odditudes-and-weirdities

Adding humor to your day, clients/customers, poultry, chocolate caramel, and swallows migrating north to their summer California home are among the holiday topics going on today: Client's Day Let’s Laugh Day Nationa l Chocolate Caramel Day Poultry Day Swallows Return To Capistrano Day Approximately on this date Cliff Swallows return from Argentina to California (in general) and the San Juan Capistrano Mission (in particular). Even if you don't have Cliff Swallows returning to your area, you almost certainly have some migratory birds arriving or passing through. Image by  TootSweetCarole  from  Pixabay

Today's observances are about people who gave their lives for a cause, forgiving your parents for mistakes they've made, companies that care about their employees/community, biodiesel fuel, awkward/embarrassing moments, building the esteem of children, the ringing of church bells, fertility deities, and oatmeal cookies: Absolutely Incredible Kid Day Awkward Moments Day Companies That Care Day Forgive Mom and Dad Day Goddess of Fertility Day National Biodiesel Day National Oatmeal Cookie Day Oranges and Lemons Day Supreme Sacrifice Day Various interpretations of the ringing noise of London church bells exist, and the bells of St Clement are supposed to sound like "oranges and lemons". Rudolf Diesel , inventor of the diesel engine, was born on this date in 1858, and lends his birthday to National Biodiesel Day. There have been a ton of mythologies, and most of them have fertility deities of one kind or another. Here's one of them, Bona Dea , from ancient Rome. By J...

Observances today involved submarines, corned beef & cabbage, abstaining from tobacco, the evacuation of the British from Boston during the Revolutionary War, and St Patrick's Day: Evacuation Day Kick Butts Day  AKA  Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day St. Patrick's Day Submarine Day Today celebrates the first successful test run of a submarine on this date in 1898; the commissioning a couple years later is celebrated on April 11. On this date in 1776 during the American Revolution, the British forces evacuated Boston. Today's also a day to celebrate your Irish-ness, even if you're not Irish. Katie Bernotsky on Unsplash

Holidays today involve blacks involved in news reporting, the man behind the first liquid fueled rocket, the freedom of information, social workers, lips, artichoke hearts, being right about things. St Urho, the square root of ten, curlews returning to an Oregon wildlife refuge, and Giant Pandas: World Social Work Day St. Urho's Day Square Root of Ten Day National Panda Day National Everything You Do Is Right Day National Artichoke Hearts Day Lips Appreciation Day Go ddard Day Freedom of Information Day Curlew Day Black Press Day It's migration season and birds are on the move. Yesterday Ohio celebrated Turkey Vultures returning to Ohio, and today Oregon welcomes back their Curlew buddies. Freedom of Information Day is celebrated on the birthday of James Madison in 1751. On this date in 1926 the first liquid fueled rocket, designed by Robert Goddard , was successfully launched. On the heels of Everything You Think is Wrong Day, we have the more optimistic Everything You Do is ...

Holidays today are about proofreading, women's rights, the British Commonwealth of Nations, nastiness, peanut clusters, and geometry: Be Nasty Day Comm onwealth Day International Women's Day National Peanut Cluster Day Octahedron Day Proofreading Day Proofreading Day is celebrated today because creator Judy Beaver's mother liked to proofread, and was born on this date. It's unclear why we celebrate nastiness; we don't celebrate being repugnant, repulsive, hateful, spiteful, despicable, or contemptible. International Women's Day is celebrated on the day in 1917 when women in the Soviet Union obtained the right to vote, though these days it's more about generic women's rights. Celebrating Commonwealth Day reminds us of the pervasiveness of the old British Empire. By British Information Services - https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/61908/the-british-commonwealth-of-nations-british-information-services, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/ind...

Today is a day to celebrate the least-sided of the  platonic solids , the  regular octahedron . A regular octahedron is formed by putting 8 identical equilateral triangles together into a convex  polyhedron . It will have 6 vertices, 8 faces, and 12 edges. (A non-regular octahedron would can consist of any polyhedron with 8 faces, and could have as many as 12 vertices and 18 edges.) The regular octahedron is also a square  bipyramid  where all the faces are equilateral triangles. A bipyramid is a polyhedron with a polygon as a base where each vertex connects to another point on a different plane as the base, and does the exact same thing on the other side of the base.  We celebrate octahedrons on March (3rd month) 8 because it's composed of 8 triangles (3-sided polygons). The original uploader was Cyp at English Wikipedia.Later versions were uploaded by Fropuff at en.wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikime...

One of my favorite days of the year, today's holidays consist of the start of Daylight Saving Time, doing crafts with children, asking questions, checking batteries in important devices, potato chips, spiders, butterflies, moths, pi, tau, : Check Your Batteries Day Half Tau Day International Ask a Question Day Learn About Butterflies Day Moth-er Day National Children's Craft Day National Potato Chip Day Pi Day Save a Spider Day Daylight Saving Time Starts Today has one of my favorite suite of holidays, covering geniuses, math, and nature. Though Genius Day commemorates the birth of  Albert Einstein  in 1879, it could also mark the death of  Stephen Hawking  in 2018. Today is also a day to celebrate moths, learn about butterflies, and act kindly towards spiders. Did you know you can  calculate pi  using hotdogs? And here is a  pi versus pie  comparison. And did you know that pi has a friendly rivalry with another number, tau , which also ...