Well I don’t have either of the books at the moment to find you an exact quote but IIRC in either The Dilbert Principal or The Dilbert Future Scott Adams says that it was to show whether he had sex or not.
If the tie is flat, which I don’t think it has been yet, it means that Dilbert has just had sex.
I’m sure somebody will be along with a quote from which-ever book it was.
There was an article in the news mumble years ago about the necktie. Apparently, there was one strip while he was dating Lisa when his tie was flaccid. Has anyone seen it?
Adams was quoted in the article as saying that he had written a series of strips about a female employee with a habit of sleeping with all her co-workers. He said that near the end of the series, Dilbert’s tie would be down and it would be ‘obvious’ that he had slept with her. The series never ran.
(Note to moderators: Scott Adams publishes The DNRC newsletter in the public domain. Its contents may be quoted or copied freely with proper attribution).
That is not how I read the site to which you linked. I got the following from the rules and notices page:
That said, I think your excerpt falls squarely within the fair use guidelines, so I see no need to redact it. I just thought you’d want to know for future reference.