February 3, 2014

Today we celebrate:

Four Chaplains Memorial Day – This day was declared by the United States Congress to be a holiday honoring the 70^th Anniversary of the sinking of the United States Army Transport Dorchester. Four Army Chaplains from four different religions went down with the ship that day when they gave their life jackets to other passengers. They sacrificed their lives for men of all faiths.

The Day The Music Died – A line from Don McLean's song “American Pie” used to describe how the music world felt after the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and their pilot, Roger Peterson on this day in 1959.

National Cordova Ice Worm Day – Cordova is a city in Alaska which explains a lot about this holiday. The winter is so dark and cold and difficult to endure that the people decided to have a celebration to lighten their spirits. They have an ice worm parade (the ice worm, by the way, is a real worm that lives in Alaskan glaciers.) with an ice worm King and Queen and a whole winter carnival.

National Carrot Cake Day – This is one of my favorite cakes since it carries with it the illusion of healthiness in the form of vegetables. You can sneak some pureed zucchini in it too and no one would ever know the difference. It was created hundreds of years ago when sugar was hard to come by so people learned to use sweet vegetables to sweeten their baked goods. It became useful again during World War II when the British government had to ration lots of things including sugar. They spread around recipes like cake using carrots as sweeteners.

Dump Your Significant Jerk Day – This day is traditionally the first day of Dump Your Significant Jerk Week which is always the week before Valentine's Day. So if you have a jerk of a girlfriend or boyfriend, this is your chance to get rid of them, end that stressful, unhappy relationship and save yourself some money since you now won't have to buy them a gift for Valentine's Day. If you're a little wishy-washy about it, you do have a whole week to use if you need it. But I think you'd be better off getting it over with today and spending that week finding someone else who will appreciate you.

To celebrate today, dump your significant jerk and make some carrot cake to celebrate your new freedom. Then head up to Alaska for the Ice Worm parade. Trust me, you don't want to miss it. On the way there, play some music by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper while listen to an audio book about four of the bravest Chaplains in history. I recommend the audio book since if you're traveling, you should probably pay attention to what you're doing.