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May 26, 2018

Today we celebrate:


World Dracula Day - On this day in 1897, Bram Stoker’s famous novel, Dracula, was published. Aficionados of the genre are already in the midst of the World Dracula Day Symposium at the North Central Texas College. They are listening to Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s grand-nephew, and many other vampire-fiction authors.

National Cherry Dessert Day - Truthfully, I’m not a huge fan of cherries, but I recognize that I am in the minority here. And I do understand that cherries are really very good for you. They are full of vitamins and minerals and even have some fiber to top it all off. This is a win/win situation. So, maybe I’ll make a cherry pie for my family who will think they have died and gone to heaven, but I’ll still choose to eat something different for myself.

National Grey Day - OK, this is another fairly odd day. Apparently grey is an underappreciated color. I wasn’t aware of that. Mostly because I wear a lot of black and grey because it is easy to match those colors with others. But many people avoid grey because it is too plain. So today you need to purposefully choose grey whenever you have an option. Grey clothes, grey crayons, pencils write in grey, and if you dim the lights at night you will see more grey.

National Paper Airplane Day - Paper airplanes are a simple and fun way of making your own toy. The purpose is to try to get people of any age to stop using their high tech gadgets that are killing us and isolating us from life, and get together with friends and family, get out some plane old paper, make some paper airplanes and  take them outside to fly them around. Experiment with how folding them differently affects how they fly, there are lots of different designs you can try.

World Redhead Day - This is a day that was created by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway. She feels that redheads are negatively stereotyped as having hot tempers. The combination of red hair and the freckles that commonly go with it are viewed as imperfections. My own son, who is a redhead, hated his hair years ago because the girls loved it. Now he doesn’t mind so much that the girls love it. I love red hair myself and when I was young I would have given anything to have it instead of my boring brown hair. But the fact is that many redheads are discriminated against and even bullied because of their hair color. It is pretty rare to have natural red hair, and even if you do, it doesn’t always stay red into adulthood. My son is a teenager and his hair is already darkening and will eventually turn brown. I look at his baby pictures and compare that bright and vivid red to what he has now and I feel a little sad. So if you have red hair, whether it is natural or colored, revel in sporting that beautiful color on your head, you are beautiful and I hope you feel that way.

Sally Ride Day – On this day in 1951, Sally Ride was born. Sally, of course, became an astronaut when women just didn't do that, and in 1983, at 32 years old, became the first American woman to enter space and orbit the earth. She had another space flight in 1984 and between the two flights, spent more than 343 hours in space. She was the only person to serve on the investigation board for both the Challenger and the Columbia disasters and she formed her own company, Sally Ride Science that creates entertaining science programs for students, with an emphasis on girls. She died of pancreatic cancer in 2012.

National Blueberry Cheesecake Day – Any kind of cheesecake is delicious but if you're a fan of blueberries, which I am, then delicious becomes heavenly.

World Lindy Hop Day - This is a special African American dance that originated in Harlem, New York in the 1920’s and 30’s. It requires jazz music from the big band era. The goal today is to spread this dance all over the world because apparently not everyone knows about it. However, if I use it’s other names, I bet I’ll have a few more people who recognize it. It is also known as Swing Dancing or the Jitterbug. See? There you go.

Julia Pierpont Day – Julia Pierpont is known for having the original idea for Memorial Day, which was first called Decoration Day, back in May of 1866. You can pay tribute today to Julia as well as our veterans by decorating veterans graves in order to prepare them for Memorial Day coming up in just two days.

International Jazz Day - On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we are all about Jazz. Jazz music has been around for something like two hundred years. Its’ appeal has spread from sea to shining sea and beyond all the way around the world. Even people who say they don’t like Jazz, actually like Jazz. The best place to listen to it is, of course, New Orleans, Louisiana. This day is different from the one in April, which I believe is bigger but I can’t be sure of that.

Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day – On this day Amateur Radio Operators from around the world are asked to team up to allow people from their local communities to gather in public areas and use the two way radio to verbally express their support and appreciation for members of the all branches of the military, and First Responders. This day is observed 9 days before the first Monday in June.

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