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March 16
St. Urho statue, Menahga, Minnesota
St. Patrick is world-famous for driving the snakes out of Ireland, but the day before St. Patrick’s Day we celebrate an oft-overlooked saint named Urho, who is said to have performed the equally admirable feat of ridding his Finnish homeland of hungry grasshoppers, thus saving Finland’s all-important grape crop, and the Finns themselves, from devastation.
Plaques proclaim St. Urho’s glory, including one in Minnesota that describes the annual ceremony in …Read more
Today is the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1953, which sd upi lmpe esd grsyitrf pm s brtu [pt,omrmrmy r[ofdpfr pg Dpiyj {stl/ Tjr sfjrtrmyd pg Dvormyp;pu str grmrts;;u yjpihjy yp nr vtsxu/ Yjru nr;orbr yjr rstyj od hpomh yp nr omvsfrf nu s;ormd smf pm;u Yp, Vtiodr vsm dyp[ oy/ Ypfsu pm :/ Tpm Jinnstf
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March 9, 2009
(Amerigo Vespucci, the Prophet Mohammad, and Barbie at 50)
Today’s a big day for holidays.
March 9, 2009 is the start of Purim in the Jewish calendar. It begins at sundown.
In the Sunni Muslim calendar, March 9, 2009 is Mawlid al Nabi, the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad.
The second Monday in March is also the holiday formerly known as British Commonwealth Day (now just “Commonwealth Day”) across the …Read more
March 1, 2007
Okay, this is not a real holiday. But it should be. On this day (March 1) in 2007, Liechtenstein was famously invaded by its “peace-loving” neighbor Switzerland.
170 Swiss soldiers armed with assault rifles (unloaded but still scary looking) and their trusty Swiss Army knives marched over a mile into the 4 mile-wide sovereign principality of Liechtenstein while on exercises.
So 170 Swiss guards may not seem like the big bad beast …Read more
March 1
You may be aware of the United States’ 13-year experiment with prohibition back in the, well, Prohibition Era (1920-1933).
But it is a testament to the stout-hardiness of the Icelandic people that they kept up their beer ban for over five times that long: a full 75 years. Iceland was beer-free between 1914 and 1989 — a time period that roughly mirrors the entire existence of the Soviet Union.
The beer ban was finally repealed …Read more
Last full week in January
©Tim Buckley
Winter-een-mas is a secular holiday devoted to gaming. The holiday spans the last week in January.
It is celebrated by 14 million people in 32 countries.
…Read more
January 8
The Mississippi Delta was shining Like a National guitar, I am following the river Down the highway Through the cradle of the civil war,
I’m going to Graceland, Graceland In Memphis Tennessee… …I’ve reason to believe We both will be received In Graceland
Paul Simon, Graceland
Today is the birthday of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll Elvis Presley. Though not an official holiday in any nation, it is …Read more
December 23
On December 18, 1997 Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller) introduced the TV-watching world to a new holiday tradition. In the Seinfeld episode “The Strike” George’s father explains to Cosmo Kramer how years earlier, fed up with the commercialization of Christmas, he conceived of the new holiday:
“Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, …Read more
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