Today Is... 📆

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Wednesday, 14 April 2021, my dudes!
(W15/D104/261 rem)

Today is: International Day of Pink

Bullying is never fun; it’s a cruel and terrible thing to do to someone. If you are being bullied, it is not your fault. No one deserves to be bullied, ever. - Raini Rodriguez

The International Day of Pink is an international anti-bullying event held annually during the second week of April.

The event started when students David Shepherd and Travis Price saw another student, who was wearing a pink shirt, being bullied in their Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia, Canada, and decided to show support for the student by getting everyone at their school to wear pink the following day.

The initiative inspired youth at Jer’s Vision who founded The International Day of Pink, an effort to support their peers internationally with resources and ways to make their schools safer. The initiative now seeks to support the work of students, educators, community and business in their efforts to stop all forms of bullying.

The campaign has continued to grow: it is now an international campaign that thrives in schools, workplaces, and communities. The Day of Pink and the conversations, awareness, and acceptance that stems from it are making a real difference in the lives of queer and trans youth. So let’s wear pink, spark some conversations, and inspire acceptance.

Appropriately for MEW, the focus of this years anti-bullying campaign is cyber bullying and bullying in gaming.

#DayOfPink - Game Over Cyberbullying

Discrimination takes many shapes, whether it’s based on race, age, disabilities, gender or sexuality. The 2SLGBTQIA+ community is no stranger to the bullying and violence that stems from hateful beliefs. While progress has been made towards removing these social barriers from our society, discrimination still persists. So, every year, on the second Wednesday of April, we urge people around the world to put on a pink shirt and stand in solidarity with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to continue fighting for equality and acceptance.

International Day of Pink has one purpose, to create a more inclusive and diverse world. We do this by encouraging young people to challenge social norms, ask more of their educators, and stand up against bullying towards their 2SLGBTQIA+ peers.

Wear pink, smash bullying in all its nasty forms whenever you see it, and have a wicked wild Wednesday, my dudes!!

[Beo]

Or is it salmon?

[GregRedd]

It doesn’t matter what shade of pink it is. Call it “salmon” if you like, just wear it and embody the spirit of the day!

[Wyvern]

Its to late I just have red - I don’t own any pink

[murfle]

@GregRedd

smash bullying in all its nasty forms

Bully the bullies. Got it

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Thursday, 15 April 2021
(W15/D105/260 rem)

Today is: High Five Day

The “High Five” is a sacred tradition that has been used to celebrate remarkable events in our day to day lives. Get the garbage into the can on the first throw? High Five!

Just get that promotion you’ve been gunning for? High Five! Did you propose? Did she say yes? HIGH FIVE! Did you just finalize your divorce papers? HIGH FIVE.

Seriously, high fives can be used to celebrate anything! That’s why High Five Day exists, just one more reason to use that universal gesture of excellence, the high five!

Give people high fives just for getting out of bed - being a person is hard sometimes! Kid President

High Five Day is a reminder that every little success in life deserves a bit of celebration, and the high five serves as a universal form of celebration at every level of success!

The High Five, if somehow you’ve gone your whole life without knowing this, is when you and another person slap hands together over your head. (Not to be mistaken for the ‘Low Five’ which traditionally takes place at waist level).

Each year on the third Thursday in April, we observe National High Five Day. This is a fun day where you can “High Five” everyone that you see.

Folklore fills the hallowed halls of sports stadiums concerning the origins of the high five. From the basketball to the volleyball court and baseball stadium, the sports metaphor has been well worn on this topic.

The two most well-known claims take place in less than a two-year time span.

During the last 1977 regular season Dodgers’ game, Dusty Baker hit the home run that made the team the first in history to have four players with at least 30 regular-season home runs each. As Baker rounded third and headed home, Glenn Burke waited at home plate to congratulate him. In a moment that is Dodgers history but never televised, Burke greeted his teammate by raising his hand, and they slapped hands in a victorious high five.

On the Louisville Cardinals basketball court during the 1978-79 season, the team switched up their regular low-fives thanks to Wiley Brown and Derek Smith.

Out of all the triumphant sports gestures, such as the fist bump, fanny slap, fist pump, end zone dance, and chest bump, the high five stands in a class all its own.

Whatever it’s origins, I’m glad it exists. Get out there and high five the world, but only virtually if you don’t know them!

Have a most excellent (but safe!) high five giving Thursday!

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[aldyr]

Uncle rona says, no. But you can elbow bump

[1nF4m0u5]

Self five Man today is going to be a good day

[murfle]

Happy Fives day!

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Friday, 16 April 2021
(W15/D106/259 rem)

Today is: Eggs Benedict Day

Rich flavourful Hollaindaise sauce, salty and savory ham, perfectly poached eggs, and the fluffy yet crunchy texture of an English muffin.

Eggs Benedict Day is the perfect excuse to cook up a plate of this delicious breakfast meal, and serve it with a side of fried potatoes on the side. While the origin of the name is sometime associated with Benedict Arnold, it’s no betrayal of good taste to start your day with the Eggs that bear his name. In fact, it may just be the redemption of a reference that is often reviled alongside that of Brutus.

The actual origin of Eggs Benedict is one shrouded in myth and mystery. There are those that profess that it was the favorite breakfast of the notorious betrayer Benedict Arnold, and became a favorite of the British after his defection from the American Revolutionary forces.

Others say that its origins are far more recent, being the result of a hangover remedy ordered by one Lemuel Bendict, a Stock Broker who celebrated a bit too hard the night before. While the original order in this case is rumored to be “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of Hollandaise”, and the maître d’hotel was so impressed with it that he made a couple modifications and added it to the menu.

Another, purportedly older origin story speaks of Pope Benedict XIII and a bit of an obsession with a particular egg dish. Every day he would order this specific meal when the opportunity presented itself, and so it was that it became deeply associated with him. It also was rumored that there was something going on with his health that made eggs be something of a craving as it helped to assuage the effects.

Start your day off with a big old serving of classic Eggs Benedict, for starters! While Eggs Benedict is a fairly simple dish to build, the Hollandaise sauce can be quite tricky to get right. If you really want to go all out, you can even have a breakfast gather where you try all sorts of different varieties.

There’s Eggs Florentine, which replaces the ham with spinach (or adds it underneath!). You can also have Eggs Hemingway, which swaps out smoked salmon for the ham (a popular variety in Canada, the UK, and Australia). Or try Eggs Blackstone, which replaces the Ham with the original bacon, and slips in a tomato slice for the sweet zing it brings. Whatever you choose in the end, Eggs Benedict Day brings a delicious breakfast back to our plates!

Start your day with a delicious helping of Eggs Benedict, and you will inevitably have a fantastic Friday!

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[murfle]

Dang, now I’m hungry. I’ve never had them before. I wonder if I have the ingredients I’d need to make that sauce… I would like to give it a try.

Try something new, get out of your shell. Get cracking already.

@GregRedd

Eggs Hemingway [snip] (a popular variety in Canada)

Er… I must be a bad Canadian, I’ve never heard of this.

[Beo]

@murfle

I wonder if I have the ingredients I’d need to make that sauce

Holandaise is a bitch to make, in my experiences anyway.

[murfle]

Hmm, lots of whisking I see…

I might just have to give this a shot…

[Beo]

If you’re up for a challenge, try a Bearnaise sauce too

[czc]

Yeah, best you try all the sauces while you’re at it.

[Wyvern]

A hollandaise isnt that difficult Just practice - low heat is your friend

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Saturday, 17 April 2021
(W15/D107/258 rem)

Today is: International Haiku Day

now is haiku day / say all in five seven five / irritate wife so

If there is one special thing that certain people tend to remember from school, it’s the day that we were introduced to the great Japanese art-form that is Haiku.

While it may have an ancient and noble history, it is likely at it’s most ignoble when a group of young kids try to cobble together Haiku in series of five-seven-five! Still, just the act of being creative can be fun and exciting, whether young or old.

The history of Haiku Poetry Day traces the origin of this beautiful, yet simple, form of poetry.

Haiku was originally found as the opening to another form of Japanese poetry called a Rengu. It took until the mid-1600’s for Hokku, the form Haiku was found in at this time, to start appearing independently from its parent form, Renga, and its Renku roots.

In the late 1800’s Hokku was renamed to Haiku when it appeared independently by the famous Japanese poet, author, and literary critic, Masaoka Shiki. Although Shiki only lived a short 35 years, he is credited with the writing of almost 20,000 stanzas, which is quite an accomplishment. He was considered to be one of the first great Haiku Masters.

Two other masters who were responsible for elevating the form of Haiku poetry to an independent art form are Matsuo Bashō and Ueshima Onitsura. These two were considered Masters of Poetry, and helped to promote Haiku so that it was appreciated and understood, even outside of its original context of Renku. So important was Basho to the history of Haiku that he was considered to be a ‘Saint of Poetry’ 100 years after his death.

So how did Haiku come to be in the West?

The man held responsible for this (and thus it appears in school curriculum books) was an unlikely Danish man named Hendrik Doeff. As commissioner of trade in Nagasaki in the 19th century, he developed a love of the art of Eastern poetry. Although he managed to bring it to the West himself, in general it wasn’t greatly received at first. In fact, it took until the early to mid-1900’s for Haiku to appear in the English language.

No matter what language a person speaks or where they come from, Haiku is one where the number of syllables used in a poem can serve as a framework for some of the most beautiful pieces of art ever formed. And Haiku Day is just the day to celebrate and appreciate this!

Haiku Day serves as a reminder that there is so much more to this style of poetry than a misspent week in high school literature classes. Instead, it’s a day to celebrate the width and depth and breadth that can be enjoyed when words are limited but imaginations are allowed to soar.

Use Write a Haiku to help count the syllables in your haiku as you create it:
i write haiku for / you to realise that i / can count to seven

Or try Poem of Quotes’ Haiku Generator which creates a haiku for you using your suggestions of related nouns:
electric, moving / average number of cars / into the driver

Or go full random generated haiku at Poem Generator using your own terms or purely random ones:
unfriendly hillside / an atlantic dolphin barks / because of the house

Sometimes, with the right combination of nouns and a little luck, you can get something decent:
boisterous, happy / doubled over with laughter / of the greatest joys

Finally, perhaps one of the more interesting haiku generators is the OpenStreetMap Haiku Generator which uses location information to generate haiku against a very minimalist map background:

Try the generators, or write your own, and submit your creations here for critical appraisal.

Either way, saturday, sleep late / upon pillow rest your head / great day have later!

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[DarthMol]

@GregRedd

Thank you kindly sir
This is so informative
You are a legend

[GregRedd]

Good morning!

It is Sunday, 18 April 2021
(W15/D108/257 rem)

Today is: World Heritage Day

World Heritage Day is celebrated each year on April 18 to spread awareness about preserving historical monuments and taking pride in our own heritage.

Officially titled as the International Day for Monuments and Sites, the day was proposed by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) on 18 April 1982 and approved by the General Assembly of UNESCO in 1983. The aim is to promote awareness about the diversity of the cultural heritage of humanity, their vulnerability, and the efforts required for their protection.

However, World Heritage Day (to give it its easier to recall colloquial name) is not just about monuments and buildings. It’s a day to celebrate one own’s history and culture and to spread awareness about dying cultures like the tribals. The main message of World Heritage Day is to spread awareness of our rich cultural diversity and preserving ancient cultures. It also gives a message to the younger generations to carry their message forward.

The World Heritage Day 2021 theme is ‘Complex Pasts: Diverse Futures’. This year ICOMOS wants people from various religious backgrounds to set aside their differences and come forward and spread the message of solidarity among different cultures.

Every day people all over the world celebrate their cultural heritage, simply by living their lives in a way that embodies who they are and where they came from. But one day a year is set aside to celebrate the joint history and heritage of the human race. World Heritage Day encourages us to celebrate all the world’s cultures, and to bring awareness to important cultural monuments and sites, and to espouse the importance of preserving the world’s cultures.

A number of different events happen all over the world to mark the day. This includes a wide range of activities, conferences, and visits to heritage sites and monuments. For those who are unaware, a heritage site is basically a place that is of cultural significance. It preserves the legacy of intangible attributes and physical artifacts of a society or group that is inherited from previous generations.

There are truly some incredible heritage sites and monuments around the world. This includes the Machu Picchu, which is situated in the lush and mountainous terrain high above the Urubamba River in Peru. There are lots of amazing sights in Egypt, and the Pyramids of Giza are one of them. Other places of note include Bagan in Myanmar, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and the Great Wall of China.

Visit heritage sites online - many of them offer virtual tours in these pandemic times. Discover a new wonder, monument, and cultural heritage site, and learn more about our world in all its wonderful diversity.

Have an all round outstanding Sunday!

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[DarthMol]

Time to use my quote!

“We all have a history, it’s what we choose to keep that becomes our heritage.”