Celebrate Every Day

Welcome to March 8th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a magical state and women who make history.

In downtown Portland, you’ll find the smallest park in the world—a patch of land only 2 feet across. The land was once intended for a street light, but the light was never installed. The empty site caught the eye of journalist Dick Fagan, who wrote a column and dubbed the place Mill Ends Park. It features a tiny swimming pool, statues, and a mini Ferris wheel. Mill Ends is also home to the only leprechaun colony outside of Ireland. Unfortunately, the leprechauns are invisible. On National Oregon Day, we celebrate the Beaver State and all its weird and wonderful sights, from Crater Lake to leprechauns.

Not all women are famous for both beauty and brains but Austrian born, Heddy Lamar possessed both. While Hollywood honored her film career with a star on the Walk of Fame in 1960, she was also known for her work as an inventor. At the start of World War II Heddy and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system that armed Allied torpedoes with anti jamming capability. The principles of their work were eventually used in creating GPS and Bluetooth technology, and Lamar was later inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. On International Women’s Day, we honor women around the world who make their mark by making history right where they stand.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 7th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate breakfast favorites piled high or in a bowl.

If you enjoy flapjacks for breakfast, be sure to check your surroundings before ordering some. Here in the United States, a flapjack is another name for a pancake. The word is simply a regional name. But if you are in England, make sure to choose your words carefully. Over there, a pancake is very similar to our version. However, a flapjack is an entirely different thing. British flapjacks are baked in an oven and made from a mixture of oats, sugar, butter, and syrup. They’re closer to what we call granola bars. On National Flapjack Day, enjoy a stack with melted butter and syrup or any regional favorite of your own.

If your mother ever dragged you along to the grocery store, then a trip down the cereal aisle made it all worthwhile. But the brightly colored boxes promising a toy inside did not start out that exciting at all. And while Kellogg's Corn Flakes were the first to put a prize inside the box in 1909, they were originally designed to be boring. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg believed that a bland diet would curb our sinful human nature. The cereal later took a ride aboard Apollo 11, where it was formed into cubes to be eaten without milk. Few other cereals have traveled this distance, though some have enough sugar to rocket your kids to the moon and back. On National Cereal Day, celebrate your inner child with a bowl full of crunchy goodness.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 6th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate teeth specialists and flash frozen inspiration.

There was a time that if you needed a haircut and had a toothache, you would go to the same place. A barbershop. Barbers weren’t proper dentists—they didn’t provide any preventive services or teeth cleaning. But they did perform tooth extractions if someone was in pain. They used something called a dental key, which was an early version of forceps. This practice started in the Middle Ages and didn’t end until the 1800s, when dentists and barbers became two separate things. And thank goodness for that. On National Dentist's Day, we celebrate the people who keep us smiling and the fact that we can get our hair cut without worrying about Novocaine.

Not everyone who goes ice fishing comes up with a million dollar idea, but Clarence Birdseye II discovered something about the fish he caught in the minus forty degree weather of Newfoundland. The year was 1915 and young Clarence noticed that flash frozen fish were much better than the kind that were mushy when thawed. He developed a patent for this technology, without any idea that frozen food would eventually become a staple. And while his company Birdseye Seafood went bankrupt in 1924 for lack of interest in his product, he continued to refine the revolutionary process until he sold his company and patent in 1929 for $22 million. On National Frozen Food Day we celebrate the flash of genius that keeps our freezers stocked.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 5th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate finger painting with our food and tipsy medicine.

Anyone who’s ever munched on Cheese Doodles has experienced the struggle of cleaning orange powder from their hands. It gets everywhere. In 1992, artist Sandy Skoglund took that experience to another level. Her surreal art installation The Cocktail Party re-creates a traditional get together with mannequins dressed in suits and cocktail dresses. What makes the sculpture unique is that every single surface is covered in the neon orange of Cheese Doodles. Celebrate National Cheese Doodle Day with a bowl of these classic snacks and try to keep the mess to a minimum. This isn’t an art gallery.

Absinthe is one of the strongest liqueurs you can buy, sometimes going as high as 160 proof. Over the years it has gained a bad reputation because of one of its ingredients: wormwood. This herb with the gross sounding name supposedly causes hallucinations or madness, but wormwood is used for very different reasons in Chinese medicine. In the 1900s, Chinese soldiers discovered that drinks containing an extract from the plant could help fight off malaria. Today we don’t recommend drinking absinthe as medicine, but if being tipsy is your idea of celebrating, then by all means, try a glass on National Absinthe Day.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 4th, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the kids who ride our coattails and the geeks who make our hearts beat faster.

John Adams played an integral role in the birth of America. And all the while, his son John Quincy observed him and took mental notes. As a child, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill. By the age of 14, he was already involved in politics, serving as secretary to the American ambassador to Russia. A couple years later, he joined his father in Paris to aid the men working out the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the American Revolution. Over the next few decades, he served as an ambassador, then a Senator, and eventually became the 6th president of the United States. Although he wasn’t a very popular Commander in Chief, his parents were very proud of their son. On National Sons Day, remember that the kid following your footsteps today, will likely be leading others tomorrow.

Not all band geeks are fit for the football field, but one trombone player proved his metal. In the 1982 Cal versus Stanford football game in which the Golden Bears scored a touchdown in the last four seconds, band geek Gary Tyrell first met Kevin Moen in a mighty collision. Believing that the game was over, the Stanford Marching Band had taken to the field in celebration, but Moen was too caught up in winning the game to avoid tackling Tyrell. Gary appeared on the Tonight Show, saying that he thought he would be famous for his talent as a musician, not for being knocked down on the football field. Fortunately the two became friends for life. On Marching Music Day we celebrate the geeks who make our hearts beat faster in the drum lines, drill squads and color guards.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 3rd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate upscale cold cuts and the song we all know by heart.

Bologna isn’t exactly fancy, but this lunchtime staple has very distinguished origins. The lunch meat known as Mortadella was created in Bologna, Italy and became a food coveted by nobility and peasants alike. Its popularity grew so much that people began making counterfeit versions. This became such a problem that in the 1600s a law was passed that made counterfeiting mortadella punishable by death. Talk about taking your lunch seriously. But make no mistake: Mortadella is a far superior product. Think of it as gourmet bologna. Celebrate National Cold Cuts Day with a sandwich made of fresh cut deli meats. Just make sure you ask for the real stuff.

Of all the major battles waged during the War of 1812, Fort McHenry alone was bombarded by the British navy for nearly 25 hours straight. We can only imagine that the sound was deafening. On the quiet morning that followed, the sight of our tattered flag still flying in the smoke filled sky symbolizes our relief. It is this scene that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem “The Defense of Fort M’Henry,” which was later set to music. Though The Star Spangled Banner was first adopted for use by the United States Navy in 1889, it was not until March 3, 1931 that a congressional resolution made it our official anthem. On National Anthem Day, we celebrate the symbol of freedom that we all know by heart.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 2nd, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate valuable relics and Seussing it up.

In 2010, Mary Shanesy got a call from the contractors working on her house, telling her they’d found something strange. She braced herself for the worst, but instead got a pleasant, albeit an unusual surprise. Behind one of the walls, contractors had uncovered a stash of alcohol from 1919—cases of gin, Scotch, brandy, rum, and wine. It appeared to be put there shortly before Prohibition went into effect. Probably by a family trying to stockpile the good stuff before it wasn’t available anymore. So what happened to all that hooch? It’s in a museum. Most of it, anyway. It’s National Old Stuff Day, a time to find new beginnings and get rid of old stuff. Unless it’s something really cool.

Theodor Geisel was born on this day in 1904. He wrote and illustrated more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. During World War II he even went to war using political cartoons that denounced the tyrants of the day. But he is best loved for his mark on childrens’ literature and today we honor him with a poem of our own. From the biggest of big to the smallest of small, books open worlds to every and all. With stories of zazzles and hooplahs and rats, dragons and castles and ponies and cats. Pages of whats its, who dance with their snoodles. And swim with their frogs and their dizzles and poodles! Whatever you want, just read something today to celebrate National Dr. Seuss Day!

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to March 1st, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a city build by sinners and saints and good old monkey butter.

“Pig’s Eye” Parrant arrived in Minnesota in the 1830s, selling whiskey to settlers and soldiers at Fort Snelling. This man with a “dubious reputation" set up shop nearby at Fountain Cave, using the spring water for distilling alcohol. After Pig Eye built a saloon to peddle his wares, people began coming to the area and soon it grew into a proper town. For years, this place was referred to as Pig’s Eye. That is until the Catholic Church moved in and built a house of worship. The new pastor wasn’t thrilled with a town named after such a scoundrel and proposed that it be renamed after St. Paul. On National Minnesota Day, we celebrate the North Star State and its capital city, founded by Pig Eye and named after a Saint.

Many of the folks who fought during World War II have passed away, but the great war passed on some unexpected food staples that live on to this day. While food items such as hamburgers, cream and butter were in short supply during the war, one item was never rationed: good old peanut butter. Known by soldiers as monkey butter this wasn’t the smooth, creamy type that some of us prefer. To sweeten their sandwiches and keep them from sticking to the roof of their mouths, soldiers added jam. The PB and J became popular with the kids back home, and peace time brought up a new generation of monkey butter fans. On National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day celebrate this lunchtime staple with a tall glass of milk.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to February 28, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate towers of flowers and tales about teeth.

The small Dutch town of Zundert is home to the largest floral parade in the world. It began in 1936 to celebrate the birthday of the Queen and has grown into a huge annual festival. Like the Parade of Roses in Pasadena, California, it showcases the beauty of its local blooms. But the floats are designed using dahlias rather than roses. And Zundert floats don’t depict sweet scenes of butterflies and teddy bears. In 2016, the winning design was a giant orange dragon that breathed actual fire from its mouth. These floats are made with hundreds of thousands of flowers and can tower over 3 stories tall and 6 stories long, nearly twice the size of their American cousins. On National Floral Design Day, we celebrate the artistry of flower arrangement in all shapes and sizes.

There are many customs around the world that revolve around children losing teeth. In parts of Asia, children make a wish on each tooth that falls out. In France, young children are told that a mouse sneaks into homes, then collects baby teeth from children in exchange for money. The tradition originated from a 17th century fairy tale about a mouse who hid under an evil king’s pillow, then took all of his teeth while he slept. And of course here in the United States, kids who lose their baby teeth get a visit from the Tooth Fairy. We’re not sure what the going rate is for teeth, but on National Tooth Fairy Day, kids are hoping for the most, so nudge your fairy to the ATM machine.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day!

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Welcome to February 27, 2022 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate crazy origin stories and loveable predators.

The world knows about the Mexican liqueur Kahlua mainly because of a Canadian bartender. In 1977, Peter Fich created a shot called the B-52. This mixture of Kahlua, Bailey’s, and triple sec became so popular that the demand for the coffee-flavored liqueur skyrocketed. But why did Fich give the shot that name? He named the shot after his favorite band. The B-52s. And the band had named themselves after a beehive-style hairdo called the B-52... Which had been named after the B-52 bomber used by the United States Air Force. Is anything NOT named B-52? Jeez. Celebrate National Kahlua Day with a cocktail made from this classic coffee-flavored drink.

The Arctic Circle is home to the largest four legged predator on earth. Polar bears are beautiful, but make no mistake they are built for hunting. With super powers such as traction on the ice and the ability to smell their prey from over 20 miles away, most other animals don’t stand a chance. And polar bears are not afraid to take a dip to catch their favorite prey, the arctic seal. They are perfectly camouflaged with a beautiful white coat that is actually made up of translucent hairs. The fur only appears white because it reflects the color of snow. On National Polar Bear Day celebrate this amazing predator by learning more cool facts.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day!

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