Obscure Holidays and Observances

Happy Carl Sagan Day!

It's the closest weekend to his birthday—at least I think that's how it's chosen. This year it's the 10th, coinciding with the UN's Science Day.

Happy Member Anniversary to me,...

...because I don't have a clue what to do or eat for GIS Day.

.

Since apparently International Men's Day hasn't gotten as much recognition as International Women's Day, I thought I would do my part, however small. I've been thinking, what men do I admire as men, rather than just as scientists, teachers, or whatever else they happen to be? Currently at the top of my list (and someone I don't believe I've posted about before) is probably Ken Wood of the National Tropical Botanical Garden.


He's the one on the left-hand side. It's from 1997 and not the most flattering picture of him, but I couldn't find any better ones that were small enough to post. Click for a more recent one.

Ketzel Levine (Talking Plants Blog) wrote:[F]or all the risks he takes on his seemingly death-defying plant expeditions, Ken Wood is no pumped-up Indiana Jones. Consider his modest comments from the talk we had while hiking a ridge overlooking his beloved Kalalau Valley.

All through time, there've been very interesting field biologists, many out here in the Hawaiian Islands, and these naturalists, botanists and biologists were incredibly adventurous; the rigors and difficulties they encountered were intense and amazing. So I think we've a similar mindset.

As for describing that mindset, how's this for a swashbuckling answer:

It's often said, "Who am I, Where do I come from, Where am I going to." Well, the "who am I" part is not just my physical form but what I'm a part of. So that curiousity we have, that interest in understanding our relationship with earth and/or the universe, I think that's in us all. And once we start to tap into it and learn a little bit and open the first few pages of this incredible story, we're locked in there. And if you can make a living at it, then you're in for a really cool ride.

I can't seem to load the embedded audio in that post, but according to the blogger, it sounds sexually charged. I suppose that's bound to happen when a man is passionate about a job that constantly involves magnoliophytes,...well, being magnoliophytes. Well, now that you've been warned, here's the original post. Real men love flowers.

Reader's Digest wrote:Says Wood, a father of two girls, "The earth is a gift, it's precious, and it's in a balance."

December:
1. Channel Tunnel Breakthrough
2. National Mutt Day (US)
3. Roof Over Your Head Day (US)
4. National Cookie Day (US)
5. International Volunteer Day (UN), Day of the Ninja
6. Miners' Day (US), Microwave Oven Day (US), Put on Your Own Shoes Day
7. International Civil Aviation Day
8. Eli Whitney's Birthday (1765)
9. Traffic Light Day, Karl Wilhelm Scheele Day (1742)*
10. Ada Byron's Birthday (1815)
11. National Tango Day (Argentina)
12. Poinsettia Day (Mexico(?)), Heavy Metal Day
13. Day of the Horse (US)
14. Monkey Day, DNA (Synthesis) Day (1967)**, Tycho Brahe's Birthday (1546)
15. Antoine-Henri Becquerel's Birthday (1852)
16. Ludwig van Beethoven & Arthur C. Clarke's Birthday (1770 & 1917)
17. Wright Brothers Day/Pan-American Aviation Day
18. J.J. Thomson's Birthday (1856)
19. Geek Creation Day (OCT 23 = DEC 19)
20. Grimm Tales Anniversary (1812)
21. National Flashlight Day (US)
22. Mathematics Day (India)
23. Tryptophan Day, Niels Kaj Jerne's Birthday (1911)
24. James Joule's Birthday (1818), Apollo Day
25. Grav-mass
26. Candy Cane Day (US)
27. Johannes Kepler & Louis Pasteur's Birthday (1571 & 1822), Peter and Wendy Day
28. Chocolate Candy Day (US)
29. Pepper Pot Day (US)
30. Rudyard Kipling's Birthday (1865)
31. Jaime Escalante's Birthday (1930)

*I'm not sure if this was his actual birthday, but I think he deserves a special day.
**It's not the official "DNA Day," but some prefer to treat it as such because it's the first day DNA was reported to be synthesized in a lab.

I first heard the term "Feast of Color" a few months ago and thought, "That sounds yummy!" and so I decided to make one up. Since there are two summer solstice holidays (or at least I think that's what they are) originating in the Northern Hemisphere, one celebrating the color orange and the other pink, a skip away from each other (they're not in immediate succession but separated by a day), I decided to go from there, and this is what I got.

June 13 - Purple/Violet
14 - Blue
15 - Aqua-Blue (not sure what to call this one)
16 - Aqua/Cyan/Teal
17 - Seafoam/Mint Green
18 - Green
19 - Yellow-Green
20 - Yellow
21 - Orange
22 - Red
23 - Pink
24 - Magenta

But of course, that's around the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, so if you've had a colorful harvest this month, feel free to start your Feast of Color on 13 December, unless you prefer to wait a little longer and do all your feasting during the Ten Days of Newton.

January
1. Bose's Day (No, not that Bose's Day—this Bose's Day.)
2. Science Fiction Day (Isaac Asimov's Birthday)
3. J.R.R. Tolkien's Birthday (lest we forget the fantasy geeks)
4. Isaac Newton's Birthday
5. George Washington Carver Day
6. Jakob Bernoulli's Birthday
7. Nanakusa no Sekku (A prominent Japanese holiday, not obscure, but it's all I found. )
8. Alfred Wallace's Birthday
9. Apricot Day (US)
10. Versailles Day
11. Day of 167 Pardons
12. Marzipan Day (US)
13. Rubber Ducky Day, Clark Ashton Smith's Birthday
14. James Cockle, Hugo Steinhaus, &Alfred Tarski's Birthday
15. Strawberry Ice Cream Day (US)
16. Hot & Spicy Food Day, Appreciate a Dragon Day
17. Benjamin Franklin's Birthday
18. Winnie-the-Pooh Day
19. Edgar Allan Poe's Birthday
20. Penguin Appreciation Day, André-Marie Ampère* & Buzz Aldrin's Birthday
21. Squirrel Appreciation Day
22. Francis Bacon's Birthday
23. Challenger Deep Day
24. Peanut Butter Day (US)
25. Winter-een-mas Begins
26. Peanut Brittle Day (US)
27. Wolfgang Mozart, Lewis Carroll, & Dmitri Mendeleyev's Birthday**
28. Data Privacy Day
29. Thomas Paine's Birthday
30. Draw a Dinosaur Day
31. Franz Schubert's Birthday, Explorer I's Anniversary, and International Zebra Day (Who knew?)

*I don't know for a fact that he was born on this day, but after what he went through, it's the least I could do.
**It's also Thomas Crapper Day and Chocolate Cake Day in the US—a funny coincidence, like Hot & Spicy Food Day/Appreciate a Dragon Day.

No matter which Bose (if not both) you're honoring this month, there's a cake for that.

November 5, 1955 is the past; October 26, 1985 is the present; October 21, 2015 is the future; and September 2, 1885 is the Old West.

It's that time of year again, USA. Yes, it's Frederick Douglass Day, a day to stop and ask ourselves why we do what we do. I mean, naturally we should take a little time for that every day, but you know...

Joel Boyce (http://www.jjsboyce.ca) wrote:I think it’s worth noting how truly exceptional an individual Douglass really was. There’s a kind of historical chauvinism where we look back at places, times and events in history, with our 20/20 hindsight, modern education and all the benefits of being born now, rather than just about any other point in the past. People say, “why didn’t the Jews fight back when they were being carted off to Auschwitz?” or “I never would have put up with being a slave.” They also take the moral high ground: “I never would have supported Hitler” and “I wouldn’t have been a plantation owner.”

The truth is that now and in the past, most of us tend to follow the path of least resistance and do whatever everyone else is doing. Questioning the status quo is something the more thoughtful among us do, and actually doing something about it? You have to be rather courageous to blaze a trail for social change. No one wants to be the first to step out of line.

It's Tell a Fairy Tale Day! Yasmine Surovec imagines what would happen if the Little Match Girl met the Crazy Cat Lady. So cute! She did Rapunzel too, and a parody of the Frog Prince. Everything's better with kitties!