Celebrate Every Day

Did You Know That Tea Is The Number One Drink In The World After Water?

Welcome to January 30th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate elevated bread and a happy accident.

You probably think croissants were invented by a Frenchman, but surprisingly the baker who came up with these light, buttery rolls was an Austrian in Paris.  In the early 1800s August Zang took an existing bread recipe and added layers of butter to the dough through a process called lamination.  This involves folding and pressing butter into the dough over and over again and the crisp, flaky results are well worth it!  His Boulangerie Viennoise put the crescent shaped wonder on the map, and on National Croissant Day we still say, “Viva la croissant!”

If something falls into your drink, you dump it out and get a new drink, right? Chinese Emperor Shennong didn’t think so. Legend tells that as the Emperor was sitting under a tree, some leaves fell into his cup of hot water. During his time, there was a decree that people must boil their water before drinking it. Being an herbalist himself, the Emperor decided to drink the happy accident and this is believed to be the origin of tea.  Even more popular than coffee, tea is the second most consumed drink in the world after water.  Globally, over three million tons of tea are produced each year. Today we enjoy the great variety of this soothing drink and all its healthy side effects. During National Hot Tea Month enjoy all the benefits of curling up to relax with a piping hot cuppa.

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

Are Chips A Go To Ingredient In Your Recipes?

Welcome to January 29th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate Big Wigs and getting our snack on.

Anna: Hey, Marlo, why are you wearing that ridiculous wig?

Marlo: What are you talking about?  This is my natural hair, I’m just styling it differently.

Anna: And is purple your natural color?

Marlo: It’s National Big Wig Day, Anna.  In honor of the Look Good Feel Better Campaign, folks across the country host a party to raise money for cancer patients who could use a boost with locks of their own.

Anna: I’ve heard about that!  People get their inner Big Wig on and take on the role of philanthropist.  There are charity events around the country that raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the cancer charity of their choice.

Marlo: I think I’m rocking purple hair by the way.

Anna: I think so too, Marlo.

We Americans love our crunchy snacks. Thanks to Elmer Doolin, this includes corn chips and a household name that began on a road trip.  In 1932, Elmer was traveling through San Antonio, TX where he discovered a local favorite called friotes.  He found a man who wanted to quit the corn chip business and when Elmer bought the recipe for only 100 dollars, he had no idea what a bargain it was. Doolin perfected them in his mothers kitchen and started selling the chips from the back of his Model T.  But sales really took off when his mom created a recipe campaign called cooking with Fritos.  This led to a partnership with Herman Lay and Fritos are now a corn chip legend.  On National Corn Chip Day enjoy your favorite chips with salsa and cheese or even a recipe from the Daisy Doolin kitchen! 

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

How Do You Have Fun At Work?

Welcome to January 28th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate fun at work and humming along.

Anna: You know what job sounds amazing to me?  Food critic.  Can you imagine taking a tour of the very best restaurants and eating to your heart’s content?

Marlo: Are you thinking about a career change?

Anna: No, no.  I’m just realizing that it’s National Have Fun at Work Day and thinking that must be pretty easy when you have a job like that.  Like how about movie critic?  How fun would that be?

Marlo:  We have fun at work don’t we?

Anna:  Oh, yeah, yeah.  I’m not complaining.  You guys are a blast.  But what about spa critic.  Traveling to exotic places and getting all those relaxing services.  Ahhh.

Marlo: I’m sensing a pattern here.

John: I think she’s trying to tell us something, Marlo.

Anna: Shhhh, I’m having fun at work…

In 1924 the jazz band The Mound City Blue Blowers had a big hit with their song Arkansas Blues. The lead singer William Red McKenzie, had a cool onstage personality, charming audiences wherever he performed. But the instruments he and the rest of the band played were a bit unconventional.  There was a banjo,  a comb, a kazoo, a suitcase, and a broom. It’s not often that a kazoo steals the spotlight from the rest of the band. Dick Slevin, the kazoo player, even had kazoo solos on a few of their records. Nowadays, this overlooked instrument has become nothing more than a kids’ toy, but for a few years back in the early days of Jazz, the kazoo was the toast of the town. On National Kazoo Day, break out one of these instruments and see what all the buzz was about. 

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

Who Makes The Best Chocolate Cake?

Welcome to January 27th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate photogenic book shelves and a chocolate cake for everyone.

Lovers of chocolate like to go over the top and chocolate cake is no exception.  There is a chocolate cake recipe from a chef in Dubai that calls for cocoa beans from Italy, organic flour from the UK, vanilla from Uganda and 23 carats gold leaf and dust.  The Golden Phoenix, as it’s known, is served on a Marie Antoinette dessert trolley, whatever that is and comes at a price tag of over $1,000.00.  Luckily the kind that Duncan Hines makes is more accessible and some would argue, equally delicious.  I’m not trying to start an uprising here, but the point is this; you can’t go too far wrong with chocolate and cake.  Ever since a doctor and a chocolate maker teamed up to grind cocoa beans in a stone mill the once exclusive ingredient became available to bakers everywhere.  On National Chocolate Cake Day you don’t have to be royalty to have your cake and eat it too.

In the early 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci kept a notebook to jot down his observations about the world around him. Among other things, he discusses why fossils of fish can be found in mountains and why the moon shines so brightly. It’s full of random notes and illustrations, and it’s written in Da Vinci’s famous backwards writing. It can only be read when viewed in a mirror. This simple 18 page book, known as the Codex Lester, was bought and sold several times over the years and became one of the most expensive books in the world. In 1994, Bill Gates bought it for just under 31 million dollars. While the books on our shelf may not be nearly as valuable, we all have our favorites. On Library Shelfie Day, share your own love of books by taking a selfie in front of your prized editions.  

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

What Is Your Secret To A Successful Marriage?

Welcome to January 26th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate going the distance and the drinking of the green.

Ralph and Dorothy Kohler got married in their teens and people told them it would never last. But the couple proved them wrong. Really wrong. In 2020, they celebrated their 85th wedding anniversary, making them the record holders for longest marriage in US history. So what’s their secret? As far as marriage goes, they simply love one another’s company. They also take time to learn about the things that make the other happy. Ralph loved skeet shooting and taught Dorothy how to do it. She took to his hobby so well that she became national champion of trap shooting in the 1950s. And when it comes to arguments, they say that it’s best to just agree with the other person, let them think they won and walk away. On National Spouses Day, celebrate the person in your life who’s signed on to be your partner through thick and thin…even if you think their hobbies are weird.

If you made some resolutions to be healthier this year, celebrate the small steps that make it even easier by going for the green.  Green juice has never been tastier and one convenient bottle can hold the nutritional value of several servings of fruits and veggies.  While juice has been around for thousands of years, the crazes of the last century have produced some amazing results.  Norman Walker, who invented the first modern juicer in the 1930s lived to be 99 years old.  Jack LaLanne who drank juice faithfully lived to be 96.  And evidence suggests that it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf, especially if your juice contains more green veggies than fruit.  Give yourself the green light to make small healthy changes that are easy to stick with on National Green Juice Day! 

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

Welcome to January 25th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate annoying opposites and that satisfying snap!

Marlo: Good morning. I’m Anna Devere.

Anna: And I’m Marlo Anderson.

John: And I’m confused. What are you two talking about?

Marlo: It’s Opposite Day, so we’re switching everything around.

John: Okay. Got it. Can we take that from the top, Marlo?

Anna: Sure. Let’s do it.

John: Anna…

Marlo: Yes?

John: [sighs] Just go back to the beginning. Start whenever you’re ready.

[silence]

John: I said you can start.

Anna: Today that means stop.

John: Okay. I get it. It’s National Opposite Day. Bye, everyone.

Anna and Marlo: Hello!

Anyone who’s ever held a piece of bubble wrap can hardly resist the urge to start popping it. We all know it was made for wrapping things and not as a toy, right? Actually, that’s not true. When Alfred Fielding and his business partner invented what we know today as bubble wrap, they were creating 3 dimensional, plastic wallpaper. But when that idea didn’t work out, they began marketing their invention as a way to protect items during a move. The new strategy paid off big time when IBM became their first client, buying bubble wrap to ship their latest computer. After scientists unwrapped the new computers, we can only assume that they began popping the bubbles. On National Bubble Wrap Day, we celebrate an innovation in packaging that doubles as a fun stress reliever. 

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

What's Your Favorite Peanut Butter: Chunky Or Smooth? Or How About Diamond Studded?

Welcome to January 24th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate inventions that are cracking and diamonds in the roughs.

While beer drinkers enjoy both draft and bottled varieties, Beer Can Appreciation Day recognizes the innovation that brought beer in cans to market in 1935.  The Krueger Brewing Company of Richmond, VA took a chance on the technology of the American Can Company and began selling beer just weeks before the repeal of Prohibition.  Weighing in at 4 ounces, the hefty steel cans were opened with a church key.  Since then pull tabs and stay tabs both revolutionized the beer drinker’s experience.  On Beer Can Appreciation Day enjoy the crisp sound of cracking open your favorite brew. 

In 2014, a group of scientists in Germany ran some experiments to help them better understand the Earth’s mantle, the layer between the crust and the core. They discovered that intense pressure will pull oxygen out of carbon dioxide, which can create diamonds. You’re probably thinking, “Who cares about this science mumbo jumbo?” Well, they tested this on a lot of different everyday objects and there was only one that created a diamond. Peanut butter. Now don’t get too excited. It’s not as if you’re going to open a jar of Skippy and find a tennis bracelet, but maybe you can feel a bit more sophisticated when you bite into that Peanut Butter and Jelly at lunch. On National Peanut Butter Day enjoy this diamond in the rough that’s also delicious on toast. 

If you’d like to know more, be sure to follow us on Facebook and check out our website TheNationalDailyShow.com. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day! 

What Is Your Favorite Kind Of Pie?

Welcome to January 23rd, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate handy work and hometown flavor.

Before the invention of the printing press, the only way to get a copy of a book was to duplicate it by hand. During the Middle Ages, monks worked for hours at a time to reproduce the Bible, history books, and countless other volumes that might have been lost over time. Rooms called Scriptoriums were set up with rows and rows of desks, where they worked in a production line to complete text after text. This massive undertaking undoubtedly caused more than its fair share of cramped hands. So think of that the next time you gripe about taking meeting notes by hand. On National Handwriting Day, we celebrate the lost art of writing longhand and how it might have saved Western learning.

Our feelings about pie are tied to the places we call home.  If you’re from England this means the savory kind with some kind of stewed meat and spices, but in America pie is dessert. And it’s not just one of those “driving on the wrong side of the street” differences.  When Mark Twain wrote A Tramp Abroad after traveling through Europe, he made a list of all the foods he would eat upon returning to his home in America: apple pie, peach pie, pumpkin pie, and squash pie.  And to drive the point home, his recipe for English pie went as follows: “Construct a bullet proof dough, fill with stewed dried apples aggravated with cloves, then solder on the lid and set in a safe place till it petrifies.  Serve cold at breakfast and invite your enemy.”  Things have certainly improved since 1880, but one thing is sure, on National Pie Day folks will celebrate with their own flavor of home.   

If you’d like to know more, be sure to follow us on Facebook and check out our website TheNationalDailyShow.com. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day! 

There's No Time Like The Present To Have Fun With Your Kids!

Welcome to January 22nd, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate natural blondes and having fun with our kids.

If you believe that brownies have all the fun, then make room on your plate for the “blondie.”  It turns out that the first brownies didn’t have cocoa at all but got their color from molasses.  When chocolate became the norm in the early 1900s they told these bars apart by calling the original the blondie.  Confusing, we know, but today you can spot a blondie by its light brown sugar color.  It has all the caramel sweetness of a chocolate chip cookie with the soft fudgy texture of a bar.  On National Blonde Brownie Day add a scoop of ice cream, some toffee and nuts for the ultimate sweet tooth satisfaction.

Charles Swindoll said that each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.  Today is the day to make that investment count by letting our kids know how much we love them. Celebration of Life Day is about appreciating the now, whether it’s a walk in the park together, coloring or reading a book.  And if you wanna score extra brownie points, why not let them choose the activity? Kids grow up much faster than we can imagine. And while your children may be racing towards adulthood, they are never too old to appreciate your attention and encouragement.  This day is for everyone who loves a youngster, be they parents, grandparents, or uncles and aunts. It’s a gentle reminder that the best thing you can give your children is time.

If you’d like to know more, be sure to follow us on Facebook and check out our website TheNationalDailyShow.com. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day! 

Have You Heard Of Squirrel Girl? Don't Underestimate the Power Of The Squirrel.

Welcome to January 21st, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the small and mighty that help us win the day.

Because of all the Marvel movies and TV shows, you probably think that you know your superheroes pretty well. But here’s one I bet you haven’t heard of: Squirrel Girl. Seriously…she’s a real character. Doreen Green is just your ordinary teenage girl other than the fact that she has a long furry tail, buck teeth, and can communicate with squirrels. Surprisingly, she and her squirrel sidekick Tippy Toe are more than a match for most supervillains. She once saved Iron Man from the powerful Doctor Doom by summoning hordes of squirrels to swarm over the bad guy. On Squirrel Appreciation Day, celebrate these fuzzy little acrobats and the amazing powers they hold.

It’s a gorgeous day and you’ve decided to summit a challenging peak.   After hours of pushing ahead through blisters and muscle cramps your senses are rewarded with a breathtaking view. In that moment it was worth all the energy you spent but the only problem is - you’re spent!  Granola bars to the rescue.   Hikers and sports enthusiasts know that these easy to pack snacks are filled with whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds, that offer a burst of energy without all the junk found in candy bars. If we’re being honest, there are plenty of granola bars that don’t pass for health food and if it matters to you, then check the labels. But if your active lifestyle requires meals on the go, then celebrate convenience on National Granola Bar Day and take in some gorgeous new heights.

If you’d like to know more, be sure to follow us on Facebook and check out our website TheNationalDailyShow.com. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day!