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Last Saturday in February
In the category of “Holidays We Are Not Making Up” today is Sword Swallower’s Day. Sword Swallowers’ Association International (SSAI) recognizes “those who can swallow a non-retractible sold steel blade at least two centimeters wide and 38 centimetres long.”
Sword swallowing is not fake or a ‘trick,’ and it’s very dangerous.
We present the case of a 59 year-old man who sustained an esophageal perforation as a result of sword swallowing. An esophagogram established …Read more
February 20
Today is Love Your Pet Day!
Ilse, the spiritually confused Maltese
This day was created by humans to celebrate the domesticated non-human animals with whom they live.
You can view the strange things humans do with these animals at:
http://ihasahotdog.com i can has a hotdog gnight bear http://icanhascheezburger.com poker cats contest funny pet pictures ruling cats and dogs
My favorite dog: Ilse von Nestorhausen
…Read more
3rd Monday in January
Misery is expected to peak today, the third Monday in January being the “most depressing day” of the year.
[Note: you can say things like "is expected to" if one person expects it to be true.]
That one person is Cliff Arnalls of Wales, who created the formula to determine the worst day of the year.
[Note: if I can find someone who agrees with him, I can write: "Researchers agree..."]
The equation …Read more
Forget everything you know about radishes.
Night of the Radishes is one of the most unique holidays in the Western hemisphere. It has been celebrated in Oaxaca for hundreds of years, but only became an official holiday in 1897.
Radishes are actually native to China, and were brought to the New World by Spanish explorers in the 1500′s. Two friars encouraged the the townspeople of Oaxaca to cultivate the radishes, and it is believed one of the friars suggested …Read more
November 8
Warning to women who go camping: Beware of evil intent
If you’re experiencing withdrawal from October holidays, no better way to be Hallowean’ed than by celebrating Abet and Aid Pun Day.
We’ve no clue how this holiday originated or why November 8th is the fortunate day in question. [By coincidence it holds the distinction of falling on the day between Russia’s former Revolution Day—marking the beginning of the Soviet experiment on November 7, 1917—and …Read more
September 19
When I tell people what I do—write about holidays every day—they inevitably ask, “So, like real holidays? Or, like Talk Like a Pirate Day?”
The implication being that the latter is a “made up” holiday.
Which it is.
First of all, all holidays are “made up”. It’s just the ones we take for granted were made up before you were born.
Second, if the age be the sole determiner of legitimacy, Talk Like a Pirate …Read more
August 4
On August 4, Cornwall, England celebrates the Feast Day of Saint Sithney, the patron saint of mad dogs.
Legend has it that the Lord Almighty asked good ol’ Sithney if he would be the patron saint of girls seeking husbands. Sithney politely declined the offer, fearing he would be besieged with prayers for rich hubbies and fancy jewelry and the whatnot. Instead, Sithney said he’d rather be the patron saint of something like mad dogs, and …Read more
July 8
Every July 8th, citizens of Skagway, Alaska, hold a wake for a citizen who died on this day in 1898: Jefferson Randolph ‘Soapy’ Smith, the “king of the frontier confidence men.”
Soapy Smith, 1860-1898
Smith got his nickname Soapy from an old scam he played selling soap to miners in Colorado.
It’s hard to believe someone so concerned about the hygiene of his fellow men could get such a bad rep. But you see, Smith …Read more
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English