Good news, people who enjoy fun trivia and temporally specific facts, today is a palindrome day. That’s when the date (as written American style, at least) reads the same forwards as well as backwards.
I’ve mentioned this before in A Minor Mystery, but this week, we’re actually in the middle of what I’m going to call a Deluge of Palindromes, because all dates between 5/21/25 and 5/29/25 qualify.
… Amanda Hill, who took her rage at trying to reenter the workplace as an older mom and being told they “just aren’t hiring women in your stage of life right now” and funneled it into a brightly colored, expletive-laden cross-stitch project.
Today I’m thinking about life, the universe and everything. Mostly good thoughts! I’m not doing a great job of articulating them all, though, so let me just take a moment to commemorate one key event on this day in 1945.
It’s Victory in Europe Day, and while the end of World War Two wouldn’t come for several more months, it marked a significant step on that path.
Millions of people rejoiced in the news that Germany had surrendered, relieved that the intense strain of total war was finally over. In towns and cities across the world, people marked the victory with street parties, dancing and singing.
As I’ve noted before (and no doubt will again!), the exceptionalism of humanity is our ability to accumulate and pass down knowledge, experience, and lessons from one person to another, one generation to another, one society to another. That’s the magic.
…at least four important aspects of the “Star Wars” saga are much closer – both in time and space – than Lucas was letting on.
And while it’s true that we’re making progress on the scientific and technological aspects of the Star Wars universe, that’s not the reason we care so much about it.
Star Wars came to me at a difficult time, and has served as an anchor ever since. Why does the story resonate so strongly with so many people?
According to Lucas: “I became fascinated with how culture is transmitted through fairy tales and myth. Fairy tales are about how people learn about good and evil…it’s the most intimate struggle that we cope with – trying to do the right thing and what’s expected of us by society, by our peers, and in our hearts.”
These stories typically appear during times of doubt and can help viewers reclaim the goodness and innocence in themselves, reminding them they can overcome the evil they see in the world.
And while I normally ignore Episodes I, II and III (IV forever!), this quote from the script of III seems appropriate.
“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.”
The first of May is marked in a number of ways by different cultures, but here and now it tends to mean two things: spring, and workers’ rights. Read on for more about both.
The Celts of the British Isles believed May 1 to be the most important day of the year, when the festival of Beltane was held.
This May Day festival was thought to divide the year in half, between the light and the dark. Symbolic fire was one of the main rituals of the festival, helping to celebrate the return of life and fertility to the world.
Did you know that May Day has its roots in astronomy? Traditionally, it was the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice! In ancient times, this was one of the Celtic cross-quarter days, which marked the midway points between the (four) solstices and equinoxes of the year.
If you’re planning a dance around the maypole later, have fun. Even if you aren’t, I hope you enjoy the day.
This Earth Day, NASA is sharing how — by building on decades of innovation—we use the unique vantage point of space to observe and understand our dynamic planet in ways that we cannot from the ground.
But where do we get the strange custom of playing pranks on April 1? The short answer is that nobody knows for sure. All we know is that the custom was known in Renaissance Europe, and probably has roots older than that.
The article goes into detail (a lot more detail), but if you just want to get into the spirit of things, here’s one outlet’s list of the 30 Best April Fools’ Pranks 2025.
And if this is your kind of thing, go forth and be funny!
How do I know when it is Spring? There’s the calendar, of course, and yesterday was the March Equinox, yay. But that’s not as reliable as some other indicators. Like what, you may ask?
It’s still too early for cherry blossoms or daffodils here, but there are other signs of spring.
For example:
Canada geese flying overhead? check
the season’s first roar of a motorcycle? check
melting snow in my yard? check
the Fish Doorbell up and running in the Netherlands? check! I haven’t seen any fish yet but it’s still fun. The migration has begun, so the lack of sightings are probably because I’m watching during work hours my time, which are snoozing hours for Dutch fish (do fish have nationalities? unique patterns of DNA by country? accents? so many questions!)
A key finding: “…people are much too pessimistic about the benevolence of others. For example, when wallets were dropped in the street by researchers, the proportion of returned wallets was far higher than people expected. This is hugely encouraging.”
Well, that makes me happy!
“We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
J.R. Johnson 
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