BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE DAY
26 May 2012 1 Comment
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, blueberry cheesecake day
Saturday, May 26th: Mmmmm … I’m ready for today. Today is BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE DAY. No, it’s not National Blueberry Pie Day; that is April 28th. No, it’s not National Blueberry Month; that is during July. Blueberry Cheesecake Day has its OWN special day. This turns out to be perfect for a Memorial weekend picnic. What can be better; the deliciousness of cheesecake, with the nutritional benefits (and great taste) of blueberries too. In fact, I think I’ll celebrate this day all weekend long!
Looking for a good blueberry cheesecake recipe? Try this one from Garden Country Cooking. Chef John Michael’s site tantalizes with many scrumptious recipes, besides the cheesecake. http://gardencountycooking.blogspot.com/2012/05/national-blueberry-cheesecake-day.html?spref=tw. (Hmmmm … there’s a chocolate cherry cheesecake recipe there that I’ll need to check out too. But, don’t tell the blueberries!)
I found Garden Country Cooking from one of my favorite food blogs. Louise, at Months of Edible Celebrations, posts well researched blogs on a variety of food celebrations. She also has an amazing network of foodie bloggers. http://monthsofediblecelebrations.blogspot.com/
TOWEL DAY
26 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a reason to celebrate, Douglas Adams, Towel Day
Friday, May 25th: Towel Day?? There’s a TOWEL DAY? Why certainly, my dear, yes there IS a towel day. Not only is there a Towel Day to celebrate, today is the 12th observance.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away … Oh wait! Wrong galaxy.
A long time ago, Douglas Adams wrote about a galaxy, in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He died of a heart attack at age 49 on May 11, 2001. He was cremated in Santa Barbara, Californiaand his ashes interred in London, where a Service of Celebration was held. Douglas’ fans wanted to organize a wake in his honor. Needing some time to pull the remembrance together, Towel Day was organized two weeks after his death, on May 25th. (This date also seems to have relevance to the book, but here I have to admit that somehow I’ve missed reading this one.) The first Towel Day was such a success that it became an annual event.
There aren’t any real “rules” to celebrate Towel Day with. It can be any towel, any color, or any size. The important part is to be conspicuous with it. Wear it around your neck, wrapped around your head, or swing it in the air over your head. I was amazed as I scanned through the website (http://www.towelday.org/) at the HUNDREDS of global celebrations held. Several of the events mentioned collecting towels and donating them to animal shelters in remembrance of Douglas Adams. If you wish to donate to a cause (NOT a requirement to celebrate the day), two suggestions were ‘Save the Rhino’ or ‘The Gorilla Organization’ (formerly the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund), which were two charities that Douglas Adams actively supported.
And where did the ‘towel’ part come in, you ask? From the book, of course. Here’s an excerpt of the book, explaining the importance of towels for a hitchhiker. I’m off; I have a towel to go get. And, I’ll be remedying my reading lack in the near future. Next towel day, I’ll be prepared to celebrate in style!
From the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value — you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-tohand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
INTERNATIONAL TIARA DAY
25 May 2012 4 Comments
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, international tiara day
Thursday, May 24th: I feel like a princess today. It’s INTERNATIONAL TIARA DAY, a day when anyone can wear a tiara and feel like royalty. First celebrated in 2005 in conjunction with Barbara Bellissimo’s Seasons of Success, the reins have now passed to Lyanne White of American Rose Bridal. Lyanne and her employees believed that anyone should be able to wear a tiara, not just brides. Tiaras … royalty … kingdoms … they’re all so closely related that Queen Victoria’s May 24th birthday was an appropriate choice.
I worked with a young college girl a few years back. On her birthday (20th, 21st, 22nd??) she wore a tiara to work all day. We all laughed when we saw her in the break room, thinking it was worn just for the momentary effect. It wasn’t. She said it was her birthday and it was her special day and she wore the tiara on the sales floor …. ALL day! At first I was a little surprised. Truthfully it just didn’t seem appropriate’ the gesture didn’t have one iota of professionalism. But now, I think about it a little differently. How refreshing to have the courage and the confidence to proudly wear a tiara in an unexpected setting. I claim that I look for ways to celebrate life, yet here was this young girl celebrating life and proudly proclaiming that she was special.
Mary Kate, this day is for you … and for all those brave enough to wear a tiara today. Happy Tiara Day!
NATIONAL TAFFY DAY
24 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, taffy, taffy day
Wednesday, May 23rd: Old time candy, current day pleasure. It’s NATIONAL TAFFY DAY. Taffy’s popularity goes back over 200 years. Although, taffy has changed a little over the years. Taffy was typically made with a molasses, and occasionally sorghum, base (cheaper and more abundant than either sugar or honey). And it was made by hand. Taffy pulls turned into a favorite winter-time social activity among young people. (You know, back in the “good-ole-days” before the movie theaters and malls. Back when everyone walked to school, six miles in snow, uphill both ways …)
Enter the late 1800’s, and anAtlantic Oceancandy store owner. The popular story has that his shop was flooded during a major storm in 1883 and his entire stock of taffy was spritzed with a salt water spray. It’s reported that a young girl came into his shop searching for some taffy. He offered her some “salt water taffy” … and the name stuck, over a hundred years later.
What? No salt water in ‘salt water taffy’? That’s okay; it’s still one of my favorites. And with over 70 flavors available I’m sure you can find at least one that you like.
Here are directions on how to make Banana Salt Water Taffy: http://www.ehow.com/how_4809962_banana-salt-water-taffy.html
Happy Taffy Day!
GIFTS FROM THE GARDEN MONTH
23 May 2012 2 Comments
in Random thoughts Tags: a reason to celebrate, gifts from the garden month
Tuesday, May 22nd: Mary, Mary, quite contrary … how does your garden grow? May is GIFTS FROM THE GARDEN MONTH, sponsored by Gardenlady.com. This month celebrate the many ways gardens and gardening benefit people. From flowers and fitness to color and conversation, many treasures are growing in your own backyard.
Flowers to grace your home, areas of solace and healing, peace for meditation, produce and sustenance for our families, birds, nature and wildlife … the garden gives us so many gifts. To see 31 ways you benefit from gardens, see: http://www.gardenlady.com/gifts.html.
For day-by-day gardening celebrations during May, here’s a terrific list! http://www.gardenlady.com/may_garden_days.html
If you’d rather MAKE some gifts from your garden, here are two sites with great ideas to get you started:
http://gardening.about.com/od/craftsanddecor/tp/Gifts_From_the_Garden.htm
http://www.gardenguides.com/2103-make-gifts-herbal-harvest.html
Celebrate life, enjoy the gifts you GET from your garden along with the gifts you can GIVE from your garden!
AMERICAN RED CROSS FOUNDERS DAY
22 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, American Red Cross Founders Day, Clara Barton
Monday, May 21st: Happy Birthday American Red Cross! Today is AMERICAN RED CROSS FOUNDERS DAY, celebrating the Red Cross’s organization in 1881.
Clara Barton is a name synonymous with nursing (at least if we remember our history classes). She seemed to always have a passion for being a nurse. It’s reported that she took care of her dog when he hurt his leg. But the best example is about her brother, David Barton. When Clara was 11, David was fixing the barn roof and fell off. According to wickipedia, “The doctor said that he would die within a matter of time. But young Barton was determined to save him. She nursed him back to health. The doctors didn’t know how she did it, but David knew that she had a gift.”
Clara was a schoolteacher and she moved to Washington at the outbreak of the Civil War. She distributed relief supplies to wounded soldiers and, at the request of President Lincoln, aided in searching for missing men. Later, she helped in hospitals in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and in Europe during the Franco-German war.
In 1869, during her trip to Geneva,Switzerland, Barton was introduced to the Red Cross and Henry Dunant’s book, A Memory of Solferino, which called for the formation of national societies to provide relief voluntarily on a neutral basis.
Returning to the United States, she started a movement to gain recognition for the International Committee of the Red Cross by theUnited Statesgovernment. Working on this project since 1873, she finally succeeded during the administration of President Chester Arthur, using the argument that the new American Red Cross could respond to more crises than just war.
With Clara as president of the newly formed American branch, they held its first official meeting at her I Street apartment inWashington DC May 21, 1881. The first local society was founded August 22, 1881 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York, where Clara maintained a country home.
Red Cross … celebrate life, celebrate those who help save lives. Can you donate, volunteer or donate blood today?
ELIZA DOOLITTLE DAY
20 May 2012 2 Comments
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, eliza doolittle day
Sunday, May 20th: My theater (and television) background is lacking. I’ll celebrate the day anyway, even though I don’t know who she is. Today is ELIZA DOOLITTLE DAY. Eliza Doolittle was “born” in a 1912 play by George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion.
According to Wikipedia, “Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women’s independence.”
In one of the scenes, Eliza, upset with her teacher, fantasizes about the day she’ll have her revenge. She sings: “One day I’ll be famous, I’ll be proper and prim …” She continues, “Next week on the twentieth of May, da-da-da-da-da-da-DA,
I proclaim Eliza Doolittle Day!”
The 1912 play was adapted for film in 1935 and 1938. The Broadway musical My Fair Lady was based on the 1938 film, which later became a 1964 film version. (Missed seeing this. How is that possible?) In 1999, a modern, teenage take on Pygmalion was filmed, She’s All That. (Guilty of missing that one too! Thank you Wikipedia for expanding my knowledge.) And somehow throughout all this, I also missed three television productions: a 1963 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Pygmalion, a 1983 adaptation, and a 1985 BBD adaptation.
I shall make amends for my lack of proper movie and television watching by celebrating Eliza Doolittle Day today. Now … where did I place my proper English accent?
CREATIVE BEGINNINGS MONTH
20 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, CREATIVE BEGINNINGS MONTH
Saturday, May 19th: It’s not too late … not too late to celebrate creative BEGINNINGS MONTH. Energize yourself with spring’s growing energy to enrich your life with a creative beginning. Learn something new, enroll in a class, take up a new sport, listen to new music, write a story or a poem, discover a new facet about yourself, plant a garden … the possibilities are endless.
Need a jump-start to get the creative juices flowing? Check out this blog for ‘29 ways to stay creative’. http://blackbeltreview.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/29-ways-to-stay-creative/
What can you do to have a creative beginning this month?
ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY
18 May 2012 2 Comments
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, endangered species day
Friday, May 18th: Calling all wild animals … it’s ENDANGERED SPECIES DAY. This day “is an opportunity for people young and old to learn about the importance of protecting endangered species and everyday actions that people can take to help protect our nation’s disappearing wildlife and last remaining open space. Protecting America’s wildlife and plants today is a legacy we leave to our children and grandchildren, so that all Americans can experience the rich variety of native species that help to define our nation.” See more at: http://www.stopextinction.org/esd.html . There are e-cards, art contests, 10 easy ways to help endangered species at home, and much more.
A few of the ’10 Easy ways to help endangered species at home’ are:
1) Learn about endangered species in your area
2) Visit a national wildlife refuge, park or other open space
3) Make your home wildlife friendly
4) Provide habitat for wildlife by planting native vegetation in your yard
5) Minimize use of herbicides and pesticides ….
The ideas also list specific ways to accomplish each suggestion. This is an excellent resource of ways we can help from home, from our own backyards so to speak. Check them out here: http://www.stopextinction.org/10athome.html
For some success stories, see this site: http://www.esasuccess.org/
SYTTENDE MAI
18 May 2012 2 Comments
in A Reason to ... Celebrate, Daily Celebrations Tags: a reason to celebrate, SYTTENDE MAI
Thursday, May 17th: Independence; it’s a universal desire. Today is SYTTENDE MAI, the dayNorway celebrates its independence from Swedish rule (1814). Syttende Mai means May Seventeenth. In theUSA, we celebrate our Independence Day with gusto: parades, good food and fireworks from coast to coast.Norway is much the same. Their day of celebration has parades, children singing, flags, people wearing red, white and blue ribbons, children making a lot of noise shouting “Hurra!”, singing, blowing whistles and shaking rattles. And food … of course, a lot of food! Traditional Norwegian dishes such as lutefisk, rutabaga, meatballs, cranberries, lefse or bratwurst, along with icce cream, and other sweets are consumed.
Although May 17 is the National Day, Wikipedia reports that “it is an inclusive kind of nationalism. Therefore any foreigner who happens to be there on this day can expect to have a flag thrust into their hand and is welcome to join in with all activities.” BesidesNorway, festivities take place around the globe:London, OrkeyScotland,StockholmSwedenand theUS. Festivities in the US take place in Petersburg Alaska, Stoughton Wisconsin, Chicago Illinois Springrove Minnesota, Decorah Iowa, Seattle Washington, Poulsbo Washington and Bay Ridge Brooklyn, to name a few.
Happy Syttende Mai everyone!
