April 12, 2013

Today we celebrate:

National Licorice Day – Licorice is a love it or hate it kind of taste. If you love it, today is your day.

Big Wind Day – On this day in 1934, during a “wild April storm”, the observatory on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire recorded a wind gust of 231 miles per hour. That is the highest velocity of naturally produced wind ever officially recorded on this planet so far. http://www.mountwashington.org/about/visitor/recordwind.php

Russian Cosmonaut Day – On this day in 1961, 27 year old Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin piloted the first manned spacecraft around the earth. He was up there for 1 hour and 48 minutes. His accomplishment made him a hero in his country.

International Day Of Human Space Flight – In 2011, the United Nations adopted a resolution creating this day in honor of the first manned space flight mentioned above.

D.E.A.R. Day – This acronym means Drop Everything And Read. A day made in honor of Beverly Cleary's birthday. Since she had written about D.E.A.R. in one of her books, the least we can do is make sure we read at least one of her books with our children today.

Tax Freedom Day – This is a theoretical day. The Tax Foundation, which is a tax research organization based in Washington D.C., has counted every dollar that is officially considered income and every dollar that is officially considered a tax at all levels of government. According to them, this is the day that the nation as a whole has made enough money to pay the taxes of the nation as a whole. I confess that I don't find this to be personally relevant and I kind of wonder why they bother and whether any of my tax dollars are paying for this kind of research.

Walk On Your Wild Side Day – Today is a day to be unpredictable, do whatever your mind can dream up (as long as it's legal, I don't want any of you to be arrested!). Be whoever you want to be today, behave totally out of character, reach outside your comfort zone and surprise your spouse or partner.

To celebrate today you are going to be wild, throw a block party to celebrate your tax freedom (make sure you pay your sales tax on the licorice you serve everyone), have everyone bring a book so you can drop everything and read every hour or so. Have someone impersonate Yuri Gagarin to spice things up a little and put up a few wind socks to capture the wind.