Every Day Is Special

January 24, 2013 - National Peanut Butter Day

Are you one of the “average Americans” who eats more than six pounds of peanut products in a year? (!)

Do you live in the original home of the peanut plant, Paraguay?

Do you live in one of the places in the world where peanut butter is popular?

Or are you, perhaps, one of the unlucky few who is allergic to peanuts?

You probably know that peanuts are not true nuts but are instead “beans” in the legume family. The peanut plant is unusual because, after its flowers are pollinated, the flower stalk gets longer and bends until the ovary touches the ground. Then the stalk keeps growing—pushing underneath the soil—and the mature fruit develops inside a pod underground. This growth of fruit underground is called geocarpy.

Peanuts were being cultivated in South America more than 7,600 years ago, and they were being traded and eaten by the Aztecs about 500 years ago. European explorers spread the plant worldwide. People in North America didn't often eat peanut products until the early 1900s, after George Washington Carver and others developed new uses for peanuts.

Peanut paste has been used for centuries, but modern peanut butter dates to the late 1880s. A man named Marcellus Edson (NOT Ed-i-son) patented a process of milling roasted peanuts between heated surfaces until the peanuts became semi-fluid; when the fluid cooled, according to Edson, it had the consistency of butter, lard, or ointment. Gosh, I'm so glad people decided to call the result peanut butter, and not peanut lard or peanut ointment!

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg took out a patent for another invention that contributed to modern-day peanut butter; perhaps more important was the fact that Kellogg fed peanut butter to his patients at Battle Creek Sanitarium. Eventually PB & J became one of the most popular sandwiches in North America.

Celebrate peanut butter (if you can!)

Try out some peanut butter recipes. If you want, you can eat peanut butter all day long. Might I suggest Peanut Butter and Jelly Pancakes for breakfast, Goldfish Checkerboard Sandwich for lunch, Peanut Butter-Marinated Spiced Fried Chicken for dinner, and Peanut Butter Cake for dessert?

Also on this date:

Pioneer in the study of memory Hermann Ebbinghaus's birthday

Ballerina Maria Tallchief's birthday

Anniversary of gold discovery in California

AND Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day

January 23, 2013 - National Handwriting Day

This “holiday” was started in 1977 by people who manufacture pens and pencils—people who don't want the enormous popularity of texting and e-mail to run them entirely out of business. They made a plea for people to write letters to one another on, you know, paper. They said that others would find notes of thanks and congratulations, wishes for birthdays and anniversaries, and newsy catch-ups all the more special if they were handwritten. Using pencils and pens.

Please keep buying our product, basically.

Are they right?

Actually, I have to admit that a handwritten note delivered in person or by mail is so darn UNUSUAL, these days, it does feel special to me. How about to you?

Legibility and Calligraphy

It is not, in my mind, “important” to learn to write cursive properly, legibly and quickly. Even in the past, when there weren't many alternatives to handwritten messages, and when people practiced their handwriting a lot, cursive writing is not super easy to read. Even when I was growing up (oh, soooo long ago), it was generally easier to read printing—and people can print just about as quickly as they can write in cursive.

(Of course, it IS important to develop one bit of cursive, and that is your signature. Some people even want others to be able to decipher their signature.)

But even though I don't think it is important to write cursive, it can be fun to learn and use it! I find it especially fun to get a good calligraphy pen—perhaps a felt-tipped marker with the right “chisel” shape—and try out a bunch of beautiful scripts. Check out this and this other articles for lessons and some inspiration.

Write to your grandma!

Or write a letter to some other special person today.
Learn about handwriting analysis here.
Get a small notebook and start collecting autographs—signatures—of everyone you meet. It might be interesting to analyze their handwriting (see above)--or you could just hang onto the book hoping one of your friends becomes famous!
Get a blank book and use your most special calligraphy to copy meaningful quotes or short poems on its pages.

Many different script fonts are available on the computer!

Also on this date:

Anniversary of the partitioning of Poland

Anniversary of the coldest temperature in the U.S.

January 22, 2013 - St. Vincent's Day in Valencia, Spain

Ahh, Valencia! What can you say about a place that hosts a huge annual tomato fight? La Tomatina involves around 40,000 people hurling 150,000 tomatoes at each other for one hour!

(The tomatoes are grown specially for the event and are of inferior taste. Also, participants wear goggles and crush the tomatoes before throwing them to maximize mess while minimizing injury!)

Valencia is also known for the delicious rice dish paella, fried sweet bunuelos, and Spanish omelets.

It is known for the Falles—a 10-day festival with parades and music, fireworks and amazing street lighting, floral offerings and burning large community- built papier-mache statues.

Valencia also has Roman ruins, medieval towers, and old forts along the edge of the sea. The city's cathedral displays what it claims is the Holy Grail (although several places make the same claim).

Take a virtual tour of Valencia and check out this travel show video.

Are we talking Valencia, or Valencia?

Valencia: the old...

Spain is more decentralized than most nations, because a lot of governmental power rests, not at the central national level, but at the level of communities and cities. In Spain there are currently 17 autonomous communities and two autonomous cities called autonomies.

Autonomous means having the freedom to act independently and govern itself.

...and the new...

One of these autonomous communities is Valencia. The capital city of Valencia is named Valencia as well; it is the largest city in Valencia and the third largest city in all of Spain. The autonomous community of Valencia has a long coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, and the city of Valencia is the busiest European port on the Mediterranean.

To answer the question, “which Valencia?”:

the giant tomato fight is held annually in August in the town of Bunol, in the autonomous community of Valencia.
the Falles occurs in March in the city of Valencia.

Also on this date:

Answer Your Cat's Questions Day

Space-stuff Day

Anniversary of the installation of Cleopatra's Needle in NYC

January 21, 2013 - Martin Luther King, Jr., Day AND Inauguration Day

What a nice coincidence! The day that we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who strove to bring about his dream of a future in which people are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, is also the day that we inaugurate Barack Obama to his second term as U.S. President. Isn't that fitting?

A lot of the overt discrimination against black people that King called attention to and led non-violent actions against has disappeared. Some still lingers, unfortunately, and of course a lot of covert (hidden) discrimination still flourishes in a lot of places. People often have but try to hide prejudices, whisper or just think insults instead of shouting them, act out their bigotry that they insist—even to themselves—that they do not even feel.

But things are getting better. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped things get better in the 1960s, and Obama is helping things get better now, and lots and lots of other people are helping in all sorts of ways, too. Hopefully, so are you!

Inauguration Primer

The National Park Service is offering a Junior Ranger Activity Book and Inauguration Badge (for a limited time).
Social Studies for Kids has a very short article about presidential inaugurations—including interesting facts about the longest and shortest inaugural speeches.

Congress for Kids has an even shorter article about presidential inaugurations—but with a different assortment of facts. Check it out.

Look back at the historic 2009 inauguration with the Chicago Tribune's photo gallery. Almost two million people attended that inauguration! Today's festivities are bound to be a lot smaller.

For more about Martin Luther King, Jr., see previous posts here and here.

Also on this date:

Errol Barrow Day in Barbados

Anniversary of the introduction of the smallpox vaccine

Anniversary of one of the first female doctors, Sophia Jex-Blake

January 20, 2013 - World Religion Day

The purpose of this day is to promote understanding and harmony between people with different religions.

There's no doubt about it: it can be hard to TRULY accept and respect beliefs that you yourself do not share. Rules about what and when and where you can eat may seem pretty arbitrary—if they aren't part of your own tradition. Particular beliefs about how the universe and the Earth and humanity came to be can seem just plain wrong—if you weren't yourself taught those beliefs from an early age.

But even if you don't share a certain belief, you can still respect the believer.

He or she was probably brought up with traditions and teachings that differ from your own. He or she is likely honoring her parents and community by continuing their religious tradition.

Others' beliefs almost certainly mean as much to them as yours do to you.

Others want to be respected, just like you do.

They want the freedom to act on their own consciences, just like you.

They want freedom within their own brains, just like you.

Today would be a great day to learn more about at least one world religion! Here are a few suggested resources—but you can easily find many more:

the official World Religion Day website
a video about an interfaith group's trip to Jerusalem
United Religions Initiative—this is the page for Jainism, but there are entries for many other religions, as well
Mr. Donn's page about Taoism, which is not really a religion (it's a philosophy), but which is always listed with other world religions. By the way, poke around Mr. Donn's websites for entries on other philosophies and religions.
Kids.Net's entry on secularism (also not a religion, but rather a philosophy); again, there are also entries on various religions and philosophies
Chiddingstone's page on Hinduism—click the links to explore other world religions, as well

Also on this date:

Celebrate Rio de Janeiro

Anniversary of the first game of basketball

Anniversary of the U.S. patent for the first successful roller coaster

January 19, 2013 - Tin Can Day

Are tin cans made of tin?

Actually, most are made of tin-coated steel. The steel is coated because nobody wants to eat "Chile con Rust" or "Chicken Noodle Soup (Now with More Rust!)," and tin does NOT rust and react with food and liquids.

Tin-coated steel is often called tinplate.

Sometimes people call cans made from aluminum or other metals “tin cans,” but no matter what the metal, tin cans are defined as air-tight containers made of thin metal for the storage of food or other goods. Tin cans are often opened by a tool that cuts or tears the metal, although more and more now are opened using a pull tab.

(According to Wikipedia: “The first tin cans were heavy-weight containers that required ingenuity to open, using knives, chisels, or even stones.” It wasn't until 50 years after the invention of tin cans—at which point the metal used was lighter weight—that people were able to purchase and use can openers!)

Peter Durand patented the tin can on this date in 1810. In honor of Durand's contribution to food preservation, try these activities:

Tin can roll. For this competition, everyone chooses a tin can they think can roll the fastest. Choose a race spot that has a slight slant, and—on your mark, get set, roll!