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Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

Earth Day that Was

Posted in Holidays, Science!, tagged , , , , on April 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I know, I know, I’m a little late to be celebrating Earth Day. Which was yesterday. But deserves to be celebrated every day!

In the spirit of “yay, Earth,” I’d like to share this from NASA:

Celebrating Earth as Only NASA Can

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.

And just for fun, you can spell out Your Name in Landsat 🛰️

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NASA’s Landsat

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Happy Easter!

Posted in Holidays, tagged , on April 20, 2025| 1 Comment »

“You know what I’m doing for Easter? I’m gonna be hanging with my Peeps.”

—Jay Leno

A bit of fun from Pennsylvania-based Just Born, the company that makes Peeps:

Recipes and Crafts Easter

(Fair warning, I’ve never actually made any of these recipes. I just eat the Peeps.)

Happy Easter!

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Strangely, I found no good photos of actual Peeps. Perhaps they are eaten too quickly? Photo by coco tafoya on Unsplash

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No Joke

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , on April 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Happy April Fools’ Day, everyone. In case you were wondering about the origins of today’s wacky “holiday”:

April Fools: The Roots of an International Tradition

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!

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Photo by John Cardamone on Unsplash

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Spring is Springing!

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , on March 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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!)

Happy Spring!

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Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

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Day of Happiness

Posted in Holidays, Other, tagged , , , , on March 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Is the world on fire? Yes, often literally, but that’s not all it is. The world is also astonishingly, incredibly, heart-achingly beautiful. 

Today is the UN’s International Day of Happiness, and I’m going to celebrate by remembering that there is so much to see, to love, and to support. 

Then I’m going to go do just that. 

While we’re at it, here’s the new World Happiness Report and its ranking of countries by happiness.

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.”

— Howard Zinn

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Photo by Federico Burgalassi on Unsplash

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When Irish Pirates Changed History

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , on March 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all! One great thing about this holiday is that you don’t need to be Irish to enjoy it. Find a green shirt in your closet, break out the food coloring and drink green drinks and eat green foods, and have a fun day.

But hang on, what’s this? The day hasn’t always been about having fun or the color green? 

The Color of St. Patrick’s Day – Atlas Obscura

St. Patrick’s Day usually conjures images of partying, Catholicism, Irish nationalism and, perhaps most famously, the color green: green clothes, green shamrocks, green beer, and green rivers.

So my students are often surprised when I tell them that St. Patrick’s Day was once a solemn feast day when you’d be far more likely to see the color blue. In fact, there’s even a color known as St. Patrick’s blue.

Have to say, I prefer our modern version.

I was also surprised to learn that St. Patrick wasn’t Irish, or named Patrick.

He wasn’t Irish; rather he was born in Wales, the son of a Roman-British official. He was, however, captured by Irish pirates and enslaved in Ireland. After six years he went back to Britain but returned to Ireland as one of the missionaries to convert Irish pagans to Christianity. At some point he adopted the Latin name Patricius.

And so, after a bit of piracy, a name change, and the appropriation of a solemn holiday for patriotic and community-building purposes, here we are.

To the long tail of unintended consequences. Enjoy!

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Photo by Autumn Martin on Unsplash

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Let the Light Shine

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , , on March 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Happy International Women’s Day, all! 

International Women’s Day

March 8 is International Women’s Day (IWD). It’s a global day to recognize and celebrate women’s and girls’ social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. It’s also a time to highlight the progress made in advancing women’s rights and the ongoing efforts needed to ensure their full participation in all aspects of society.

Yes, there are still a lot of challenges for women around the world, but we haven’t been standing still. Mr Man flipped on the TV this morning and landed on a channel playing 80s movies. There’s nothing like seeing women being portrayed as grabbable arm candy in leg warmers (not to mention casual racial slurs and stereotypes) to remind you how far society has come.

Now, Mr Man also started a recent video game that seemed to have been written by an AI trained on misogynistic curse-laden troll chum, so there’s that. And yet! 

40 Basic Rights Women Did Not Have Until The 1970s

Although you might be familiar with the fact that women had to fight for their rights, you probably don’t realize how many basic things females were denied.

Read it and weep… with joy, because at least we’re not dealing with these particular issues anymore.

Change also benefits men as well as women. Because no one likes to be pigeonholed, amirite?

Is there still more to do? Absolutely. Equal pay for equal work is still a work in progress, some rights are being reversed, and Barbie was a hit for a reason.

As we continue through Women’s History Month, I’ll leave you with this article on inspiring women:

Portraits of women who ‘shine a light’: from an ‘analog’ astronaut to a watermelon farmer

So write your own story, draw your own path, make your mark. Because bright lights make the whole world shine.

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Photo by Aubree Herrick on Unsplash

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Pluto Day

Posted in Holidays, Science!, tagged , , , , , , , on February 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Today is Pluto Day!

Lowell Observatory holds I Heart Pluto Festival

On Feb. 18, 1930, the young astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, considered for decades a planet and “demoted” to dwarf planet status in 2008.

A few weeks later, an 11-year old girl named Venetia Burney suggested the name Pluto because of its connection to the god of the cold dark underworld.

This in-depth discussion of Pluto covers all sorts of interesting facts, including details of its discovery, how the New Horizons spacecraft gave us a much more detailed picture, and more. (Did you know that Pluto is half the size of the Moon but has five moons of its own? And someone who weighs 180 pounds on Earth would weigh 11 pounds on Pluto.)

What Makes Pluto So Intriguing | TIME

It takes Pluto slightly over 248 Earth years to orbit the sun, which means that on March 23, 2178, one Plutonian year will have elapsed since the dwarf planet was first spotted, on Feb. 18, 1930.

Here’s a cool animation showing our increasingly detailed understanding of Pluto:

Pluto Through the Years – NASA Science

And here’s an interactive image of Pluto 3D Model – NASA Solar System Exploration.

You’ll always be a planet to me, Pluto!

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NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

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Be Lovely

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , on February 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Mr Man is a bit under the weather so we’re postponing Valentine’s Day. The good news is that when we do get around to celebrating, restaurants won’t be crowded and all the chocolate will be half off:)

Have a lovely day!

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” 

― Charles M. Schulz

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Photo by Mikki Speid on Unsplash

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The Superb Owl Has Landed

Posted in Holidays, tagged , , , , , , , on February 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I’m one of those extremely intermittent football fans who really only tunes in for the Super Bowl and sometimes forgets even then (much to the chagrin of some family members).

That said, hey, today is the Super Bowl!

Maybe you have been counting down the days and are currently settling in for a day of sports and snacks. You certainly aren’t the only one. Here’s a sample menu from a family member: 

“Chili with all the toppings, house made wings, chips, salsa, mozzarella sticks, wontons and a veg tray; all the major food groups…meat, cheese, spicy, fried and a vegetable garnish.” 

(Fortunately, he doesn’t eat like this all the time, because I’d like him to stick around.)

Or maybe you don’t care about American football at all. Fair enough!

If that’s the case, this is for you:

Don’t give a hoot about sports? The Superb Owl might be for you

The anagrammatic play on Super Bowl began as an accidental misspelling, or an internet meme, or who knows what. But it has since become a soaring cultural phenomenon, producing countless online posts and spawning a resurgence of interest in the nocturnal, wide-eyed raptors.

So that’s fun. And in case you’re wondering:

Why Does the Super Bowl Use Roman Numerals?

It’s not likely Hunt was thinking of avoiding confusion. Instead, Hunt believed the style lent the Super Bowl a kind of gravitas and signaled it was a major event.

And that’s how we arrived at Super Bowl LIX. (And yes, I considered trying to tie this all together with a joke about how many LIXs does it take an owl to get to the center of a lollipop, but it wasn’t coming together and I’ve got Sunday things to do.)

Whether you’re cheering on the Chiefs, the Eagles, or Team Owl, have a great day!

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Photo by Adriano Pinto on Unsplash

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