Be an Angel and Hug Your Boss on Ramadan

Wacky Holidays presents: Saturday, August 22, 2009!

Be An Angel Day - August 22

"Do one small act of service for someone."
"Be an Angel Day" got started in 1993 by Rev. Jayne Howard Feldman. Today we shift the focus off ourselves in order to do something nice for someone else. In other words, "be an angel ... be a blessing in someone's life". Because although doing something for yourself can be rewarding, it just doesn't measure up to the rewards you'll enjoy when you give of yourself to help someone else out. Or just spend today meditating on angels and get inspired by what they do in order to plan something for another day.
For some more ideas and inspiration, click here.

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Ramadan

Today marks the beginning of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. I remember the first time I ever heard of Ramadan: I was in high school and one of my teachers, Mrs. Jabarin, was talking about how she and her family were observing it. One of my classmates, Deena, she also practiced Islam and was observing the holiday. Ramadan consists of the strict discipline of fasting and refraining from excessive indulgence or "ill-natured" behavior. It is also the time to pray more fervently, ask for forgiveness of sins, and just generally spend more time than usual meditating on how to be a better person overall. Ramadan was the month in which the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Ramadan begins at sundown.

Since I am not Muslim I can't offer any more insight on this holiday, but I encourage open-minded education on anything.

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Hug Your Boss Day

Okay, I'm going to be real honest here. I can't think of one boss I've ever had that made me compelled to hug them. Personally, I think that's inappropriate. Perhaps that's because I'm American? That may very well be, as this seems to be a holiday with it's roots in Great Britain. Either way the website built around this holiday made me giggle, and it also gave me food for thought: perhaps I should seek out the kind of boss I'd like to hug???
Don't get me wrong - I like my boss. In the television news industry he is difficult to beat. I have also worked quite hard to get on his good side; I was inspired by the people he's hired as my co-workers and supervisors.

I think of plenty of people as being 'great', but it doesn't make me want to hug them. Maybe it's just me.

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Hope you enjoyed today's serving of Wacky Holidays! Tune in tomorrow for a whole new set of 'em! You don't want to miss it - they're gonna be good ones!

Pony Express Day and Virtual Worlds Day

Yeah, so ... another day, another nearly-missed blog post. It's 11:17pm as I begin this. *lesigh*

Pony Express Day

I couldn't find too much on this at all, surprisingly. I mean, I can find leagues and leagues of stuff about the Pony Express of course; but nearly nothing pertaining to "Pony Express Day" specifically.
For a rather pleasant little blog post on the subject that is short, much shorter than my typical blog post, click here. I've actually meant to link to that blog on several occasions, because they are doing essentially the same thing I'm doing, but they've been doing it longer and their blog posts are quite easy to read, not long, exhaustive essays like I tend to write. I really like Zany Holidays a lot, so definitely check them out.

Virtual Worlds Day

Again, this must not be something that's blogged about too much; which makes me rather sad, because I could change that if only I'd gotten to this sooner ... *lesigh again*

Today celebrates virtual worlds such as Second Life, as to be distinguished from online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft, or any other game for that matter. Today we recognize worlds that are set up and designed to be lived just like real life, but without all the drawbacks and setbacks like disease, death, and physical imperfections like zits and flabby arms.

Then again, I argue that even the virtual worlds feel the limitations of real life. For example, you use real world money to buy in-game items, and you can even make and sell your own. Which begs the question: does that also create groups of people within the virtual realm who hold the prestige because of the number and kind of items their real-world money allows them to buy? Perhaps that just me being pessimistic but I'm sure that happens.

I started a Second Life account. Perhaps if I can later I'll update this post with pictures of my character. I only logged in once, it really didn't grab me all that much.

Happy Birthday Snuffleupagus!!!

Maybe he'll eat some cupcakes to celebrate, as today is also Cupcake Day.

National Thrift Shop Day

My calendar tells me that today is National Sandcastle Day.

Huh?

I could have sworn that occurred on Saturday: National Sandcastle & Sculpture Day. So, erm ... why have a separate day 2 days later? Moreover, I've found evidence of this in a Google search.

Hm.

Well, for as much as I love sandcastles, there's another item on the calendar today that I find even more interesting: National Thrift Shop Day!

Thrift shops are great. What's not to love about a thrift store? People throw stuff out and it's still useful, it's still good. People buy clothes, wear it once or twice, and get tired of it. Off it goes to the Goodwill where people like me, who can't afford the same thing new, can buy it at a deep discount.

People will buy kitchen appliances and they sit unused for a year. "Well, I could put this in the storage unit, but I know I'm never going to use this juicer, so I might as well donate it to the Salvation Army."

People get married, buy a bunch of plates and glasses and silverware and either upgrade after a while or get divorced and neither party wants it. Guess where it winds up? Either a garage sale or, yep, good ol' thrift store.

Furniture, kids toys, shoes, electronics, books, you name it, if it's still good enough for somebody else to get some use out of it, there is a resale shop holding it for some lucky, thrifty shopper. There are so many good things about a thrift shop!

Thrift shops hold a special place in my heart because besides providing great deals on cool stuff you wouldn't otherwise own, they also contribute to charity, and just generally help people who can't help themselves. Community thrives in a thrift shop.

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Since I posted so late today, if you've read this far then you can already get a jump start on tomorrow's Wacky Holiday:

• Cupcake Day - Tuesday, August 18, 2009

I will have some goodies for this one, but don't wait for me! Go ahead and bake up a storm, make your co-workers/spouse extremely happy to see a big plate of cupcakes to eat!

Also, wish Snuffleupagus a Happy Birthday!
*Note: There is one thing being celebrated tomorrow which I was really looking forward to blogging about: Bad Poetry Day. However, I found out this is a copyrighted holiday by Wellcat.com who requires me to ask permission before I do anything with their copyrighted holiday, for profit or not. Therefore, I will not be blogging about that tomorrow, because while I'm not against people making money, I'm just simply more interested in holidays/observances of a "wacky" nature that don't have a bunch of strings attached, and/or bringing awareness to worthy causes, such as Assistance Dog Week, for example.

Kool-Aid Days - August 14-16, 2009

Fun facts about Kool-Aid:

• Invented by Edwin Perkins and his wife Kitty in Hastings, NE
• Predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack
• Edwin figured out that removing the liquid, leaving only the powder, helped reduce shipping costs, and Kool-Ade was born
• Named changed to "Kool-Aid" due to U.S. government regulations regarding the labeling of fruit juice in products using the suffix "-ade"
• The original flavors were: Cherry, Grape, Lemon-lime, Orange, Raspberry, and Strawberry

From Wikipedia:

The mascot of Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid Man is a large, anthropomorphic, frosty pitcher filled with Kool-Aid (usually cherry, though other flavors have been used). He was introduced in Kool-Aid advertising shortly after General Foods acquired the brand. In TV and print ads, Kool-Aid Man was known for bursting suddenly through walls, seemingly summoned by the making and imbibing of Kool-Aid by children. His catch phrase is "Oh, yeah!"

Click here to see how Hastings, Nebraska, the birthplace of Kool-Aid, celebrated Kool-Aid Days.

People dye their hair with Kool-Aid. People also dye their dog's fur with Kool-Aid:

Oh yeah!

Best Friends, Homeless Animals, Sandcastles and Relaxation

Each of today's observances really deserves it's own individual post, if you ask me. And Lord knows I could write an individual post about each one, too! Today's Wacky Holidays strike such a warm and fuzzy chord, after you get done reading this you just might faint from the positive vibes.
Best Friends Day
None of the other observances today get to me quite like this one. It's only appropo that I should blog about Best Friends the same year I reunite with my original partner-in-crime, Michelle Kuhn, now Michelle Reid.

Let me tell you about Michelle and I: we were inseparable from 3rd grade to 8th grade, kind of went our separate ways a little bit through high school, and after that it was touch and go through college/marriage years. We had a falling out almost a decade ago - that's how much time had passed before we began speaking to each other again earlier this year. It wasn't a big, knock-down, drag-out fight that began the silence; it was more me turning my back on her. She had just gotten married and was pregnant with her first child. I admit it; I was jealous. Discussions of where we wanted to wind up as adults consisted of me doing the domestic, raising-a-family thing, and Michelle running off child-free on some great adventure with someone she may, or may not, be married to.

Well, reality had other ideas and somehow we wound up living out the other one's plans! Which to me wasn't fair at the time. Since I couldn't share my feelings with her, I just stopped calling her.

Just to prove how great of a person she is, even after all this time has passed, even after doing that to her, burying the hatchet was no big deal and she was only too happy to start corresponding with me again! She now has two beautiful kids, still married to the same guy 10 years later. It's pretty funny to us now, looking back on how things worked out for both of us. Michelle will always be my bestest-best friend, and I am only too happy to devote time and space in my blog today to honor the friendship we had.

As if that weren't enough, I am also blessed to have developed a deep and lasting friendship with someone I've only known a couple of years: Jen Gillespie. Whereas Michelle was my childhood best friend, Jen is my grown-up best friend. We have a lot of the same tastes in things - we both love reading books, we're both health-conscious in a political way, we love cats, our careers span a decade or more in the broadcast television news industry. We both have our days where we just hate people, probably more a symptom of having worked in news production as long as we have. We both know what it's like to work in union shops with ancient, crotchety old directors who are overpaid and underworked. We also know what it's like to work with crotchety old directors who are the only ally you can find for miles in this business.

Jen and I don't agree on everything, but through our jobs we have found the kind of uncommon kinship that doesn't come along too often in life. For that I am especially grateful to have achieved this not once, but twice in my own lifetime. If friends are the blessings of life, my cup has truly been filled to overflowing.

Doing the internet research ... it seems Best Friends Day ALSO occurs on June 8! Hm. Well, since I missed out on the June 8 date, I'm offering my thoughts today instead. Take it or leave it.

Here is a really great essay on what "best friends" means to one journalist. In fact, it's so well-written it almost makes me want to substitute it for my entry today. Almost. Jenna Wolfe's take on Best Friends.

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National Homeless Animals Day - another take on "best friends"
Shelters for homeless animals need only one thing more than extra space and supplies: money. The people who are unable to adopt for one reason or another can still help out. If you are one of those people, won't you please consider making a small donation to your local shelter? To supplement that or in lieu of a monetary donation, shelters also take donations of supplies like old blankets, towels, food bowls, and the like.
We recently featured on our newscasts a little girl not more than 12 years old, Kaleigh Lenartz, who celebrated her birthday a little differently than the average pre-teen. She asked her friends and family to buy food and supplies to donate to the local animal shelter in lieu of birthday presents for herself. It was downright humbling, and for this blogger, really got me thinking how I could do the same thing. Then I thought, what if everybody made a similar sacrifice? That would mean less heartbreaking stories on the news. Complete elimination of such heartbreak would be ideal of course, but cutting down on seeing those sad, lonely faces in our stories would be the next best thing.

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Sandcastle & Sculpture Day

'Nuff said.

Although it should be noted that this observance primarily has it's roots in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Even still, what's not to love about sandcastles!

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National Relaxation Day
How do you relax?
That might be my most favorite question in the world to ponder because there is NOTHING I love better than to kick back at the end of the day and ahhhh ... relax. Big, oversized t-shirt; baggy "house-only" pants; fuzzy pink slippers; warm, polar-fleece robe (yes, even in Florida - A/C gets cold down here!); and either a hot cup of tea or something sweet to eat. And something soft to sit on ... relaxation for me cannot come fast enough some days.

One article I just stumbled across proposes going even further: turning off the cell phone, and my favorite: signing off of Facebook! Another article suggests simply taking a nap or going outside to watch the clouds and daydream.

Sign me up.
If you are one of those people who has trouble relaxing, read this article for some tips on how to unwind.

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Chauvin Day - Origin of "Chauvinism"

Ever wonder where the term "chauvinism" came from? I didn't, but in researching for today's Wacky Holiday post I found out. Today is also "Chauvin Day", named after one of Napoleon's soldiers, Nicolas Chauvin. According to the Nashua Telegraph he is described as the "ultimate fanboy": he idolized Napoleon, it turns out. Originally "chauvinism" meant "blindly zealous nationalism" but has evolved through the years to mean "biased devotion" to any group, cause or attitude, i.e. 'male chauvinism'.

So today we celebrate Nicolas Chauvin. It's not his fault that his name descended to such infamy. Here's hoping to restore some semblance of honor to his name again.

National Navajo Code Talker Day

Today is National Navajo Code Talker Day - it is also "V-J" Day, designated just like that, with capitalized letters and a hyphen in-between. I didn't know what V-J Day was so I looked it up: it means "Victory over Japan". It is the date Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces in the war that got two nuclear bombs dropped on them. Not like Japan had much choice after we annihilated their country and their people! (How, exactly, is that a fair fight? Just sayin'.)

Okay so there's my token mention on that.

The Navajo Code Talkers on the other hand ... it was their job to send coded messages that the Japanese couldn't decipher during World War II, and it worked: the Japanese never cracked their code. Now this to me is a perfect example of where the United States military made a SMART decision. The esteemed U.S. Marine Corps, for which I hold a special place in my heart, employed the Code Talkers in every assault conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945.**

Apparently the Japanese were skilled code breakers, but were "baffled" by the Navajo language.*

Nicholas Cage starred in the movie, Windtalkers which immortalizes the Code Talkers. Recognition for their contribution did not come until 1992. Modest internet research reveals tons of information and history about these heroes. Clearly, the contribution the Marine Code Talkers made to ending the war quickly and to U.S. military history is, as one website puts it, "nothing short of monumental".

In any event, utilizing the Navajo language in order to help win the wars was pretty clever if you ask me. Just knowing that the people who are native to this land fought on our side to help us win, by giving us their most precious resource ... what can one say to that? "Thank you" seems sorely inadequate.

Click on the poster above to go to a full-size version where you can read everything.

If you do nothing else today, go spend a few minutes learning about the incredible service and sacrifice these wonderful, brave people gave to our country. Better yet, Google "Navajo Code Talkers", and off you go...

*Info taken from the website, Naval History and Heritage Command.
**(Both my dad and a half-brother fought in two different wars as Marines, my dad in WWII and my brother in Vietnam. My dad never told me about the Code Talkers, mostly because I don't think he was stationed where they were working.)

Dilemma

I have less than 2 hours to post to this blog today and still make it count. How can I come up with something meaningful in that short amount of time without making it seem like a patchwork quilt of other's people's work?

The answer is, I can't. So while I may not promote today's blog post - there was nothing in the NaBloPoMo rules that said I was supposed to promote it exactly - at least something will show up here for today's date.

It's too bad, too, because there were a few things going on today that were of mild interest to me: Sewing Machine Day and IBM PC Day. Vinyl records make today's list as well. Today was also International Youth Day.

• Sewing Machine Day - Okay, nothing to be found here except for discrepancies on exactly which date this is observed, and neither of those dates were for today! Click here for the one source that gives today's date as Sewing Machine Day. Click here to see what another source says about the June 13th date (which also acknowledges Sept. 10 as another date it is observed). Here is yet a third source with any information on this event, however it is listed as a June event.
• IBM PC Day - I really couldn't find anything about this day either, other than a blurb in an online article that mentions today's date and an event that took place nearly 30 years ago: on August 12, 1981, in a ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in NYC, the world's first IBM personal computer was introduced with a pricetag of only $1,565.

The $1,565 price bought a system unit, a keyboard and a color/graphics capability. Options included a display, a printer, two diskette drives, extra memory, communications, game adapter and application packages — including one for text processing. The development team referred to their creation as a mini-compact, at a mini-price, with IBM engineering under the hood.

For more on the birth of the thing few people can live without in this day and age, click here.

• Vinyl Record Day - Finally, something with a whole entire website attached to it! Vinyl Record Day is,

  "the First Nonprofit organization dedicated to: The Preservation of the Cultural Influence, the Recordings and the Cover Art of the Vinyl Record."

  Coooooooooool!!!!! Now this is something I can totally appreciate. Music lovers of all ages should definitely check out this website, it is chock full of goodies. Maybe if I ever finish this blog post and I have time before I go to work at 3am I will check it out myself. If nothing else you should check out their links page - tons and tons of resources there. Turns out Edison invented the phonograph on this date in 1877. I'd say that's a good choice for celebrating Vinyl Record Day.
• International Youth Day - Our future ... yes, I'd say setting aside a day to honor the world's youth is definitely a good idea. The United Nations endorsed the recommendation of making today's date the day we honor young people across the globe at their December 1999 General Assembly. So the first observance was August 12, 2000. Now I kind of feel guilty I didn't jump on writing this up 24 hours ago, so that way my social media network would be notified, because I truly do believe this is such a worthy cause, worthier than most. Children are so precious; they totally deserve to be honored. How often do we shove them aside, drop them off at the babysitter's, and just generally ignore them, not because we're not interested but because we are simply too busy as adults trying to keep the roof over their heads and ours? Well today reminds us that, for one day at least, we can spend all day showing them just how important they are to us. So if you're reading this now, don't feel bad about celebrating Int'l Youth Day a day or two late - main thing is, if you have kids or nieces, nephews, best friend's kids, etc. ... show them how truly special they are: just spend some time with them. They will always remember you for that.

The link above takes you to "Children International" which is more colorful than the UN's website which I found to be rather text-heavy and dry. The United Nations' theme this year is: "Sustainability: Our Challenge. Our Future." To read more about that, click here.

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Okay - I guess I'm finished. 11:30pm. Shameful!

But what I'm going to post tomorrow was what I had intended for today and just never got around to finishing. It's mostly finished ... but believe me, it's worth waiting for. It's a doozy. There is one, lone, unique holiday for tomorrow which I may just post separately if I have time - International Left-Handers Day, 2009.

Celebrating Agnosticism - Ingersoll Day

I love stumbling on these treasure troves of information! This Wacky Holidays calendar has positively revolutionized my thinking in some ways. Take yesterday for example: I had no idea how wonderfully complex and sophisticated the music of Duran Duran is until I sat down with great deliberation to listen to their catalog. Before that they were only an 80s pop band to me!

Today's post will no doubt strike another chord of emotional reaction with my readers; if my views on Hiroshima made enemies with the military men and women, then today's post may very well rankle the chains of my religious friends. Of course, I know I'm posting these touchy subject matters by choice, and there are certainly other things I could write about. However I choose to write about the things that interest me. I also enjoy learning new things. I'm very open-minded. That's what today's post is about.

I almost began this post by saying, "Well there's nothing on the calendar to celebrate today, so let's look ahead to tomorrow ... " but then I was only going off the agenda emailed to me from my Google calendar. That only reflects what I manually entered into that calendar, not the websites I culled the information from. So just to be sure I went to the source and sure enough there are actually two items on Brownielocks August Holidays calendar for today (not counting the weekly and monthly observances of course): Ingersoll Day and President's (or Presidential) Joke Day.

The latter really didn't grab me, so out of sheer obligation to my readers I looked up Ingersoll Day, and herein lies my joy in preparing these posts: I learned something I wouldn't have known otherwise if I hadn't bothered to look it up. I guess that's the thing about being raised by a pair of English teachers - one learns these disciplines early in life, the discipline to look up something one doesn't know about.

Robert Green Ingersoll lived in the late 19th century, from 1833-1899. Today would have been his birthday, which is a good choice for a remembrance. The website Secular Seasons calls him "the most successful orator" of his time. Dubbed the "Great Agnostic" he held lectures that "attracted huge crowds", where he criticized religion and promoted freethought.

Before my devoutly Christian friends turn me off completely here, you better listen to this: as a leading political figure he also campaigned against slavery and for the rights of women and minorities. That sounds so opposite of what you were expecting, isn't it? I wasn't expecting it, but then I really don't know anything about agnosticism ... that's why I read the article in the hopes of learning something. Luckily, this has turned out to be a great learning experience, because it sounds like this guy has something of great value to share with humanity. This guy is not afraid to speak the truth. And as a Christian, I don't feel threatened by it at all, because he saw the exact same things I see and rally against myself.

" We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins -- they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of today -- of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago. These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars -- neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience -- and for them all, man is indebted to man. "

~ Robert Green Ingersoll, God in the Constitution

I can't honestly say that I promote an agnostic lifestyle, but I do agree with this man's views as set forth above. Especially in this day and age of a Democrat president who wears his Christian beliefs like a badge of honor, while endeavouring to find the solution to this country's economic woes ... we all really need to reflect upon Mr. Ingersoll's sentiments more than ever, if for no other reason than to hold our government leaders accountable, but also to hold ourselves accountable as well.

I say this as a Christian. I will always be Christian - I totally believe in God, and I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. What greater gift could I offer up to the God I believe in than to use the brain he gave me to make this world a better place for all? That, I think, is the essence of Robert Ingersoll's message in the quote above.

More resources on Robert Ingersoll:

Secular Seasons
The Complete Works of Robert Ingersoll

Robert Ingersoll's written works (a mere sampling) [I have read none of these, I am merely providing these as a resource for you dear reader to check out on your own, and draw your own conclusions]:

About Farming in Illinois
What Would You Substitute for the Bible as a Moral Guide?
God in the Constitution
Is Corporal Punishment Degrading?
An Interview on Chief Justice Comegys
Myth and Miracle

Tomorrow -

• IBM PC Day
• International Youth Day
• Sewing Machine Day
• Vinyl Record Day ... just in time for Elvis week. Coincidence???

National Duran Duran Appreciation Day - 2009

An hour of research later and I totally understand now why this day exists.

I've been sitting here blipping Duran Duran songs like crazy on my Blip.fm station (where I am the much sexier DJ SolarSoda), and looking up lyrics as I go along, and just generally getting a crash education on their history to prepare for today's post. All I really knew about Duran Duran involved their early big hits like Hungry Like the Wolf, and their unique sound has a way of catapulting me back to 7th-grade like few others. I am positively thunderstruck as I listen to their music now ... this is great stuff! Their music is more sophisticated than I remember, although I'm here to tell you The Reflex - the video as much as the song - really captured my 12-year-old imagination in a way I never forgot over the years. The lyrics are deep, deeper than I was expecting, and eclectic. I'm having a blast picking songs I'm pretty sure I never heard before in addition to the ones I grew up listening to in the 80s. So far I have not been disappointed.

So yes I understand now why there is a National Duran Duran Appreciation Day. Here is a band that deserves it's fame in my book.

Besides Simon Le Bon is still pretty friggin HAWT!... actually, they're all pretty damn hot. Musical talent + pretty boy looks = WIN!

Down on Twitter

I am really beginning to dislike this denial-of-service attack. I could understand not having access to it for a couple of days, but it's going on day 3 for me, and frankly it's getting kind of annoying.

This is not what I wanted to blog about, but I can't even log into Twitter on the web! I can tweet using Hootsuite ... and that's about it. (Haven't tried Tweetdeck or Twhirl.)

Otherwise I'm sitting in the newsroom waiting to print my rundown. Just finished marking scripts. There's one particularly colorful conversation going on right now that involves girls' first names.

And last but not least today's Wacky Holidays: International Day of the World's Indigenous People and today kicks off Assistance Dog Week.

Elvis seen at a garage sale!

I am finding out how challenging it is to write something meaningful every day about these Wacky Holidays. Then when Twitter went down the last couple of days, which I rely on to help notify my network about these blog posts of mine, it forced me to re-think my approach to this subject matter. I think I've managed to make this harder than it needs to be, as with nearly everything else in my life. It was really frustrating, after spending a few good hours writing (total, not all in one sitting) only to find out I wasn't able to get the word out!

Not to mention, I haven't really been liking how my blog posts have been turning out either. Besides feeling rushed, they read like I'm just rambling. And yesterday's blog post overwhelmed me, like I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Clearly some revision is in order here.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Anyone can leave comments ... actually one person did leave a comment for me on Facebook, but it wasn't about my writing so much as it was about my opinion. That's another thing I encountered: if I'm going to use this forum to air my opinions then I'd better be prepared to hear other people's opinions too, especially about emotionally high-charged subject matter. And he didn't exactly agree with me, which is okay. I don't expect everyone to agree with me. But it did kind of hurt; I won't lie. Ah, the life of a writer.

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Today is National Garage Sale Day. Garage sales are quite possibly one of the awesomest things ever. What's not to love about finding cool stuff for next to nothing? I always love discovering new drinking glasses and coffee mugs to collect. This also makes me think of one of my favorite reality shows EVER - Clean House with Niecy Nash. When we had Dish network and I could actually watch TV (our cable's not hooked up to watch TV, we mainly get our entertainment from Netflix and the internet) I discovered this great show. It's one of the few shows that made me laugh my ass off. Funniest part about it is, the show is about cleaning up people's houses who have extreme - and I do mean extreme - clutter problems. While I'm not nearly as bad as some of the people featured on the show, people who know me probably wish I would take some tips from that show, hee hee hee!

One of the stars of the show quickly became one of my favorites: Trish Suhr, the resident yard-sale expert. She is so cute, and hilarious! (she's the one on the right; I have no idea who the other person is, this is just what came up on a Google search)

I love her, but then I really love everyone on that show; that show truly has some special magic going on. The stars enjoy great chemistry, which is a rarity in any television show or movie! I love Niecy Nash too - she cracks me up!

A modest search of today's Wacky Holiday turns up a whole lotta nothing otherwise, however I did find this neat website: Yardsalequeen.com. I have no idea how up-to-date it is, but it did appear on the first page of a Google search so I imagine it must be reasonably current.

Today is also the beginning of Elvis Week! How cool is THAT.



So there ya go, folks: go buy yourself a velvet Elvis painting at a garage sale and kill two birds with one stone today.

Lighthouses, Sea Serpents, and the Purple Heart

Today is full of observances, ranging from the truly noble - Purple Heart Day - to the completely outrageous - "Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day". Huh?*

As for the former observance, how does one turn from the horrific images of Hiroshima to a meaningful discussion on Purple Hearts? Except to say that it points out the flip side of any military's coin: military might can be used, like anything else in life, for good deeds and for bad.

“The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under competent authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after April 5, 1917 has been wounded, killed, or died after being wounded. “ ~ Source: AR 600-8-22

It is an award that, according to the Military Order of the Purple Heart's website, is "available to all, desired by none". I know that United States military forces are the bravest, noblest warriors on the planet. They may not always make the brightest decisions, but then ... who does? Nobody is infallible.

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In keeping with the American theme, today we also shine the spotlight on our country's quintessential beacon in the night, lighthouses. I have a special place in my heart for lighthouses because my mom enjoys them so much. I enjoy them quite a bit myself, as I enjoy anything associated with large bodies of water. The roots of today's celebration go back almost to the inception of our country's history - on the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Act which commissioned the first lighthouse, Congress passed a resolution designating this date as National Lighthouse Day. That took place 20 years ago on August 7, 1989. You can read the text of the original 1789 Act here. as well as find out a bunch of other fun info regarding America's lighthouses.

Or you could just go to the bookstore of your choice - or geez, how 'bout the library? - and visit each of our nation's majestic maritime guides in the pages of a book. (At Barnes & Noble you can do that while sipping a delicious Starbucks beverage. Just sayin'.)

Lighthouses fire the imagination so much with their stoic, majestic forms, so much so that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a beautiful poem about it: click here to read it.

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While you're hanging out at a lighthouse, you might see a creature who also gets billing today: a sea serpent!

Also known as a Leviathan these mythical creatures have been feared by many a sea-faring crew for centuries. If the lighthouse inspires poetry, then the sea serpent has inspired reams and reams of data trying to prove it's existence. Ship captains spin amazing tales of their encounters with the mighty creature, but without any proof I think a lot of them got laughed at. One such story involves the H.M.S. Daedalus and it's Captain M'Quhae (as reported by Edgar Drummond, Lieutenant of HMS Daedalus):

H.M.S. Daedalus, August 6, 1848, lat.25 SW, long 9 37' E., St. Helena 1015 miles. In the 4 to 6 watch, at about 5 o'clock, we observed a most remarkable fish on our lee quarter, crossing the stem in a S.W. direction: the appearance of its head, which, with the back fin, was the only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed and flattened at the top, perhaps ten feet in length, the upper jaw projecting considerably; the fin was perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally: the captain also asserted that he saw the tail, or another fin, about the same distance behind it: the upper part of the head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and beneath the under jaw a brownish white. It pursued a steady, undeviating course, keeping its head horizontal with the surface of the water and in rather a raised position, disappearing occasionally beneath a wave for a very brief interval, and not apparently for purposes of respiration. It was going at a rate of perhaps from twelve to fifteen miles an hour, and when nearest was perhaps one hundred yards distant: in fact it gave one quite the idea of a large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever seen anything similar, so it is at least extraordinary. It was visible to the naked eye for five minutes, and with a glass for perhaps fifteen more. The weather was dark and squally at the time, with some sea running.

I can tell you there is a LOT to be found on sea serpents on the internet. The most important thing I learned is, what makes the stories so fascinating are how different crews on different seas wound up presenting such similar reports. Even despite that some people refuse to believe they exist.

Here are a couple of the better websites I stumbled across:

The Museum of Unnatural History has a section on Sea Serpents
Mythical Creatures and Beasts Wiki
Zany Holidays, short, well-written article
Mister Anderson's Puppet Tales Company, for the kid in every one of us - I think this might be my favorite resource for sea serpent tales, due to the vast number of children's books listed here! Oh, and puppets! Who doesn't love a sea serpent hand puppet?


Today is also Professional Speakers Day - not that I don't want to include them, but frankly they're just not as interesting as say, sea serpents.

For more August holidays, from the mundane to the truly bizarre, please click here, or better yet do a Google search as there are many resources out there to choose from, I just like the one I created a link to the best as it seems to be the most exhaustive and the most legitimate.

*(It appears a well-intentioned Mom and Pop couple fabricated the latter holiday, and require a written request to use their invented holiday even for non-profit. As such I'm going to choose to pass right on over this one, but here's a link to their website anyway.)

**Lighthouse pictures credits: the South Haven, MI lighthouse (encrusted in ice) taken from Pixdaus website (I really don't know who the original photographer is, but it wasn't me) and the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse in Maine is courtesy Kawsar.