Beo running scared now… 
3 Likes
Good morning! 
It’s Tuesday, 9 March 2021
(W10/D68/297 rem)
Today is: 
Barbie Day
We go from the seriousness of International Woman’s Day to the frivolity and joy of Barbie Day.
Her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. But everyone knows her by her famous nickname: Barbie. Today is her 62nd birthday. And she looks the same as she always has. 
For many, some of the fondest memories of childhood involve their very own Barbie doll. Ken and Barbie and all their friends have helped generations of children fill hours of creative play. Barbie Day celebrates all the strides this doll has made in the over sixty years of bringing joy to the world.
The history of Barbie Day is the history of Barbie herself as the day marks her official birthday. Barbie debuted on March 9, 1959 at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
She was a labor of love from Ruth Handler who was the wife of the co-founder of the toy giant Mattel, Inc. After watching children playing with baby dolls and paper dolls, she thought that the toy market needed something more.
After a trip to Germany where she saw a doll that was in line with what she wanted, she convinced her husband and the company to make the first-ever mass-produced doll with adult features.
While there have been small changes through the years, Barbie came off the production line much as we know her today. There were some who objected to her figure, but as you can see with her success, those thoughts were in the minority.
And whilst Barbie (and Ken and all the cousins, friends and hangers-on that joined Barbie’s extended family over the years) may have started out as the symbol of idyllic American life, she’s grown and evolved as a toy line over the years.
Barbie dolls are becoming more inclusive. Recent collections embrace a range of cultures, gender identities, and even disabilities, with a doll in a wheelchair and one wearing a prosthetic leg. For anybody who remembers the Barbie of their childhood, things have moved a lot since then. Modern Barbie embraces new body shapes, skin colors, hair textures, and much more!
The latest Barbie collections are a celebration of inclusion, feminism, positivity, and sisterhood in all shapes and colours.
Barbie dolls representing famous and inspiring women through the ages are also now available. In fact, the latest addition to the collection, an Eleanor Roosevelt doll, was launched just yesterday to coincide with and celebrate International Woman’s Day.
So, no fake plastic smiles now - be your best Barbie and have a great Tuesday! 
3 Likes
Today’s theme song is thus…
5 Likes
It’s Wednesday, 10 March 2021 (W10/D69/296 rem)
Today is: International Bagpipe Day
Love them or hate them. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground when talking about the bagpipes and their plaintive wail. Regardless of your feelings toward the traditional Scottish “musical” instrument, we celebrate International Bagpipe Day today!
International Bagpipe Day was created after an idea by Andy Letcher, the Bagpipe Society’s publicity officer and was first celebrated on 10 March 2012.
As he imagined ways of promoting the diversity of bagpipes to the greater public, PhD student Cassandre Balosso-Bardin thought to organise a bagpipe conference.
The first International Bagpipe Conference launched International Bagpipe Day world wide as it gathered scholars, musicians and instrument makers from all around the globe. International Bagpipe Day is now celebrated every year all around the world, including here in South Africa.
If you aren’t familiar with this ancient instrument, bagpipe is a term that means a wind instrument that uses enclosed reeds to produce sound. Air feeds the reeds with a constant flow of air from a reservoir in the form of a bag. In each area that it is found, the bagpipe may change in sound and shape. This is an ancient instrument and is claimed to be represented on a Hittite slab dated to 1000 BC!
Bagpipes have a long history that spans the ages and spans many regions. It is an instrument that has weathered the test of time and surely deserves to be honored on International Bagpipe Day!
Perhaps one of the finest ways to appreciate the bagpipes is when they are brought together in massed military band formations. Here’s one of the most famous occasions and examples of this, in the ancestral home of the bagpipes:
And because you never knew you needed it, but realise now that your life has been incomplete without it, I give you bagpipe Thunderstruck, with flames!! 
Have a wicked good Wednesday!
4 Likes
I actually love the sound!
2 Likes
It’s Thursday, 11 March 2021 (W10/D70/295 rem)
Today is: World Plumbing Day 
World Plumbing Day is an initiative by the World Plumbing Council and is celebrated around the world every year on March 11. The day aims to spread awareness of the importance of plumbing and plumbers in protecting public health and improving access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
Plumbing is a major part of our everyday routine such as having a shower, getting a glass of water from a tap, and flushing the toilet. All of these tasks are possible thanks to trained plumbers and advances in plumbing.
World Plumbing Day recognizes the critical link between health and plumbing facilities. Indeed, the bathroom plays a significant role in maintaining our health all around the world. Everybody understands the role of sanitized, plumbing solutions to cut germs in their paths.
Just how many germs live in your bathroom is unclear, but it’s the place where you can find some of the most harmful bacteria, such as bacillus, gram-negative rods, cocci, and gram-positive rods. These different bacteria types are harmful to the human population and can cause a variety of health concerns such, skin infections and pneumonia. Some types are also resistant to antibiotics, which brings a completely new meaning to World Plumbing Day.
There’s a reason why your parents taught you to wash your hands after going to the bathroom. It ensures that you can wash potentially harmful bacteria away. Did you know that if everybody washed their hands after a toilet break, the risk of catching diseases would be almost non-existent? Not that we catch diseases only in the bathroom, but most of our usual stomach bugs, flu, and other infectious viruses could be contained with proper hand washing techniques! It’s the reason that hand washing is so important in the fight against COVID-19.
Make hygiene your top priority on World Plumbing Day. You can teach your kids to always wash their hands. You can also introduce a bathroom routine to keep everything as clean as possible. Changing your hand towel every week is a no-brainer. But also remember to keep your plumbing clean to avoid any contamination! Nobody likes mold patches in the shower, smelly drains, or dripping taps.
Have a top notch, well flushed Thursday!
4 Likes
You forgot to mention the awareness movement that everyone can participate in… Come on everyone let’s see those plumbers cracks!
but seriously, please no…
4 Likes
Stupid busy schedule! I missed bagpipe day 
And as for today, my friend put it best when talking about Rome being trashed. “I can understand destroying the history, but keep the plumbing! You take a crap, it goes over there.”
3 Likes
It’s Friday, 12 March 2021
(W10/D71/294 rem)
Today is: International Fanny Pack Day
Remember the fanny pack? The fad from the 1980s of wearing a pack around your waist as an alternative to carrying a purse but could be worn by men as well took over many people’s good fashion sense. Sometimes these fanny packs were made in bright neon colors and prints.
International Fanny Pack Day aims to use this fun fashion accessory to shine a light on a serious social issue: helping the hungry.
Nick Yates created International Fanny Pack Day in 2007. The desire to create this holiday came out of a random encounter he had with a homeless man after a Christmas party. At the party, he had received a fruitcake and a fanny pack as gag gifts.
After the party, thinking it wouldn’t hurt, he strapped on the fanny pack and put the fruitcake inside (you could put many things in those fanny packs!) and set off for the bus stop to go home.
When he was on the way to the bus stop, a homeless man teased him about the fanny pack. Yates gave the man the fruitcake and continued on his way. (Allegedly the man was not overly thrilled with the cake! I mean, would you be? Fruit cake = bleegh!)
This got him to thinking that there could be a connection between the fanny pack and helping the hungry. He would go on to get into contact with food banks to get the movement started. He continued to hand out food while wearing the fanny pack. The idea took off and has been celebrated annually ever since.
Celebrate International Fanny Pack Day by digging yours out of the back of the closet and fill it up with food to pass out in your community.
Mr. Yates gathered his friends with him when he was trying to make a difference. Use that example and gather yours to make a difference in your community.
Even if you don’t wear the fanny pack, look around your community for where help is needed. Food pantries, homeless shelters, community centers and schools are places that are always looking for help in feeding the hungry.
Do you own a fanny pack? Don’t laugh, there’s “influencers” helping it make a comeback.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf4Rv8YAA5p/?igshid=11z7myusn49f4
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf_4ra1liM9/?igshid=u19fxghiqv97
Personally, my look would be more…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbpzWIAF0dR/?igshid=rwwd76d7etgi
Drop all your Insta worthy fanny pack pics below, help the hungry, and have a fabulous Friday, doll!
Darn! Instagram embeds don’t work, or I’m doing them wrong.
3 Likes
They seem very clunky.
3 Likes
I used to have one when I was young. Don’t remember wearing it aside from when I was traveling. Gotta stick out as a tourist, yo!
3 Likes
It’s Saturday, 13 March 2021
(W10/D72/293 rem)
Today is: Open An Umbrella Indoors Day 
Are you superstitious? Do you blindly adhere to every old wife’s tale you’ve heard since childhood, without questioning it? Today’s the day to break out of the chains of conformity and challenge convention! Open an umbrella indoors, I dare you. I double dare you!*
Open an Umbrella Indoors Day was created in 2003 by Thomas Knibb. Knibb hoped to defy silly superstitions by encouraging people to open their umbrellas indoors and observe the (ideally, non-existent) consequences.
The best thing about this bizarre holiday is that anybody can take part. Just follow these four simple steps:
- Find an umbrella and check that you are, indeed, indoors.
- Position yourself clear of breakable objects and/or people who value their eyesight.
- Take a deep breath, grasp the umbrella handle firmly with one hand and open the umbrella with your other hand.
- Note of any bad luck occurs following the umbrella opening.*
There are a number of suggestions as to exactly why the superstition exists, and when it began.
One of them suggests it started around 1200 BCE, when the ancient Egyptian priests and royalty were using umbrellas made of peacock feathers and papyrus to shield them from the sun. According to Reader’s Digest, the superstition might have stemmed from a belief that opening an umbrella indoors—away from the sun’s rays—would anger the sun god, Ra, and generate negative consequences.
Another theory involves a different ancient Egyptian deity: Nut, goddess of the sky. As HowStuffWorks reports, these early umbrellas were crafted to mirror (and honour) the way she protected the Earth, so their shade was considered sacred. If anybody with non-noble blood used one, that person supposedly became a walking, talking beacon of bad luck.
The reason we try to abstain from opening umbrellas indoors today, however, is probably more about avoiding injury than divine wrath. Modern umbrellas gained popularity during the Victorian era with Samuel Fox’s invention of the steel-ribbed Paragon frame, which included a spring mechanism that allowed it to expand quickly—and dangerously.
“A rigidly spoked umbrella, opening suddenly in a small room, could seriously injure an adult or child, or shatter a frangible object,” Charles Panati writes in his book Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. “Thus, the superstition arose as a deterrent to opening umbrellas indoors.”
In the narrow, cramped confines of an English homes’ entrance hall, it’s not hard to imagine the large number of poked eyes and damaged ceramics, and general domestic mayhem, kak, and drama caused by opening the umbrella inside.
Let us know if you’re prepared to risk the wrath of Ra and Nut (pics, or it didn’t happen!!)* and have a brilliant Saturday!
* Disclaimer & Indemnity: People who take part in this holiday do so at their own risk. I am not responsible for any injury, damage, bad stuff, or general kak that might happen to you, your loved ones, or your property.
2 Likes
Good ol’ Thomas Knibb. Cekteator of Open and Umbrella Indoors Day. What a guy!
I’ve opened quite a few bumbershoots indoors over the years. I’ve never faced any wRAth, except maybe getting scolded by my mom, that Nut.
1 Like
It’s Sunday, 14 March 2021
(W10/D73/292 rem)
Today is: 
Pi Day π
Pi. It’s not just the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet you know.
Today (3/14 in the old tongue) is Pi Day, and any day that combines fun, education, and pie is a day worth celebrating!
Pi, also known by the Greek letter “π,” is a mathematical constant value that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. That ratio is 3.14… (and so on). Also, pies are traditionally circular in shape, and their name (pie) is a homonym for pi, so it makes sense to celebrate Pi Day with pies. Also, if you enter the digits 3.14 into an old school digital calculator, and look at it upside down, it sort of looks like with word “pie”. (Now do 58008! )
March 14 is also Albert Einstein’s birthday, so all together it’s nothing short of a math nerd’s Nirvana.
Pi Day (whether written 3.14 or 3/14) celebrates the long history of this fantastic number, and the long journey science has taken (and is still on) to seek the end of a number known to be infinite in length.
To learn about pi, we need to go back a few thousand years and learn about this elusive number.
The value of pi was first calculated by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.
However, it was first baptized with the Greek letter as its name when William Oughtred called it as such in his works dating back to 1647, later embraced by the scientific community when Leonhard Euler used the symbol in 1737.
But how did Pi Day end up in a country-wide phenomenon? For that, we need to travel to the Exploratorium in 1988 San Francisco, where it was thought up by physicist Larry Shaw.
Shaw linked March 14 with the first digits of pi (3.14) in order to organize a special day to bond the Exploratorium staff together, where he offered fruit pies and tea to everyone starting at 1:59 pm, the following three digits of the value. A few years later, after Larry’s daughter, Sara, remarked that the special date was also the birthday of Albert Einstein, they started celebrating the life of the world-famous scientist.
Pi Day became an annual Exploratorium tradition that still goes on today, and it didn’t take long for the idea to grow exponentially, hitting a peak on March 12, 2009, when the US Congress declared it a national holiday.
Subsequent, UNESCO’s 40th General Conference designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics in November 2019.
Now, celebrated by math geeks all around the circumference of the world, Pi Day has become a pop culture phenomenon, with several places partaking in the activities, antics, observations and all the pie eating they can.
May Pi and Pie be with you all through your Sunday! π
P.S. At Day #73, exactly 20% of the year is gone already.
4 Likes
Larry Shaw is every bit the perfect mathematician and physicist in that picture of him celebrating Pi Day
2 Likes
It’s Monday, 15 March 2021
(W11/D74/291 rem)
Today is: Napping Day 
On the surface it may seem that Napping Day is just another way that Americans are trying to emulate their more advanced and cultured European cousins. First they steal our language and our food. Now they want to take our naps and siestas too?! Next thing you know they’ll be using metric measures and start driving on the left. Sacré bleu!
However, the real reason behind this day is easier to understand when you hear that it was created by a Boston Uni professor and his wife to highlight the health benefits of napping.
William Anthony, Ph.D., a Boston University Professor, and his wife, Camille Anthony, created National Napping Day in 1999 as an effort to spotlight the health benefits to catching up on quality sleep. “We chose this particular Monday because Americans are more ‘nap-ready’ than usual after losing an hour of sleep to daylight saving time,” Anthony said.
It always happens on the Monday immediately after the Sunday that Daylight Savings Time starts in the US and everyone there turns their clocks back an hour. Or forward an hour? I don’t know. It’s a stupid system.
Anyway… where was I? Oh yeah, National Napping Day. Not only does the observance encourage a nap, it reminds us that there’s no shame in taking one either.
While preparing for the time change can offset the shock to our internal clock, many other things in our life may not handle the change so well causing us to still lose sleep. Young children and pets do not adjust as easily and certain work schedules do not permit early adjustment, either.
Mid-afternoon naps are an integral part of many cultures, and scientifically proven to be good for you. A needed rest can make you feel better and also improve your mood. After having the extra amount of sleep, a person will notice that they will be more productive and energetic.
Numerous studies have shown that short 10-20 minute naps are the most effective when midday fatigue hits. Improvements in alertness, productivity and mood have all been shown to improve with this type of snooze.
No less an authority on all things healthy, the Mayo Clinic, lists the benefits of adult napping:
- Relaxation
- Reduced fatigue
- Increased alertness
- Improved mood
- Improved performance, including quicker reaction time and better memory
Now who wouldn’t want that? Go on, close your eyes, take a snooze. You deserve it.
Some tips on good napping technique, courtesy again of the big brains at the Mayo Clinic:
To get the most out of a nap, follow these tips:
- Keep naps short. Aim to nap for only 10 to 20 minutes. The longer you nap, the more likely you are to feel groggy afterward. However, young adults might be able to tolerate longer naps.
- Take naps in the early afternoon. Napping after 3 p.m. can interfere with nighttime sleep. Individual factors, such as your need for sleep, your sleeping schedule, your age and your medication use, also can play a role in determining the best time of day to nap.
- Create a restful environment. Nap in a quiet, dark place with a comfortable room temperature and few distractions.
After napping, give yourself time to wake up before resuming activities — particularly those that require a quick or sharp response.
Though there are some of us who are just not the napping kind, even you can reap those benefits, find a cozy spot for 10 minutes on Napping Day. You won’t regret it.
And who knows, maybe it’ll be the start of an excellent new habit and you’ll gradually start feeling the benefits. That you’ll automatically become more cultured and refined is a given too.
Have a magnificent Monday!
5 Likes
Monday’s are usually the only day where I can’t squeeze in a nap… But I’ll see what I can do 
3 Likes
Good man! Do it for the Queen and the metric system! Huzzah!
3 Likes
4 Likes
tried to take a 20min nap, only to have it interrupted by a whatsapp message T_T which always happens, I rarely get to have a peaceful nap
4 Likes