odditudes-and-weirdities

The Festival of Wepet Renpet was a matter of life and death in ancient Egypt - it was held each year when the Nile River flooded, irrigating the fields that the Egyptians depended on for much of their food. It was also considered the Egyptian New Year. Since it depended on a flood, the date is an approximation. Of course the ancient Egyptians understood that Wepet Renpet had nothing to do with rain in the Ethiopian highlands; they understood that the deities Khnum and Neith were satisfied with their offerings. Photo by British Library on Unsplash

Holidays today are about exploring the western US, false utopias, happy workers, French fries, bean 'n' franks, barbershop quartet music, embracing your inner geek, and math: Barbershop Music Appreciation Day Bean 'n' Franks Day Embrace Your Geekness Day Fool's Paradise Day Go West Day Gruntled Workers Day National French Fries Day Tribonacci Numbers Day While today we appreciate barbershop music, the similar Barbershop Quartet Day is April 11. It's unclear why we'd celebrate a fool's paradise since it sounds like a place only a fool could love, yet Fool's Paradise Day seems to do just that. Given that disgruntled workers are unhappy workers, what would happy workers be called? Disdisgruntled sounds too complicated, so we celebrate happy workers on this Gruntled Workers Day. On this date in 1804 President Thomas Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis to explore land the US had recently bought, the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis's expedition with William Cla...

You may have heard of the Fibonacci numbers , which starts with 0 and 1, and where every following number is the sum of the previous 2 numbers. Thus Fibonacci numbers are 0, 1, 0+1 = 1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, ... Mathematicians quickly noticed that they could define a variety of similar sets of numbers by changing the rules slightly. Perhaps the next easiest to deal with are the Tribonacci numbers (named by merging the tri- suffix with much of the original Fibonacci name). The Tribonacci numbers start with the "seed numbers" of 0, 1, and 1, and each of the following numbers are the sum of the previous 3 numbers. Thus we get numbers of 0, 0, 1, 0+0+1 = 1, 0+1+1=2, 1+1+2=4, 1+2+4=7, ... While the Fibonacci numbers are known to show up in nature, the Tribonacci numbers are mostly of interest to mathematicians alone. (The ratio between adjacent Tribonacci numbers - the Tribonacci constant - is used in calculations involving the snub cube .) We celebrate Tribonacci numbers o...

Holidays today are about living a simple life, eating Jello, pecan pie, the obsolete (in most places) job of town crier, and having eyes with different colors: Different Colored Eyes Day International Town Criers Day National Eat Your Jello Day National Pecan Pie Day Simplicity Day Simplicity Day is a celebration of living a simple life, and is celebrated on the date in 1817 when  Henry David Thoreau  was born. Differently colored eyes is a condition called h eterochromia, and happens in some breeds of domestic animals. (It's rarer in humans.) Photo by Iwona Castiello d'Antonio on Unsplash

Raising awareness of global population issues, attempting to cheer up someone lonely, taking pictures of your pet(s), attempting to fix the writing of Shakespeare, swimming pools, obtaining a free Slurpee from 7-Eleven, Rainier cherries, blueberry muffins, Mojito cocktails, and barns are topics covered by today's observances: All American Pet Photo Day Barn Day Bowdler's Day Cheer Up the Lonely Day Free Slurpee Day National Blueberry Muffin Day National Mojito Day National Rainier Cherry Day National Swimming Pool Day World Population Day There are rumors that the Mojito cocktail was a favorite of the writer Ernest Hemmingway. Thomas Bowdler, a rewriter of the works of William Shakespeare, was born on this date in 1754. On 7/11 (today), 7-Eleven offers a free Slurpee to celebrate their franchise. You probably don't have enough pictures of your pet(s); taking more pet photographs could correct this deficiency.  Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash

Barn Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of July, is a holiday that you can find listed on various webpages, though there isn't much documentation concerning it. Why we celebrate barns when we do is unknown to me, though barns probably do deserve some recognition and respect. Certainly they've been useful structures for centuries. The modern barn is believed to have evolved from the tithe barn  of the Middle Ages, where farm goods were paid as tithes or taxes to the authorities. If you live someplace sufficiently rural, perhaps you could visit a barn today. Photo by Cameron Venti on Unsplash

Observances today are about a specific type of poem, blueberry picking, children hosting a picnic for their teddy bear, being careful not to hurt bees, scientist/inventor Nikola Tesla, capybaras and the vaquita porpoise: Blueberry Picking Day Capybara Appreciation Day Don't Step on a Bee Day International Save the Vaquita Day National Clerihew Day National Pina Colada Day Nikola Tesla Day Teddy Bear Picnic Day A clerihew is a 4-line poem where the first 2 lines rhyme and the last 2 lines rhyme. Inventor/engineer extraordinaire  Nikola Tesla  was born on this date in 1856. We're reminded of the plight of one of the most endangered species in the world, the vaquita. Paula Olson, NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons