Total Pageviews

April 6, 2016

Today we celebrate:

Fresh Tomato Day - Tomatoes are a popular home garden food for people to grow. There are lots of different varieties to choose from and most people love to eat them.  If you have planted them, it will be a while before they bear fruit, but it will be worth the wait.

International Day of Sport for Development and Peace - This is a day to spread the idea that everyone should strive to have a healthy lifestyle with lots of exercise.  The International Olympic Committee is determined to give as many people as possible access to sporting activities.  So they are encouraging their athletes and trainers to work with as many communities as possible to introduce a variety of sports to children as well as adults.  The hope is that this will encourage people to develop a love of sports that will follow them through the rest of their healthy and active lives.

National Hostess Twinkie Day - It has been many, many years since I have had a Twinkie. But I will never forget what they taste like.  A little piece of heaven in a creamy cake. Twinkies actually went out of business a few years ago, but then someone brought them back to the relief of Twinkiaholics.  They are not very good for you, but as long as you don’t eat them too frequently, they won’t kill you…..I don’t think.

National Siamese Cat Day - Known for being very intelligent and talkative, Siamese cats make excellent pets.  They came from Thailand in the late 19th century. Rumor has it that First Lady Lucy Hayes was given the First Cat of this breed in this country as a gift from Thailand.

National Day Of Hope – Celebrated on the first Wednesday in April, this is a day to remember children who have been victims of child abuse and neglect. There are lots of different forms of abuse from very extreme and obvious, to the more subtle and hard to spot.  But each extreme and everything in between is devastating to the one being abused. But there is hope and there is help if you just seek it out.

Whole Grain Sampling Day – Celebrated on the first Wednesday in April and sponsored by the Whole Grain Council, the goal here is to have numerous opportunities, at numerous locations, all day long, for people to try different whole grains they may have never tried before. Experiment and see what is out there that you can add to your diet.

Paraprofessional Appreciation Day – A paraprofessional is a person trained to assist a professional. You find them in lots of different organizations like schools, lawyer's offices, doctor's offices, etc. Today, on the first Wednesday of April, we appreciate all of the paraprofessionals out there.  This day was created by the governor of Missouri.

National Caramel Popcorn Day –  You know those enormous tins of popcorn that everyone gets as a Christmas gift?  The ones with three kinds of popcorn separated by dividers?  Yeah, that’s the one.  Break it open (you know you have it tucked away somewhere) because they always have caramel popcorn in them and that is pretty much the only place you can find it unless you make your own.

Plan Your Epitaph Day – Well, you don't want to leave this important task to someone who might not do it the way you would want, do you? Go ahead and write it all down for your loved ones.  And allow me to give you a piece of advice.  The next time your spouse gets the flu, has a fever or just thinks he/she is going to die at any moment, and dictates to you what they want on their tombstone (or pyramid, whichever the case may be) write it down. Just trust me on this, my husband is still complaining twenty years later because I didn’t write all his fever induced brainstorms down.

Army Day – Begun in 1942 by proclamation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to honor the Army that works so hard to keep us safe during wartime and peacetime.

National Walking Day – Also celebrated on the first Wednesday in April, this is a day to put on your comfy sneakers and start stepping. It’s good exercise and very environmentally friendly. What more could you ask for?  Oh yeah, it’s also great for your heart and is sponsored by the American Heart Association.

New Beer's Eve – This was the night before prohibition was to end in 1933. There were huge lines of people waiting for that midnight moment when beer was legally allowed to be sold once again.  I wonder if the police arrested anyone who tried to sell alcoholic beverages at 11:59pm.

Drowsy Driver Awareness Day – Drunk driving is not the only driving hazard out there. Anyone can become drowsy while driving and cause serious harm to themselves and others. This day was started by a California Highway Patrol Officer whose wife died because she fell asleep behind the wheel. I've fought drowsiness while driving myself. Fortunately I've never actually fallen asleep and no harm has been done, but it's a danger that is always present. If you find yourself feeling drowsy while you are driving, please pull over to a safe area, take a nap if you can or get out and walk around, get some coffee or caffeinated soda, anything to help you stay awake.  It’s worth being late if it keeps you and the people around you alive.

Sorry Charlie Day – Charlie the Tuna, from the StarKist commercials begun back in the 1960’s, keeps getting rejected no matter what he does. But he survives and rebounds and comes back and tries again. Take that message and use it in your life.

National Student-Athlete Day – This is the 27th anniversary of this day of saluting the student athletes around the country. With two team sport playing children, I know that it's not easy combining sports and keeping up schoolwork, to say nothing for all the driving that parents end up doing, but exercise and playing with a team is great for kids in many ways, so it's worth the balancing act.

National Tartan Day – This is a holiday for all Scottish-Americans. On this day in 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath was signed.   I’m sure you will recall that this was a declaration of Scottish independence which generally stated that they didn’t have to do what England told them to do and would fight back if attacked by anyone.

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Day – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was officially created by Joseph Smith on this day in 1830 with a membership of 6 elders and about 70 members. They have grown to a membership today of more than 14 million.

Teflon Day – On this day in 1938, Roy Plunkett accidentally discovered polytetrafluoroethylene (don't ask me to say that out loud) when a gas he was testing failed to emerge from its’ container. Risking an explosion and sure death, he cut open the container to find that the gas had solidified into a smooth, slippery powder. He tested it and figured out how to reproduce it and just like that we have non-stick pans. OK, it might have been a little more complicated than that.  I skipped ahead a few years and probably a few thousand scientific experiments.

No comments:

Post a Comment