yellow for Lemon Day, 16 Fructidor, on the French Republican Calendar. As a chemist I also recall the yellow color of concentrated nitric acid, whose industrial production was developed by Wilhelm Ostwald, born on 2 September 1853. On a very different note, today is the birthday of hymn writer Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000).

18 August 20

The first evidence of helium was observed on August 18, 1868, as a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun. The line was detected by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India. (Wikipedia) Later that year it was determined to be caused by an element unknown on earth (at that time) -- the first extraterrestrial discovery! My tie is glowing with yellow-gold like the sun.

31 July 19

When I had no special occasion to recognize today, Beth took the chance to choose this bright yellow tie, paired with a pastel blue shirt to look "cool" in the summertime. (Note: I would customarily wear my Gryffindor House tie on 31 July to honor the birthdays of J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter, but that tie is currently on loan to Jamie Salyers.)

24 January 18

On this date 170 years ago (1848), GOLD was discovered in California, triggering the California Gold Rush!

22 May 16

Happy Birthday, Aimee Moiso! Aimee will soon be my newest niece, as she marries C. Nolan Huizenga on 4 June, in Nashville. My tie is golden yellow for Aimee's favorite color, and I'm wearing the Trinity knot because this is Trinity Sunday!

6 October 15

I'm looking as Prussian as possible today, to celebrate National German-American Day. The first wave of emigration from Prussia (now Germany) brought 13 families from Krefeld, who founded Germantown, Pennsylvania on this date in 1683. (And so that's why this is National German-American Day.) My own Kleppinger ancestor, Johann Georg, arrived in Philadelphia in 1737. I'm wearing yellow on black to recall the black-and-gold flag of Royal Prussia, 1466-1772. There's a spiral noodle on my tie bar because this is National Noodle Day!

17 November 14

Today I'm celebrating the birthday (in 1790) of August Ferdinand Möbius, the German mathematician who first investigated the wonderful properties of the single-sided Möbius strip. You can make your own by taking a long narrow strip of paper, like a very long cash register tape or a strip cut from a newspaper double page, and forming a loop with a SINGLE TWIST in it, and then taping it so you can play. (It will seem that you attaching the "front side" of the paper to the "back side" of the other end.) If you now take a pencil and draw a line down the strip -- like driving down the middle of the road -- you can go completely around the loop twice without ever turning the paper over, and you wind up where you started. Your loop has a single side (surface). If you take scissors and cut on the line you just drew, to cut the loop in half "lengthwise," you get a very surprising result.

15 August 13

It's Lemon Meringue Pie Day! So I'm wearing bright yellow. I'm not sure why I chose the deep blue shirt. The cute face on my screen saver is Mallie Kleppinger, now five weeks old. Today also marks 927 years since the original Macbeth murdered his cousin, Duncan I of Scotland. Macbeth then ruled until his own death on this date in 1057.

6 April 13

I rarely wear a tie on Saturday, but today I am representing my alma mater, Houghton College, at the inauguration of Dr. Lyle Roelofs as the ninth president of Berea College. Houghton's colors are purple and gold.

11 February 13

Maybe you wonder -- Why a plain bright yellow tie? I ask -- Why not? Maybe you can invent a better idea, because it's Thomas Edison's birthday, and I have no tie with a light bulb or movie camera.

24 January 13

Happy Gold Rush Day! On this date in 1848, John Sutter discovered gold in California, setting off the "gold rush."

15 August 12

Today is Lemon Meringue Pie Day, and it should also be known as Macbeth's Day. According to Wikipedia's calendar, the historical King Duncan I of Scotland was killed on this date by his first cousin Macbeth, who then ruled as King of Scotland until his own death on this date in 1057. My new solid yellow-gold tie can represent both lemon-osity and kingship. And of course my green shirt stands for Birnam Wood.