I didn’t know Canadian Whisky was a thing.
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The best Canadian whiskeys are made from rye, though.
Chag sameach!
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Tullamore Dew is all I’ll say.
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Good morning! 
It is Sunday, 28 March 2021
(W12/D87/278 rem)
Today is: 
Something On A Stick Day
Something On A Stick Day is all about celebrating foods we love to eat – that just happen to come on a stick!
And while it would take lot to beat a delicious, thick, freshly made beef or chicken sosatie on a Sunday braai, when you think about it, there’s a lot of food that can go on a stick…
Who doesn’t love food that you can pick up by the stick and eat? So whether it’s a toffee apple, camp-fire sausage, cheese cubes on a toothpick, ice cream bar, lollipop or other lovely treats, feel free to indulge in them on this day! Or why not try the favourite American food on a stick if you can – the famous corn dog? (Has anyone ever had a genuine US corn dog? What’s it like? It intrigues and repulses me at the same time.)
What about planning an entire meal of a starter, main course and dessert all on sticks? Easy, informal, and fun – and very little cleaning up to do afterwards! What a great theme for a dinner party to have on Something on a Stick Day!
Observed each year on 28 March, Something on a Stick Day is a food holiday that lets you use your creative talents. Once you get started, the possibilities are endless. Foods that come on a stick are fun and easy to eat.
There isn’t much that can’t be put on a stick when talking about food. Soup might be that one exception, though if it were flavorful frozen, we might make an exception.
From cool summer treats like the Popsicle to frozen food staples like the corn dog, food on a stick is one of the world’s great inventions. Fresh fruit kabobs and skewers of grilled veggies and meat are both summer favorites.
Street fairs and food trucks have created a variety of recipes made to go on a stick that takes us from breakfast to after-party hunger with flavor combinations that sometimes make us wonder why we haven’t tried that before!
Whether it is fresh and healthy or breaded and deep-fried, menu choices are broad and plentiful for National Something on a Stick Day.
Again though, sosaties on braai FTW!!
Happy Sunday everyone! 
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And there I celebrated the day without even knowing it…
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It is Monday, 29 March 2021
(W13/D88/277 rem)
Today is: 
World Piano Day
World Piano Day began as an idea by the German pianist, composer, and producer, Nils Frahm. Frahm composes classical piano music with electronic music, reforming piano music with an unconventional approach. He launched the holiday back in 2015.
When Frahm was asked why the world needs a Piano Day, he replied, “Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most important, the listener.”
Since its founding, the holiday has expanded as people held concerts, recitals, lectures, and demonstrations. An official website, Pianoday.org, lists all the concerts and events you can go to all over the world to help celebrate the beauty of the piano.
World Piano Day takes place on the 88th day of the year because of the number of keys on the instrument being celebrated.
The aim of the day is to create a platform for piano related projects in order to promote the development of musical dimensions and to continue sharing the centuries-old joy of playing piano. World Piano Day welcomes all kinds of piano lovers — young and old, amateur and professional, of any musical direction – to join in. It is intended to be the most joyful of all holidays!
There are official World Piano Day playlists on Spotify and on Soundcloud:
> Official Piano Day Playlist on Spotify
> Piano Day Playlist 2020 on Soundcloud
You can find music by the days originator, Nils Frahm, on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music.
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCHUlZT-VoVWIID4xcJZ5s6g?feature=share
Any MEWbs do the ivory tickling thing? Give us a taste of your skills. Everyone else is free to share your favourite pianist, piano-based music, or piano heavy tune. (And as much as it is appropriate, try to be a little more imaginative than just Billy Joel and “Piano Man”.)
Have a magnificent, musical Monday everyone!
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Pass.
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Pass? What do you mean “pass”? Are you some uncultured piano-hating philistine? 
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I was told politely in primary school to stay away from all musical instruments.
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There’s other “classical” instruments that I prefer, I’ve never really been fond of piano.
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I took piano lessons for 7 years when I was younger. I’m not actively playing now but really appreciated the grounding in music it gave me. If I had actually worked less during the hard lockdown, maybe I could have picked up playing again. We’ve got my grandfather’s piano in our lounge, but it is in desperate need of some tuning.
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tune it what what, give it stick man!
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In celebration of World Piano day, I share with you The Piano Guys rendition of Coldplay’s Paradise:
This is the song my wife walked into the church on our wedding day, and will forever be one of my all time favourite songs. Both the Piano and Cello features perfectly in this track
For a more emotional celebration of the piano, the most gifted and best piano composer of the modern era, Ludovico Einaudi gives Oltremare:
But the piano can be the source of great laughter as well as emotion, as portrayed by this somewhat creepy but unbelievably talented Brazilian Vinheteiro, and he does it WITHOUT LOOKING at the piano.
For a more progressive display of unimaginable skill and talent with the piano, look no further than Lionel Yu, a classically trained pianist and composer with hands of lightning.
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attempt no 8, only COD 4 players would know 
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I love this guy.
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It is Tuesday, 30 March 2021
(W13/D89/276 rem)
Today is: 
Pencil Day
Pencil Day honours the humble writing tool that has done more than just teach millions the alphabet and draw straight lines. It’s helped win wars, produced amazing art, and satisfied our subconscious need to chew on our writing implements for hundreds of years.
Celebrated since the mid-1970s, I couldn’t find a definitive answer as to exactly who started Pencil Day, but did discover why it happens today.
Hymen Lipman received the first patent for attaching an eraser to the end of a pencil on this day in 1858. Before that time, pencils and erasers existed separately. Lipman combined the two making the pencil significantly more convenient to use. The intuitive businessman also manufactured envelopes for his stationery shop and was the first to add adhesive to the flap of envelopes.
The pencil is one of the earliest writing tools, its modern version thought to have originated in Europe in the 16th century when a large graphite deposit was discovered in England. Early, crude examples consisted of nothing more than a graphite stick wrapped in string; later a hollowed wooden stick served as the forerunner to the wood-cased pencil.
Germany birthed the first mass-produced pencils, with Faber-Castell, Lyra and Steadtler, as well as a few other companies, leading the way. Across the pond, the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company of Massachusetts, which later became the Dixon Ticonderoga Company, and others jumped on the bandwagon in the late 19th century, and some German manufacturers even set up shop in the US. By 1872, it is estimated that the Dixon company was making about 86,000 pencils a day.
Today, Faber-Castell is one of the few companies that still places emphasis on its luxury wood-cased pencils, in addition to its lovely array of pens, limited editions and more. It is estimated that the company now makes over a couple of billion pencils in a variety of colors per year, including its art and premium pencils.
In the United States, most pencils are painted yellow. It is believed this tradition began in 1890 when the L&C Hardtmuth Company of Austria-Hungary introduced their Koh-I-Noor brand, named after the famous diamond. They intended the pencil to be the world’s best and most expensive pencil. However, other companies began to copy the yellow color so that their pencils would also be associated with the high-quality brand.
This may come as a shock to some people but lead pencils do not contain any lead. The “lead pencil” as we know never has. The “lead” actually is a mixture of graphite and clay; the more graphite, the softer and darker the point. The common name “pencil lead” is due to an historic association with the stylus made of lead in ancient Roman times.
Notable pencil pushers:
- Thomas Edison had pencils specially made by Eagle Pencil. His pencils were three inches long, thicker than standard pencils, and had softer graphite than typically available.
- Vladimir Nabokov rewrote everything he ever published, usually several times, by pencil.
- John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and is said to have used as many as 60 a day. His novel East of Eden took more than 300 pencils to write.
- Vincent van Gogh used only Faber pencils as they were “superior to Carpenters pencils, a capital black and most agreeable.”
- Johnny Carson regularly played with pencils at his Tonight Show desk. These pencils were specially made with erasers at both ends to avoid on-set accidents.
- Roald Dahl used only pencils with yellow casings to write his books. He began each day with six sharpened pencils and only when all six became unusable did he resharpen them.
Finally, a quick primer on grading your pencil graphite (not lead!), from the people who know everything there is to know about pencils: Pencils.com
So what’s your pencil of choice? Do you like it blacker, or harder? <—That’s what she said, prime Out of Context content 
Have a lekker, lead-free Tuesday!
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I imagine Shakespear liked a 2B, or perhaps not.
Personally it depends on what I am doing. I love writing with a softer pencil like a 2/3B but when it comes time to draft something or illustrate, I prefer going for a harder option like a 2H or H.
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I wonder which John Wick prefers
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He did mark Pencil Day a couple of years ago…
There’s also “commemorative merch” available:
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It is Wednesday, 31 March 2021 my dudes! 
(W13/D90/275 rem)
Today is: World Backup Day
You keep meaning to do it. You keep putting it off. And then unexpected kak happens. And your backups are either horribly out of date, or non-existent.
It’s happened to all of us at some stage of our technology-dependent lives. Whether it’s photos and contacts on stolen phones, documents on a failed hard drive, or corporate data on a lightning damaged server somewhere. And each time it happens, we lament not having solid backups of our data, and vow to never let it happen again. And then we diligently make backups for the next few months, and then slowly fall back into our old habits. Stop doing that already!
World Backup Day is set aside as a reminder to back up your files, even if it’s once a year! A backup is a reserve copy of all the files you’d be loathe to use.
There’s nothing more traumatizing than losing your phone, or having your hard drive crash, and having hundreds of valuable and irreplaceable documents or photos suddenly gone.
No matter how secure or safe you feel your data and equipment is, it’s important to back up your files. 30% of people don’t have any way to save their important files in the event that tragedy strikes. In our electronic based world, there are hundreds of ways to suddenly have things go terribly awry. 29% of all disasters are caused by accidents, costing valuable time and money as the resources they affected are lost forever. You may feel your computer is safe, but 1 in 10 of all computers, including household and business computers, are infected with a virus that may suddenly cause all of your data to be gone beyond retrieval.
“But my phone is always on me!” I hear you say! Wonderful! That’ll make it easier for you to be one of the hundreds of phones stolen every minute, each day. In this modern digital world, many of us live from our phones. Whether it’s for business, or just personal use, these electronic assistants often contain gigs of valuable documents, pictures, videos, and music. Do you really want to chance losing all of that when backup options are so easy and available?
“Easy? How do I backup my files and protect myself?” There ya go! Now we’re asking the right questions!
There are a myriad of ways you can use to backup your files, most phones are connected to some form of backup system. iPhones are tied directly into iTunes, which can back up all of your valuable data, you just need to hook that thing up to your computer and update the files daily! You can even do it as part of charging, just plug it in to your computer, set it to backup, and it’ll go about the process automatically while it takes a charge.
Android phones are intrinsically tied to Google, and with the availability of Google Docs and the Google backup, it’ll tie all of your data in to your profile, uploading it to a secure location while allowing you to choose which ones to share!
Google Docs can also be used to store all of your valuable files online! The bonus here is that from google docs you can access your files from any computer, saving you from having to wait for your system to be back up before you get those important files back!
Go on, do it right now. Many of you are reading this on your phones right now. Go to Settings > Backups and double-check that the automatic backup setting you know you created when you got your phone is still active. And that your backups are being stored on the device being backup! That would be kak pointless!
Visit http://www.worldbackupday.com/en/ for more backup tips and tools. And don’t become an April fool!
Have a data-safe Wednesday, my dudes!
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