31 January 25

I think this tie's design represents minimalism in art, which I describe as the repetition of a simple, compact unit, with minor variations. One of the major figures in minimalist music, Philip Glass, was born on 31 January 1937, so he is now (minimally) 88. You can listen to a sample of his piano music at this tweet. He prefers to describe himself as a "classicist" and as a composer of "music with repetitive structures." I like his music!

11 July 23

I chose today's tie because its shimmering mixture of turquoise and silver patterns reminds me of spider webs. At least that's the best I can do to celebrate the birthday of Elwyn Brooks ("E. B.") White (1899-1985). One of his best known works is "Charlotte's Web," a wonderful story of friendship and devotion in an "odd couple" of a spider and a pig. I was surprised to learn that the book was targeted for banning from some school libraries in 2006, based on some parents' objections to the immorality (in their view) of portraying any creatures except humans as capable of speech.

10 February 22

Today is National Umbrella Day! There appears to be no good reason for this particular day on the calendar, but it is true that umbrellas deserve honor and respect. I have one tie that combines beach chairs and beach umbrellas, but I wore that back in July for National Hammock Day. So I chose to reach further back in history to June 2020 to find this pretty turquoise-and-silver design that deserves to get into the sunlight again. By the way, this is the 89th anniversary of the first singing telegram and the 300th anniversary of the death of the dread pirate John "Bartholomew" Roberts.

15 June 20

Happy Birthday (yesterday), Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806)! He developed Coulomb's law of electric attraction/repulsion (showing that the force between charged objects is proportional to the inverse square of their distance). His experimental apparatus was the "torsion balance," measuring the degree to which same-charged objects repelled each other. I chose this turquoise tie (not seen publicly since July 2018) because I get a charge out of it.

16 July 18

I am declaring today "Turquoise Day," mostly because it's time to wear this silvery turquoise tie. One historical fact for 16 July is that in 1439, kissing was banned in England (in order to stop the spread of the Black Death).

17 May 17

Today is Enya's birthday! Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin was born on this date in 1961. I chose this turquoise tie to remind me of her silvery-smooth voice and her songs about stars and waters. Her most popular song has been "Orinoco Flow ('Sail Away')," from 1988. She sang in English and "Elvish" in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). For this year's celebration II'll post these lyrics from "Anywhere Is" (1995):

I walk the maze of moments
But everywhere I turn to
Begins a new beginning
But never finds a finish
I walk to the horizon
And there I find another
It all seems so surprising
And then I find that I know

[Chorus:]
You go there you're gone forever
I go there I'll lose my way
If we stay here we're not together
Anywhere is


My photos do not capture the true turquoise of my shirt and tie.

3 March 16

Are you all set to celebrate the birthday of Georg Cantor (1845-1918), the creator of set theory (in mathematics and philosophy)? Among the set of people born on 3 March, he is the member who "introduced the mathematically meaningful concept of transfinite numbers, indefinitely large but distinct from one another" (from britannica.com). The two members of the Kleppinger household selected this tie out of the subset of ties-Gene-has-not-worn-recently because its boxy design illustrates the ideas of "inclusion" and "intersection."

23 September 14

Augustus Caesar, whose birth name was Gaius Octavius, was born on this date 2076 years ago (63 BCE). I think he would have enjoyed a tie with turquoise and silvery boxes.

7 August 13

Happy Birthday, Garrison Keillor, born on this date in 1942! I hope you like the turquoise tie I chose to wear for you today.

31 October 11

If you have poor psychic powers, do not despair! Today is "Increase Your Psychic Powers Day." (Those who already have good psychic powers knew this ahead of time.) One way to test your own psychic powers would be to predict what tie I will wear tomorrow -- and you can always increase your chances of being correct by telling me about it. Somebody somewhere thought I should wear this hypnotic cyan-turquoise-silver tie today.

8 August 11

No special occasion known for today (except as the birthday of several prominent physicists--Lawrence and Dirac), so I'm wearing a brand new birthday-present tie that matches my turquoise shirt!