Every Day Is Special

June 25 – Antoni Gaudi

Posted on June 25, 2014

I just got back from a visit to Barcelona, Spain. I have a t-shirt that says “Barcelona” alongside a picture of broken-tile mosaic lizard.

What does a broken-tile mosaic lizard have to do with a busy, cosmopolitan port city in the north of Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea?

Well...the broken-tile mosaic lizard has to do with today's birthday boy, Antoni Gaudi. And Barcelona is Gaudi crazy. And tourists like me who come to Barcelona are especially Gaudi crazy.

So broken-tile mosaic lizard = Gaudi = Barcelona.

Gaudi was born on this date in 1852 in Catalonia, Spain. (Catalonia is a region of Spain. It's not entirely clear if Gaudi was born in the town of Riudoms or Reus.) Gaudi grew up to be an architect, and he created the best-known examples of Catalan Modernism.

Gaudi was very influenced by nature and by his religious beliefs (he was Catholic). He was interested in every detail of his designs, and his buildings and gardens included many different sorts of “crafts” such as ceramics, wrought-ironwork, stained glass, and carpentry. One of the new crafts he introduced was trencadis, which is a kind of mosaic made from broken tile shards.

Yes, like that lizard!

I loved loved loved Gaudi's buildings and other structures. I just cannot for the life of me understand why his designs didn't sweep over the world. Shouldn't there be one of these buildings in every town?

And we should all have access to one of these covered walkways?

Here are some interesting facts about Gaudi and his work:

Gaudi rarely drew up elaborate plans for his buildings and other structures. Instead, he created 3-dimensional models, and he molded details as he thought of them.

Gaudi studied a lot of other subjects along with architecture, although he only earned average grades and sometimes failed courses. When he was given his diploma, the director of the Barcelona Architecture School said, “We have given this academic title either to a fool or a genius. Time will show.”

Gaudi tried to integrate his buildings and his landscaping into the natural landscape already present. He also chose native materials or materials that would help his creations to fit the natural setting.

Gaudi devoted the last decade of his life to his magnum opus, a church called La Sagrada Familia (the Sacred Family). It is a huge structure, with a 5-aisled nave, a transept with three aisles, and an apse with seven chapels. The plans include 18 towers.

The interior of the church was designed to resemble a forest.

Only a small portion of La Sagrada Familia was completed by the time of Gaudi's death in 1926 (tragically, he was struck by a tram and received poor medical care because people thought he was “just a beggar”). However, work has continued under several architects devoted to carrying out Gaudi's plans, and the church is expected to be completed in 2026...or so!

Learn more about Gaudi in this video.

Here is an hour-long show just about Gaudi's unfinished cathedral. Or try this super-short vision of what the cathedral will look like when it is finished.

Also on this date:

Statehood Day in Slovenia

Independence Day in Mozambique

Anniversary of the capture of a “new” species

Croatia's Statehood Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June 24 – Celebration of the Senses Day

Posted on June 24, 2014

One reason that some books really capture us is that they seem to put us into another world with descriptions of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and even feelings that we are not actually sensing.

Some of us forget to pay attention to the sensations we ARE actually sensing. Today, try not to take your senses for granted!

Do an experiment. Arrange 5 things for a friend to taste without seeing, and have him or her arrange a blind taste-test for you. Also, try a blind taste-test while holding your nose. Can you tell the difference between a chunk of peeled apple and a chunk of peeled raw potato – with your eyes closed and your nose firmly pinched closed?

Or test your smeller with your eyes closed, or feel things with your hand to see if you can identify them by touch.

Try the memory game with things you see (looking at a tray full of small objects for a full minute, and then trying to write them all down), but then with again with things you hear: Have your friend clap a rhythm, and then you copy it. Have your friend add to the rhythm, one bit at a time, and see how long a sequence of sounds you can remember accurately.

Write a description of a place, using colorful adjectives as well as carefully chosen, specific nouns and verbs. Try describing a crowded beach, an amusement park, a bakery, or a mountain meadow.

Make every meal today a riot of colors and of different textures.

Some people have synesthesia, in which their senses cross over. That means that they can hear colors and see sounds, for example. Use your imagination to decide what each of the rainbow colors would sound like.

Did you know that we have more than five senses? Wikipedia states that, in addition to sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, we also have a sense of balance and acceleration, a kinesthetic sense of where the various parts of our body are located in relation to the rest (that's why you can touch your nose with your finger even with your eyes closed), a temperature sense, a sense of pain, and a sense of time passing.

(I think that the first four are usually bundled into the “touch” sense, but apparently they shouldn't be?)

I wonder about a sense of direction. Many people seem to feel very strongly which direction is north, and which is east, south, west—even when we are cut off from the sun and moon and other celestial clues. But do we just THINK we have a sense of direction? Has this ever been tested?

More experiments – try to eat food in an unusual way by playing with temperatures and textures. Freeze some grapes and eat them frozen. Color your orange juice brown (with green food coloring) and your lemonade orange; do they taste different? Put your favorite chunky vegetable soup through a blender, then heat and eat – does it still taste as good? Heat some crunchy granola in milk, as if it were oatmeal, and see how hot granola-and-milk stacks up against the cold-cereal version. (Be sure to stir often so that the milk doesn't scald!)

Also on this date:

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec

International Fairy Day

Anniversary of the first “flying saucer” reports

Inti Raymi (Sun Festival) in Peru

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June 23 - Luxembourg's National Day

Posted on June 23, 2014

It's the smallest country in Europe by population - about half a million people.

It's one of the smallest countries in the world by area - less than 1,000 square miles!

And it is one of the top two countries in wealth "per capita" (per person) in the world, too!

And although it has several dates on which this tiny nation COULD celebrate its independence - like its independence from the French Empire on June 9, 1815 - Luxembourg celebrates its national day today, on the birthday of its Grand Duchess Charlotte.

I read that most Luxembourgers are tri-lingual. I'm not surprised, since apparently most of them grow up speaking Luxembourgish from birth on, but school is taught in German, the TV and radio broadcasts are in German, and official business is conducted in French.

I was really surprised to read that more tourists visit Luxembourg every year (about one million) than actually live there!

I also read that almost 40% of the population is made up of immigrants. Wow! That's close to half! About one third of the immigrants are from - wait for it... - Portugal! Are you surprised? I sure am...

Find out more about Luxembourg by checking out this video.

Also on this date:

Sabantuy (AKA the Festival of the Plow)

Pink Flamingo Day

Anniversary of Antarctica being set aside for science

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June 22 – Pin-Making Machine Patented

Posted on June 22, 2014

Before this date in 1832, Americans bought pins made by hand in 18 separate steps.

What happened on this date in 1832? An American doctor named John Howe patented a machine that quickly manufactured pins in just one step!

More patents followed – one by Howe improving his pin-making machine, and several by his workers for machines that stacked pins or packaged them.

A straight pin is a piece of iron wire with a larger “head” on one end (to help people use it and to hold it in place) and a sharp point on the other end. Pins are most commonly used to hold pieces of fabric together but are sometimes used to attach papers as well.

The pin itself is ancient. Even prehistoric people made and used pins – although they tended to be made from thorns or bone or ivory. Ancient peoples also crafted pins out of bronze, silver, gold, and brass; these ancient pins often had highly decorative heads.

The modern iron straight pin was used as least as early as the 1400s, in France, and there are mentions of pins or “papers of pins” as part of a tailor's equipment from many areas of Europe at that time.

By the 1700s, pin-making was “industrialized” – which means that the labor of making a pin was divided among many people. Each person could become an expert at one step of the pin-making process, and could handle just one piece of equipment – making the process go faster. Adam Smith even used a pin factory as an example of the efficiency of the division of labor.

With this division of labor, a factory could churn out 5,000 pins a day.

With Howe's machine, a factory could churn out 70,000 pins a day! That's 14 times as many!

But the packaging step was still slow until 1843, when Howe and his workers developed a machine to crimp paper and insert the pins in the paper.

Do some pin art!

You could use one of those cool pin-frame toys to make interesting images. And you should definitely check out this giant pin-art installation!

You could make a push-pin portrait.

You could do pin-and-string art or pin-and-thread art.

Also on this date:

Midsummer in Sweden

Schoolteachers' Day in El Salvador

Anniversary of the lowering the voting age in the U.S.

Explorer George Vancouver's birthday

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June 21 – Greenland's National Day

Posted on June 21, 2014

Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but it is its own “autonomous” country. That means it mostly rules itself, separate from any influence by Denmark's government.

And it also means that it has its own flag and its own National Day (today!).

Greenland is the world's largest island, and it has the world's largest national park.

Greenland is the world's least densely populated country. This map of Greenland gives you a pretty good idea why:

Yes, Greenland is mostly covered
by a thick ice sheet. All the towns
are on the coastal areas.

Greenland is icier than Iceland, and Iceland is greener than Greenland – go figure!

According to Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Erik the Red, who had earlier been exiled from Norway for killing someone, was ALSO exiled from Iceland, again for “some killings.” He and his family and many relatives and all of his thralls (his servants, or serfs) went sailing to find new lands to settle. They explored icy Greenland until they found a habitable area. When they settled there, they named it Greenland, apparently to make the land sound enticing to other people, in the hopes that they too would come and settle there.

Uummannaq, Greenland

Today Greenlanders will be singing songs, giving speeches, hoisting their flags, marching in processions, and enjoying Greenlandic dancing and music and other entertainment. People open their homes for kaffemiks, get-togethers during which coffee is served. There's also soccer (which most of the world calls football) and food and fireworks. Some people show off their kayaking skills; many people show off their national costumes; and visitors take advantage of the loooooooooooonng day to snap some photos of said kayaks and costumes.

Actually, the whole long-day thing is exactly why today was chosen to be Greenland's National Day. It's the solstice, the longest day of the year. And for Greenlanders – that's a pretty long day! Today in Nuuk, Greenland's capital and largest city, the sun will rise at 2:54 in the morning, and it will set shortly after midnight (yes, it is the land of the midnight sun!). A little farther north, in the town of Ilulissat, the sun has been up for all of June and much of May as well! It will not set until the early morning of July 25!

To learn more about Greenland, check out Kidz World. I like how the author begins the bit on Greenland's history:

“Nothing much happened, still nothing happened. A couple of guys arrived but left right away. Nothing else happened for hundreds of years.”

Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland

Here is a taste of life in a village in Greenland.

Also on this date:

Solstice

World Handshake Day

National Aboriginal Day in Canada

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for: