Tag: special days

the special days of April, pt 1

As we’ve done in previous months, we’re going to look at the special days and holidays of this month.  As usual, this is not a complete list — those can be found elsewhere.  But I guarantee you will not find another list like this one.  This is not a mere list, because we add our own unique commentary and analysis.  In other words, we try to make it more fun.  And you are welcome to add to the discussion in the comments section.

Let’s get started with the month-long celebrations and observances:

  • National Humor Month — Then this is a great time to be reading this blog, because we’re all about humor!
  • National Pecan Month — To me, this says “eat pecan pie”.  Mmm…
  • International Guitar Month — Rock on, dude!
  • National Garden Month — This is when Mango-Man starts his infamous all-natural “survival of the fittest” garden.  That is, he doesn’t use chemicals and pesticides, and he doesn’t even bother watering it much.  It truly is survival of the fittest.  🙂
  • National Mathematics Education Month — I hope you already know the basics that are needed to get through life.  As far as the advanced stuff, I took Calculus I & II in college, learning all about derivatives, integrals, differential equations, abstract algebra, matrices, etc., and I use absolutely none of it in real life.  A few people might need to know it, but I didn’t need it for the computer programming I’ve done.  But I digress…
  • National Grilled Cheese Month — We’ve already discussed this before.  You can also add ham or bacon to your grilled cheese, and Miracle Whip goes well with it, too.  Mmm…

The only week-long observance I want to bring up this month is:

  • Week 1 Read a Road Map Week — Being a man, I don’t need road maps or directions.  However, in the spirit of this holiday, we should do what is implied here: take a road trip!  Does anyone want to take off for Colorado?  🙂

Now we’ll look at the individual day holidays:

  • 1 April Fool’s Day — You already know about this.  You play pranks and jokes on people.
  • 2 Children’s Book Day — I usually don’t read children’s books, because too many of them are dumbed-down (unnecessarily so in some cases).  But if you consider The Chronicles of Narnia to be a children’s series, that one is definitely worth reading.
  • peanut butter jelly sandwich2 National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day — I like the food holidays.  🙂
  • 3 Don’t Go to Work Unless it’s Fun Day — I figure most people would choose to stay home.  Although even with my current job, where I get to do work I enjoy, I still could use another day off.  After all, we have to work more days than we have off, and we should strive to be balanced in life.
  • 4 National Walk to Work Day — So you get a day off, then they want you to walk to work. Ideally, though, this is a good idea, and a good time of year for it. But sometimes it’s just not practical.
  • 4 Walk Around Things Day — This is vague.  But I suppose if you’re walking to work, you’ll have to walk around buildings and parked cars and such.
  • 4 Tell a Lie Day — You shouldn’t do this.  Why is this even a holiday?  It’s immoral!  Even if it’s a “holiday”, we’ll still have to give an account to God for all that we say…
  • 7 Caramel Popcorn Day — I prefer cheese popcorn, but still, it’s a food holiday.
  • 7 No Housework Day — This is a great idea!  I’ll have to tell my wife about this one!  🙂  Instead of housework, we could do something more fun, like play games or watch movies or play sports outside.  Almost anything is better than housework!
  • 8 Draw a Picture of a Bird Day — Uhh… I’ll pass on this one.  But, if it’s your thing, go ahead…
  • 9 Name Yourself Day — On this day, you can change your name for the day.  So if you don’t like your name, or if you’d rather be known by a nickname, this is the time.  I’m thinking about going with “Master of the Universe”.  So all my co-workers (including my bosses) will have to refer to me as such, or I will ignore them.
  • 11 Eight Track Tape Day — I barely remember these (because I’m not that old).  I never owned any, but one of my friend’s parents did.  They were interesting, and some argue they were better than cassettes, which replaced them.  But now they’re relics, replaced with CDs and MP3s.
  • 11 Barbershop Quartet Day — Is it a coincidence this is the same day as 8-Track Tape Day?  Just kidding!  This would be a good day to check out the musical style of barbershop quartets.  Try something different for a change.  You can probably find some online to listen to.
  • 12 Big Wind Day — This day blows me away!  (Sorry…)  This is a holiday because on this day in 1934, the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory recorded the highest surface wind ever measured, anywhere on earth.  This big wind was officially recorded at 231 miles per hour.  To celebrate that, take notice of the wind outside, watching its effects and listening to it.  If there isn’t any natural wind, feel free to create your own big wind.  (AWW-RIGHT!)
  • 13 Blame Someone Else Day — I think politicians already do this every day, along with much of the mainstream media.  It seems like everything is President Bush’s fault, somehow.  I don’t care for this holiday, because people already do this too much.  We need to take personal responsibility for our lives.  If you’re going to enjoy life, it’s up to you to make it happen.
  • 14 International Moment of Laughter Day — On this day, you should take (a lot of) breaks to have a moment of laughter.  After all, laughing is like jogging on the inside — it’s good for you.  So for your health, make time for laughing.  And, of course, this blog is a good source of laughter.  🙂
  • clouds over island14 Look up at the Sky Day — Go figure out why the sky is blue…  Seriously, take a moment to enjoy the clouds.  It’s even better if there’s a storm coming through, with dark clouds and lightning.  I enjoy storm chasing, but it can get dangerous…

This is getting really long, so I’m going to break it up into two posts.  To be continued…  (Click here for the next part.)

the special days of March, pt 2

Now we’ll continue the list of the special days and holidays of March, which we started yesterday.

  • 12 Girl Scouts Day — They do sell some good cookies, like the Samoas and Thin Mints.
  • 12 Plant a Flower Day — I don’t care so much about this, but we do have a certain reader who has a serious interest in flowers (which he denies).
  • 14 Learn about Butterflies Day — Okay, here goes.  Some butterflies can taste with their feet.  I’m sure glad we can’t!  Imagine sitting down to eat a good meal but tasting your socks after a long day…
  • 14 National Potato Chip Day — Yeah, here we go!  On this day, you should eat lots of potato chips.  Of course, choosing one single variety can be difficult, so eat however many kinds you want.  Also, remember that diets don’t apply on holidays.  🙂
  • 14 National Pi Day — No, that’s not a typo.  This is Pi Day because the date is 3/14, or 3.14.
  • 15 Everything You Think is Wrong Day — I know some people who live this every day!
  • 15 Incredible Kid Day — I don’t have any kids, but I was once an incredible kid, myself.  Now I’m even more incredible, because I’ve learned to control my super powers.  I wonder if there’s an incredible adult day?  Or a day to celebrate superheroes?  If not, there should be!
  • 15 Dumbstruck Day — Would you be dumbstruck if I told you “MY BUTT IS ON FIRE!”?  No?  Me neither, because it’s not.  But it’s a funny phrase, and it’s a good example of this holiday.  Your goal on this day is to make people dumbstruck.  So say things that aren’t expected, to try to make people speechless and/or to get that “deer in the headlights” look.  You get bonus points if they say, “Uhh”, three or more times.  🙂
  • 16 Everything You Do is Right Day — Some people think this concept applies to them at all times, but no one is always right.  Politicians especially need to realize this valuable truth, because so many of them do stupid things, but they never admit they were stupid or wrong.  (Perhaps they never realize it?)
  • 17 Submarine Day — Is this referring to the big hero sandwich or the boat?  Since I don’t have much use for a submarine-style boat in these parts, I’ll apply this to the sammich.  (Do you like that spelling?  It’s fun to say it that way.)
  • 19 Poultry Day — This seems like a good day to have fried chicken.  Or perhaps a casserole dish full of Mexican Chicken.  There are a lot of options to consider here…  Actually, since there are so many good dishes, this should be a month-long celebration…
  • 20 International Earth Day — Be thankful for the Earth today.  Living on Earth is much better than living on Mars!
  • alien20 Extraterrestrial Abductions Day — I would advise against participating in this.  While such things might be hypothetical, there’s supposedly some bad things that happen when you’re abducted.  Plus, they might not bring you back — you might become their pet!
  • 21 Fragrance Day — Everyone has a scent, but that’s not what this day is about.  You’re supposed to wear cologne or perfume, to make yourself all good-smelling.  However, I’m afraid some of my readers will use this day to “excuse” their other fragrances, like poopourri.  *groan*
  • 22 National Goof Off Day — This is a holiday that I can really support!  We all need a day off occasionally, even a day off for goofing off.  Sometimes we burn vacation / PDO days to do projects around the house, but it’s really refreshing to spend a day doing nothing important.  Coincidentally, this is the month that Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out for the Nintendo Wii, and it would be awesome to devote a day to playing that and eating nachos.  But feel free to spend the day however you see fit.  Just don’t do any real work…
  • 23 Toast Day — Let us have a toast to bread, for without bread, there could be no toast.  Also, here’s the marketing slogan from The Toast Marketing Board: “Eat more toast.”
  • 23 National Chip and Dip Day — Yes!  Cheese dip and chips is one of my favorite meals!  I know, to some it’s not a meal, but they should try it.  Sometimes I’ll add some side dishes like chicken strips or taquitos or hot dogs, but they’re not required.  It’s especially filling if you make chili-cheese dip, which I usually do.  Anyway, on this day, eat lots of nachos / chips and dip.  (This holiday should occur every month!)
  • 23 Near Miss Day — This day commemorates a near miss by an asteroid the size of a mountain.  It came within 500,000 miles of Earth.  Perhaps in interstellar terms, that might be close, but it’s not so big of a deal that we should make a holiday of it.  Why does the average person care?  There are people whose job is to watch all the objects in space that are close to Earth, including all asteroids that will be close at some point.
  • 24 Dyngus Day — This is a Polish holiday, where guys chase girls to drench them with squirt guns or buckets of water.  This one sounds fun.  Perhaps we should adopt this in the U.S.
  • 24 National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day — Sounds healthy!  Raisins are a fruit, and chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which is a vegetable.  And nutritionists say we should eat more fruits and vegetables.  So eat all of these you want!
  • 25 Pecan Day — I don’t normally eat pecans by themselves, but the holiday doesn’t specify that you have to.  You can have some pecan pie, or chocolate-covered pecans.
  • 25 Waffle Day — I like food holidays!  You should eat lots of waffles, and experiment with different toppings and syrups to add some variety.
  • 26 Make Up Your Own Holiday Day — I really like this idea!  Everyone should create their own, obviously.  I think I’m going to go with something like “Have a paid day off work where you play video games, eat unlimited amounts of chicken-bacon-ranch pizza, have dirt cake for dessert, have nachos for snacks, drink lots of sweet tea, get a massage from your woman every hour, and do whatever else you want day”.  🙂
  • 27 National “Joe” Day — This day is for everyone who dislikes their name.  On this day you can call yourself “Joe”.  I’m thinking instead of limiting it to “Joe”, why not have a day where you can call yourself whatever you want?
  • 28 Something on a Stick Day — This should be on the same weekend as Toad Suck Daze, the local festival here in Conway, AR, because they sell almost any food on a stick.  One year I tried gator on a stick.  (Yeah, it tasted a lot like chicken.)
  • 29 Smoke and Mirrors Day — Pay no attention to the man behind the smoke and mirrors!
  • 30 I am in Control Day — You can believe this if you want, but it probably won’t make much difference.  I suspect this might be a day for people to daydream about being the boss at work, or being in control of your marriage, or for ruling the world.
  • 30 Take a Walk in the Park Day — Take a hike, bub!
  • 31 Bunsen Burner Day — This may sound like something to do with school, so it may bring back bad memories for some.  But try to let go of the past.  Where’s there’s a Bunsen Burner, there’s fire.  And where there’s fire, you can burn stuff.  So this could be rather fun…  Just be careful if you’re in a laboratory and you start grabbing random chemicals to put in the fire, because, while explosions are awesome, they’re not quite as cool up close.
  • 31 Tater Day — On this day, you eat taters.  What’s taters, eh?  Po-tay-toes.  Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew.  Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish.

Well, that concludes our listing of the holidays for March.  There was a lot this month.  I hope you found some holidays that you can celebrate to make the month a little more special.

the special days of March, pt 1

As we have done in previous months, we will look at the special days and holidays of this month.  Since it’s March, I reckon we’ll focus on March’s holidays.  🙂  As usual, this is not a complete list — those can be found elsewhere.  But I guarantee you will not find another list like this one.  Not only do we list the best of the unusual and strange and obscure holidays, but we add our own unique commentary and analysis.

Let’s start with looking at the month-long celebrations and observances.

  • Music in Our Schools Month — I think students should be exposed to different types of music, like with Music Appreciation classes.  But make it fun.  Too many people know only the “Top 40” stuff on the radio.
  • National Frozen Food Month — This may sound like a bachelor’s food only, but there are now some nice frozen foods, like lasagna, which are really good.  Mmm… lasagna…
  • National Noodle Month — Speaking of lasagna…
  • National Nutrition Month — I’m not sure if this should be the same month as National Frozen Food Month.  Also, I figure this would be January, when everyone is starting a diet and trying to eat healthy.  By March, most of us have given up.  (Maybe they want renewed emphasis on nutrition…)
  • National Peanut Month — Peanuts are good by themselves, but add chocolate, and they’re even better.  Or you can have something with peanut butter and chocolate, like Reese’s, which are excellent.

The only weekly celebration worth mentioning is:

  • 2nd Week National Bubble Week — A good idea for bubbles is to blow them over cubicle walls at work and act like you don’t know what happened.  Another good office prank is to rip a bubbly fart, but you surely don’t want to get caught for that one!

Now let’s look at the individual day holidays and observances:

  • 1 National Pig Day — Since most people don’t keep pigs as pets, I reckon it’s best to celebrate them by eating sausage, bacon, and ham.  Mmm…
  • 2 Old Stuff Day — Uhh… what?!?  I reckon you should be thankful for antique cars and such things.  This day ought to make the Important Evil Genius happy, because he supposedly has a rather large collection of antiquated old relics that he plans to build a doomsday device with.
  • 3 I Want You to be Happy Day — I really do want you to be happy, every day.  That’s why I publish this great blog — to make everyone’s day a little more surreal.  🙂
  • 3 If Pets Had Thumbs Day — According to some scientists who believe in evolution, this would make animals a lot closer to humans.  But that’s silly. In fact, this whole day is silly.  What’s the point of it?
  • 3 National Anthem Day — If this is for the national anthem, there’s already a holiday or two where that is traditionally sung and/or played.  But perhaps this means we should each have our own anthem this day.  I’ve always thought it would be awesome if we each had our own theme song.  It could play when we get to work (although that might reveal your lateness to your co-workers) or when we walk into a meeting at work.  Of course, we’d want the option to turn it off, for when we needed to be in stealth mode.  But I think this could be really awesome.
  • 4 Holy Experiment Day — Uhh… what is this for?  I’ll figure out something.  How about on this day you try to live a completely holy life.  Although, if you’re a Christian, you should be trying to do that every day.
  • 5 Multiple Personality Day — Isn’t that normally considered a disorder?  If so, why are we celebrating it?  It can be confusing to have multiple personalities, so I recommend against it.  Besides, if you want to add or remove parts from your current personality, you can do so without adding the disorder.
  • 6 Dentist’s Day — I appreciate dentists, but I’m not going to celebrate this day.  They already make plenty of money, plus I don’t want to go to the dentist any more than I have to.
  • lasagna6 National Frozen Food Day — This would be a good day for lasagna.  Mmm…  Of course, there are other options, like Hot Pockets, and there are some frozen desserts that are pretty good.
  • 6 On this day in 1912, Oreo cookies went on sale for the first time.  Now we might take them for granted.  But imagine eating your first Oreo, then discovering how good it is with milk.
  • 8 Be Nasty Day — Why is this a holiday?  We shouldn’t ever be nasty.  There’s a place for joking amongst friends, but we shouldn’t ever be nasty.  (I could come up with better holidays than this…)
  • 9 Employee Appreciation Day — Employees should definitely be appreciated.  This would be a good day to give everyone the afternoon off, or to let them leave early, or to at least buy their lunch.  If this day is on a weekend, it should be observed on the following Monday.
  • 9 Panic Day — This is just stupid.  If there’s a reason to panic, then panic, but don’t schedule it!
  • 9 Daylight Saving Time Begins — We’ve discussed this before, and we decided it should be changed to better accommodate the average working person.  I really don’t like losing an hour of sleep, nor does that help productivity the following Monday.  There is a better way…
  • 10 Middle Name Pride Day — This is good if you have a good middle name, but some people may not.  Also, it’s a good time to learn why you were given the name you got.
  • 11 Johnny Appleseed Day — This is to honor a man who planted and sold a lot of apple trees some 200 years ago.  He lived a simple life, and he was a deeply religious person.  And, if you’re curious, that wasn’t his real name.  I didn’t know you could be famous for planting apple trees…  He has become a legend in some ways.  I need to figure out how to become a legend, other than planting trees.  Perhaps someday this blog will be legendary.  If my blog traffic continues to grow at its current pace, eventually the whole world will be reading it.  🙂

This post is getting really long, so I’ll continue the list tomorrow.  (There will be a link above this post to the next one.)

the special days of February, pt 2

We now continue our look at the special days / holidays / observances in February.

  • 9 Toothache Day — I will pass on this one!
  • 11 Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day — You shouldn’t ever cry over spilled milk, so I don’t know why there’s an individual day for it.
  • 13 Get a Different Name Day — This is the time for you to go by your favorite nickname or alias.
  • 14 Valentine’s Day — This is the day when florists raise the price of roses by a few hundred percent, and when your wife / girlfriend expects red roses and chocolates and a card.
  • 15 Singles Awareness Day — I imagine singles are plenty aware of their singleness after Valentine’s Day, so this holiday is totally unnecessary.
  • 17 Random Acts of Kindness Day — The key here is that the acts of kindness are random.  There are a ton of possibilities here.  For example, you could give someone a pet turtle; just leave it on their desk at work.  Pets make people happier, I’ve heard.
  • 18 President’s Day — Some of the famous presidents already have their own holidays, so this is for the presidents that you don’t remember.  I don’t know what you should do to celebrate, unless it means getting off work.  Unfortunately, most companies don’t observe this one.
  • 19 National Chocolate Mint Day — Your actions this day should be obvious : eat foods with chocolate mint.
  • 20 Hoodie Hoo Day — According to my research, you are supposed to go outside at noon to shout “Hoodie-hoo!” to scare away Winter and make way for Spring.  Um, is this for real?  Apparently there are people who actually meet to do this.  To each their own…
  • 22 Be Humble Day — I try to be humble, but it’s difficult when you’re this cool…  🙂
  • 22 International World Thinking Day — This is a holiday celebrated by the Girl Scouts and other girl groups.  On this day, they should set aside some time to think about things.  🙂
  • 23 International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day — Your dog probably already appreciates them plenty, but what about you?  This day, you should eat a dog biscuit or two so you can fully appreciate them.  I know, this is unconventional, but trust me — it’s a good time.  It’s best to do this with some friends over.  I guarantee there will be some laughs.
  • 23 Tennis Day — Tennis is an excellent sport and is a great source of exercise, but this should be in the spring, I think.  The weather in February might not be too cooperative for outdoor sports.
  • 24 National Tortilla Chip Day — Eat tortilla chips.  Note that cheese dip goes extremely well with tortilla chips.
  • 27 No Brainer Day — By definition, a “no brainer” is something that’s simple, easy, obvious, and/or logical.  So on this day, you should only do simple stuff, like eating and sleeping and watching TV.  For those things that require thinking, you shouldn’t do it today.  So obviously you shouldn’t be working this day.
  • 28 Public Sleeping Day — Work is in public, right?  🙂
  • 29 Leap Day — As you know, this day occurs once every four years.  I happen to know someone who was born on Leap Day, so she has a birthday only every 4 years.  That’s kinda neat.  I think businesses ought to give their employees the day off on Leap Day, since it’s a bonus day.  It should be like an extra Saturday during the weekend.  Someone should make this happen.  If we have to work on the extra day of the year, we should be paid extra.  It makes sense to me…

Well, that’s all, folks.  Tune in next month for the next one.  Wait, actually, you should tune in every day, because there’s all kinds of funny, exclusive content here on this blog.  That way, you won’t miss anything.  So just bookmark the homepage (click on the name in the logo at the top of the page to get to the homepage), and tell your friends.  See you next time!