HOLIDAY PARTY!

HAPPY NATIONAL TATTOO DAY! Join us as we celebrate getting inked and heart shapes that say "Mom"! Today we're celebrating with comedian, engineer in biotech, and tattoo owner and enthusiast Nicki Fuchs (Twitter: @nfewks / Instagram: @nfewks)!! LET'S PARTY!!

Find Holiday Party online – Patreon: patreon,com/HOLIDAYPARTY Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / Facebook: @HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

Find Disa – Twitter: @cinnamonenemy / Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/1243777842 

SHOW NOTES

History + fun facts about the holiday

• First, let’s define what a tattoo is, for those listeners who may not be familiar with the term. According to Wikipedia, a tattoo “is a form of body modification where a design is made by inserting ink, dyes and pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin (the layer between the epidermis and subcutaneous tissues) to change the pigment.”
  • Tattoos generally fall into three broad categories: purely decorative (or no specific meaning); symbolic (with a specific meaning pertinent to the wearer); pictorial (a depiction of a specific person or item)
  • Tattoos may also be used for identification purposes such as ear tattoos on livestock, tattoos denoting that a domestic animal (such as a cat or dog) has been sterilized, or you know, good old fashioned concentration camp style
• The word “tattoo,” or tattow as it was stated in the 18th century, is derived from the Samoan word for “tatau” meaning “to strike.” Before the word was imported to the western world, the practice of tattooing was described as painting, scarring, or staining.
• The American Academy of Dermatology distinguishes five types of tattoos: amateur tattoos, professional tattoos (both via traditional methods and modern tattoo machines), cosmetic tattoos (or “permanent makeup”), traumatic tattoos, and medical tattoos
  • Traumatic tattoos, also known as “natural tattoos,” occur when a substance such as asphalt or gunpowder is rubbed into a wound as the result of an accident or other trauma. For example, coal miners may develop characteristic tattoos from coal dust getting into wounds.
    • Another example is an amalgam tattoo, which occurs when amalgam particles (a liquid mercury and metal alloy mixture used in dentistry to fill cavities) are implanted into the soft tissues of the mouth during filling placement and removal
    • Accidental tattoos can also be the result of deliberate or accidental stabbing with a pencil or pen, leaving graphite or ink in the skin
  • Medical tattoos are used to ensure that instruments are properly located for repeated application of radiotherapy and for the areola in some forms of breast reconstruction. They may also convey medical information about the wearer, such as blood group or a medical condition. Medical tattoos may also be used in skin tones to cover vitiligo, a skin pigmentation disorder
    • SS blood group tattoos (Blutgruppentatowierung) were worn by members of the Waffen-SS in Nazi Germany during WWII to identify their wearer’s blood type. After the war, this evidence of belonging to the Waffen-SS lead to arrest and prosecution, so a number of ex-Waffen-SS would shoot themselves through the arm, removing the tattoo and leaving scars like the ones resulting from pox inoculation, making the removal less obvious
  • Tattoos may also serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, amulets and talismans, protection, and as punishment, like the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts
  • People also choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/memorial, religious, and magical reasons, or to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs or a particular ethnic or law-abiding subculture
  • Tattoos have been and are still used for the purposes of identification, and people have also been forcibly tattooed for this reason. 
    • During the Holocaust, an infamous Nazi practice was to forcibly tattoo concentration camp inmates with identification numbers, a practice that began in the fall of 1941. 
      • Of the Nazi camps, only Auschwitz put tattoos on inmates. The tattoo was the prisoner’s camp number, sometimes with a special symbol added. For example, Jews would sometimes receive a triangle, and Romani received the letter “Z” to denote the German word Zigeuner or “Gypsy.” 
    • As early as the Zhou dynasty, which lasted from 1046-256 BC, Chinese authorities would enforce facial tattoos as a punishment for some crimes or to mark prisoners or slaves
    • The Roman Empire would tattoo gladiators and slaves. Exported slaves would receive a tattoo with the words “tax paid,” and it was also common to tattoo “Stop me, I’m a runaway” on their foreheads
      • The practice came to an end when Emperor Constantine the Great came to power. He heavily promoted the Christian church, and banned facial tattooing around AD 330 due to the Biblical strictures against the practice. The Second Council of Nicaea banned all body markings as a pagan practice in AD 787
    • During the period of early contact between Europeans and the Maori, the Maori would hunt and decapitate each other for their moko tattoos, which they then traded for European items such as axes and firearms. “Moko tattoos were facial designs worn to indicate lineage, social position, and status within the tribe. The tattoo art was a sacred marker of identity among the Maori and also referred to as a vehicle for storing one’s tapu, or spiritual being, in the afterlife.”
    • Forensic pathologists occasionally use tattoos to identify burned, putrefied, or mutilated bodies. As we mentioned earlier, tattoo pigment lies encapsulated deep in the skin, so tattoos aren’t easily destroyed even when the skin is burned
    • Tattoos may also be used on animals, such as cats, dogs, show animals, thoroughbred horses, and livestock. Tattooing in these cases may serve for purposes of identification, ownership, or to signify that the animal has been surgically sterilized
  • Cosmetic tattooing, sometimes called permanent makeup, is the use of tattoos to enhance eyebrows, lips, eyes, or even moles, typically using natural colors. 
    • Placing artistic designs over surgical scarring is a growing trend, particularly over mastectomy scarring. Rather than received reconstruction surgery following a mastectomy, many women choose to tattoo over the scar tissue instead, as a truly personal way of regaining control over their post-cancer bodies
• As an artform, tattooing has been practiced globally since at least Neolithic times, as evidenced by mummified preserved skin. The oldest discovery of tattooed human skin was found on the body of Otzi the Iceman, dating to about 3250 BC. Otzi had 61 carbon-ink tattoos consisting of 19 groups of lines simple dots and lines on his lower spine, left wrist, behind his right knee and on his ankles. It’s been argued that the tattoos were a form of healing because of their placement, though other explanations are plausible
  • The oldest figurative (derived from real object sources, or representational) tattoos in the world were discovered in 2018 on two mummies from Egypt which are dated between 3351 and 3017 BC
  • Other tattooed mummies have been recovered from 49 archaeological sites, including in Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, Mongolia, western China, Egypt, Sudan, the Philippines, and the Andes.
  • The earliest possible evidence for tattooing in Europe actually appears on ancient art from the Upper Paleolithic period as incised designs on the bodies of humanoid figurines. One example is the ivory Lowenmench (“Lion-Man”) figurine from the Aurignacian culture, which dates to about 40K years ago and features a series of parallel lines on its left shoulder. This figurine also happens to be the oldest-known uncontested example of both zoomorphic sculpture and figurative art
  • Ancient tattooing was most widely practiced among the Austronesian people (Southeast Asia, Oceania, East Africa). It was one of the early technologies developed by the Proto-Austronesians in Taiwan and coastal South China prior to at least 1500 BC
    • It may have originally associated with headhunting, and employed the characteristic skin-puncturing technique, using a small mallet and a piercing implement made from Citrus thorns, fish bone, bone, and oyster shells
  • The oldest known physical evidence of tattooing in North America was made through the discovery of a frozen, mummified Inuit female on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska who had tattoos on her skin. Radiocarbon determined that she lived sometime in the 16th century
    • Early explorers to North America made lots of ethnographic observations about the Indigenous People they met. As they didn’t have a word for tattooing, they instead described the process as “pounce, prick, list, mark, and raze” to “stamp, paint, burn, and embroider.”
  • In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, tattoos were as much about self-expression as they were about having a unique way to identify a sailor’s body should he be lost at sea or impressed (taking of military or naval force by compulsion) by the British Navy. The best source for early American tattoos is the protection papers issued following a 1796 congressional act to safeguard American seamen from impressment. These proto-passports catalogued tattoos alongside birthmarks, scars, race, and height. Using simple techniques and tools, tattoo artists in the early republic typically worked on board ships using anything available as pigments, even gunpowder and urine. Men marked their arms and hands with initials of themselves and loved ones, significant dates, symbols of the seafaring life, liberty poles, crucifixes, and other symbols.”
  • It is commonly held that the modern popularity of tattooing stems from Captain James Cook’s three voyages to the South Pacific in the late 19th century. The dissemination of the texts and images from them brought more awareness about tattooing, however, tattooing has been consistently present in Western society from the modern period stretching back to Ancient Greece. 
    • Tattoo historian Anna Felicity Friedman suggests a couple reasons for the ‘Cook Myth,’ including that the modern words for the practice (“tattoo,” tatuaje,``''tatouage,``''Tatowierung,``''tatuagem”) derive from ‘tatau,’ which was introduced to European languages through Cook’s travels.  However, earlier European texts show that a variety of metaphorical terms for the practice were in use, including pricked/marked/engraved/decorated/punctured/stained/embroidered. The growing print culture at the time of Cook’s voyages may have increased the visibility of tattooing despite its prior existence in the West
  • New York City is largely considered the birthplace of modern tattoos, since the first recorded professional tattoo artist in the US was a German immigrant, Martin Hildebrandt, who opened a shop in NYC in 1846. He quickly became popular during the Civil War among soldiers and sailors of both Union and Confederate militaries
  • In 1891, New York tattooer Samuel O’Reilly patented the first electric tattoo machine, which was a modification of Thomas Edison’s electric pen
  • Some of the earliest appearances of tattoos on women during this period were in the circus. Other than their faces, hands, necks, and other readily visible areas, these “Tattooed Ladies” were covered in ink. The earliest women would claim tales of captivity in order to draw crowds, claiming to have been taken hostage by Native Americans that forcibly tattooed them as a form of torture, though those stories were eventually replaced with narratives of the women’s personal liberation and freedom.
    • The last tattooed lady was out of business by the 1990s
    • The percentage of fashionable NYC women who were tattooed at the turn of the century has been estimated at around 75%. Popular designs were butterflies, flowers, and dragons
    • Tattoos were an early way that women took control of their own bodies
  • When Social Security numbers were introduced in the 1930s, it became a trend to get your numbers tattoos on your arms, chest, or back to make them easier to remember
  • A Tattoo Renaissance began in the late 1950s and was greatly influenced by artists such as Lyle Tuttle, Cliff Raven, Don Nolan, Zeke Owens, Spider Webb, and none other than our fave, Don Ed Hardy 
    • In 1961, however, this renaissance experienced a temporary setback, at least in New York City, as a hepatitis outbreak prompted the health department to ban tattooing, leading tattoo artists to either move their shops out of the city or work out of their apartments
      • This ban wasn’t lifted until 1997 by Mayor Rudy Giuliani
• According to National Day Calendar, the holiday has been observed since 2016, but the source and founder are currently unknown
• Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America, also recognizes the holiday. In recognition of the 2016 holiday, they released a series of findings on the country’s perceptions and attitudes towards tattoos as an artform.
  • The survey was conducted in December 2015, polling 3,020 adults online
  • They found that 73% of Americans believe that at least some tattoos are art (a graph breakdown by age and whether all or some tattoos are art can be found below the sources in the shownotes)
  • 27% of Americans have at least one tattoo. 15% have one, 12% have more than one
  • There is no significant difference between genders on the likelihood of having a tattoo (27% of men vs. 25% of women, respectively). Men are more likely to have just one tattoo (17% vs 12%), women are more likely to have multiple (13% vs. 10%)
  • Americans with full-time jobs are the most likely to have at least one tattoo (34%), compared to those who work part-time (26%), are unemployed (27%), or retired (9%)
• I got the following statistics from historyoftattoos.net and the article, “Tattoo Statistics: 23 Facts You Won’t Regret Reading,” from creditdonkey.com, published in June 2015:
  • 40% of American households report having at least one person with a tattoo. This is a significant increase from 1999, when about 21% of households did so
  • 22% of millennials aged 18-24 report having at least one tattoo
  • 30% of millennials aged 25-29 report having tattoos, and 38% of adults aged 30-39 are tattooed
  • Nearly 30% of 40-49 years olds, 11% of seniors between 50-64, and just 5% of seniors 65 and older report having tattoos
  • Women are more likely to have their ankle or upper back tattooed (27% and 25%, respectively), while men overwhelmingly choose getting inked on their arm (75%)
  • Tattooing is a $3billion industry, at least as of 2015
  • As of 2013, there were at least 21K tattoo shops operating nationwide
    • The number grows by one every day
    • Miami boasts the highest number of tattoo parlors per capita, with about 24 shops for every 100K people
    • Salina, Kansas has the fewest, with just one tattoo parlor that serves all of its 47K residents, which is a per capita rate of about 2 per 100K (this is inaccurate as of 2019--I found four tattoo parlors listed in the Salinas area, bringing the per capita rate to 8 per 100K)
  • The most expensive “tattoo” is a temporary one composed of 612 half-carat diamonds individually adhered to the skin in a floral pattern, and costs $924K. It was created by Shimansky, a luxury store based in South Africa
  • Average tattoo prices range from $45 for smaller ones to $150 for larger pieces
  • The term “tattoo” became the #1 searched term on the Internet in 2002
  • 31% of those that have tattoos feel that tattoos made them sexy, 29% feel that it made them (or shows them as) rebellious, while 5% feel that a tattoo shows them as intelligent
  • The most searched language as an inspiration for tattoos is Japanese
  • When looking to get a tattoo, 49% of those polled considered the reputation of the tattoo artist or studio as a most important factor, 43% needed a tattoo with personal meaning, and 8% considered priced as a most important factor
  • 32% of people with tattoos claim that they are addicted to getting inked
  • 69% of people don’t see people with tattoos any more or less deviant than people without tattoos
  • 10% of Americans who have at least one tattoo say they don’t like them
  • Somewhere between 17 and 25% of tattooed people regret their decision. Men are more likely than women to have second thoughts. The most often cited reason for regret is “It’s a name of another person.”
  • 5% of Americans have cover-up tattoos
  • The average cost to remove a tattoo is around $588
  • Tattoo removal is booming, with a yearly revenue in the ballpark of $80 million
  • Earliest tattoo inks were made of carbon and ash
  • If a tattoo ink has metals there is a rare chance that it will become hot during an MRI
  • The current world record holder in number of tattoos is Gregory Paul McLaren, AKA Lucky Diamond Rich, whose skin is 100% covered with tattoos, including the insides of his eyelids, mouth, ears, and foreskin. He’s held the title since 2006
    • Britain’s most tattooed man, King of Ink Land King Body Art The Extreme Ink-Ite (born Matthew Whelan) currently has over 90% of his body covered. 
      • In 2013, the Passport Office refused to issue him a passport, claiming that his unusual name doesn’t fit their policies, however he successfully challenged the UK Government and obtained his passport in 2014
      • On July 1st, 2019, he whined to The Daily Star that he’s having trouble finding love
      • Key quotes: “A lot of women are put off by my tattoos or it makes them really curious. I’m a bit like Marmite so you either like them or you don’t. I’ve had about 15-20 relationships in my life and have definitely got more attention since I got my tattoos. But since my last relationship ended two years ago I haven’t had anything serious. I’m nearly 40 so I would like to settle down and have a family. But at the same time I understand that the way I look might create an issue for some people. A lot of women are really shallow and only go for guys with Love Island-type bodies. Then I get other women who are just interested in me because of my tattoos.”
      • He has also dyed his eyes black and had his nipples removed to allow for a smoother canvas. He also has a huge labret gauge, a subdermal piercing in his forehead, carved “teeth marks” in his ears, and split his tongue in half
  • George C. Reiger Jr. has special permission from Disney to have tattoos of some of their copyrighted material, and specifically Disney characters. He has over 1000 Disney tattoos, including all 101 Dalmatians 

SOURCES

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo
• https://authoritytattoo.com/history-of-tattoos/
• https://medium.com/daliaresearch/who-has-the-most-tattoos-its-not-who-you-d-expect-1d5ffff660f8
• https://www.creditdonkey.com/tattoo-statistics.html
• http://www.historyoftattoos.net/
• http://www.historyoftattoos.net/tattoo-facts/tattoo-statistics/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tattooing
• http://time.com/4645964/tattoo-history/
• https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-tattoo-day-july-17/
• https://www.checkiday.com/a3686928f7e2e9f083f5305e64bd3054/national-tattoo-day
• https://www.facebook.com/National-Tattoo-Day-117291474977030/
• https://www.americansforthearts.org/news-room/press-releases/americans-for-the-arts-recognizes-national-tattoo-day
• https://www.tattoodo.com/a/2014/12/14-facts-about-tattoos/
• https://www.thefactsite.com/tattoo-facts/
• https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/788973/britains-most-tattooed-man-king-inkland-body-art-women-dating-birmingham

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! JOIN US AS WE ENTHUSIASTICALLY CELEBRATE THE BEST BUTTON ON THE KEYBOARD!! TODAY WE'RE CELEBRATING WITH FRIEND, MUSICIAN, AND OVERALL COOL DUDE RYAN DE LA GARZA (TWITTER: @OFTHEGARZA / TEESPRING)!! LET'S PARTY!!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY! JOIN US AS WE ENTHUSIASTICALLY CELEBRATE THE BEST BUTTON ON THE KEYBOARD!! TODAY WE'RE CELEBRATING WITH FRIEND, MUSICIAN, AND OVERALL COOL DUDE RYAN DE LA GARZA (TWITTER: @OFTHEGARZA / TEESPRING)!! LET'S PARTY!!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com 

SHOW NOTES

History + fun facts about the holiday

 

• According to Wikipedia, the caps lock “is a button on a computer keyboard that causes all letters of Latin-based scripts to be generated in capital letters. It is a toggle key: each press reverses its actions.”
  • It originated as a Shift Lock key on mechanical typewriters. It was introduced so that the shift operation could be maintained indefinitely without continuous effort (i.e. having to press shift in conjunction with each letter). Because the two shift keys on a typewriter required more force to operate and were meant to be pressed by the little finger, it could be difficult to hold the shift down for more than two or three consecutive strokes, so the Shift lock key was also meant to reduce finger muscle pain.
  • A historical example of this invention can be found in the work of journalist and author Don Marquis, the creator of Archy and Mehitabel (styled as archy and mehitabel), who were a cartoon cockroach and cat, respectively, that appeared in Marquis’ newspaper column. When writing from Archy’s perspective (the cockroach), the text was always in lowercase, as Archy was a free verse poet in a previous life and would climb onto the typewriter and hurl himself at the keys, thus unable to operate the shift key. One day in 1933, however, Archy discovered the shift lock key, as evidenced in the chapter titled, “CAPITALS AT LAST”
    • http://donmarquis.com/home/2011/10/26/capitals-at-last/
  • Dailyinfographic.com created an infographic (go figure) for the history of Caps Lock: https://www.dailyinfographic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/CAPS-LOCK-640x3425.jpg
    • According to the infographic, “the idea of caps lock being considered rude or shouting originates in the early Usenet days of the Internet, where most conversation was text-only on message boards. Lacking bold or italic text, users created *emphasis* with asterisks and SHOUTING with capital letters
    • “The issue of people misusing caps lock on the web has increased as more users adopt social media.”
    • Some fun stats include:
      • The top 20 most CAPS LOCKED tweeted phrases are: CANT WAIT; JUST GOT; WANNA GO; HAPPY BIRTHDAY; JUST WANT; DONT KNOW; GOOD MORNING; THANK GOD; DONT WANT; HOLY SHIT; NEW FOLLOWERS; GO BACK; JUST SAW; DONT GIVE; OH GOD; DONT CARE; OH SHIT; AINT GOT; RIGHT NOW; CANT BELIEVE
    • In 2007, a woman in New Zealand was fired for sending coworkers too many caps-locked emails, including one that read: “TO ENSURE YOUR STAFF CLAIM IS PROCESSED AND PAID, PLEASE DO FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECK LIST.”
    • “Studies have shown that capital letters are harder to read than lowercase letters, particularly in large blocks of text, due to the equal heights of the letters. This makes it harder for your brain to distinguish the individual shapes of letters while reading.”
• Wwwh.com echoes the sentiment from the infographic, stating that the rise of the internet brought about the evolution of “netiquette,” “which dictates that writing in capital letters is considered shouting: boorish, rude, and aggressive
  • From a December 1999 posting by Chris Pirillo on The Internet Writing Journal: “This part of the chapter is not just for newbies; even if you’ve written e-mail for years, review this section carefully. Certain unspoken conventions are very important to keep in mind when you’re composing e-mail messages. If you were a novice before, you need to be a professional now.”
    • “ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE IS TO TYPE WITH THEIR CAPS LOCK ON. All-caps might look cool to you, but experienced users will write you off as an idiot. It’s okay to use all-caps for headings and/or titles (THINGS ARE STARTING TO MAKE SENSE NOW) in your messages, or even to EMPHASIZE certain words, but anything beyond that is equivalent to screaming at someone. Do you like being yelled at?”
    • An unrelated nugget in this post: “You can attach items (documents, pictures, compressed archives, etc.) to an e-mail message. This feature is great . . . (he added a space after each period in all of his ellipses--I didn’t verify if this was part of “netiquette”) but don’t abuse it. Mailing a simple 30K attachment is harmless enough, but when you need to send files much larger than that, ask the receiver’s permission first. I was once locked out of my mailbox because a user mailed me a 7.2M attachment! I was livid because he wasted my time, stopped productivity, and sent something that large without my consent.” Relatable af
• According to the top definition on Urban Dictionary,  submitted by user kendellkendellkendell on November 22, 2007, CAPSLOCK is “cruise control for cool.” “Even with cruise control, you still have to steer.”
• We discovered this holiday via worldwideweirdholidays.com, however it was originally created by Derek Arnold in October 2000 “to bring attention to those who abuse the caps lock key, and by extension, everyone who receives their emails, texts, and internet screeds.”
  • Arnold claimed he had a higher purpose in mind, stating, “International Caps Lock Day is, in fact, a testament to the small mindedness of certain Western individuals: the majority of the world’s population writes in scripts which have no concept of letter casing. Therefore it is advised to laugh at anyone who invokes this day as an excuse to dismiss local typographical conventions: they are simply making an ass out of themselves.”
  • The holiday was at first celebrated on just October 22, but the second iteration on June 28 was added to honor Billy Mays, “the beloved pitchman who said everything in capital letters,” who sadly died on June 28, 2009 (10 years today!) at the age of 50
  • Billy Mays was the spokesperson for many cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products including Fix-It, OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, and Zorbeez
    • He was described as “a full-volume pitchman, amped up like a candidate for a tranquilizer-gun takedown.”
    • An initial autopsy stated that Mays suffered from hypertensive heart disease and that this was the likely cause of his death. However, according to a toxicology report released in August 2009, while heart disease was listed as the “primary cause of death,” cocaine was listed as a “contributory cause of death.” 
    • According to subsequent reports, the toxicology tests also showed levels of painkillers hydrocodone, oxycodone, and tramadol, as well as anti-anxiety drugs alprazolam and diazepam. He apparently suffered from hip issues and had been scheduled for hip replacement surgery for the day after he was found dead.
  • So, great news, you can listen to this episode twice!
• According to Mental Floss, there are numerous ways to make use of capital letters, other than starting sentences.
  • “EMPHASIS--internet vernacular uses all-caps for emphasis, often excitement or anger”
  • “MONUMENTS--our alphabet actually used to be all-caps, all the time, since the earliest written forms of Latin didn’t have lowercase at all. That’s why uppercase tends to be boxier: It’s easier to carve straight lines in a monument, whereas lowercase is more rounded because that’s easier to shape with a pen”
  • “ESCALATING CAPITALIZATION--escaLATING CAPITALIZATION. you know, when you start out calmly in lowercase BUT THEN SOMETHING EXCITING HAPPENS”
  • “GETTING STUCK IN AN ALL-CAPS WAR--You might have started out EMPHATIC, but sometimes that sticks around too long and you’re left awkwardly shouting WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING IN ALL-CAPS; I DON’T KNOW”
  • “JOINING A SOCIETY FOR THE BANNING OF THE CAPS LOCK KEY--The caps lock key dates back to typewriters, when it was a lot harder to hold down shift for an entire word or phrase. With modern keyboards, people have proposed using its prime real estate for something else.”
  • “STUDLY CAPS--That possibly-retro style where you alternate caps with each word. Pair with sparkly unicorn punctuation. 
    • ~ * ~ cAuSe I gOt A bLaNk SpAcE bAbY ~ * ~ aNd I’lL wRiTe YoUr NaMe ~ *~ “
    • This style has recently come to denote sarcasm or parody over text
  • “CAMELCASE--CamelCase is the tamer cousin of studly caps, where you add a capital in the middle of a compound word to make it rise up like a camel’s hump. Common in brand names (PowerPoint, MasterCard, LinkedIn) and speculative fiction (RejoovenEsense in Oryx and Crake)”
  • “CAPITALIZE ALL YOUR NOUNS--In standard English, we capitalize proper Nouns, but that hasn’t always been the Convention. Until the 19th Century, English used to capitalize all Nouns, just like modern German still does. You can see this in old Documents like the Declaration of Independence”
  • “IRONIC CAPS--Sometimes used with ™, ironic capitals indicate that something is a Very Important Idea”
  • “ILLUMINATED MEDIEVAL CAPITALS--If you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, why not channel your inner scribe and adorn the capital at the beginning of your manuscript with a detailed illustration like this?” (image included in shownotes)
  • “SMALL CAPS--Technically speaking, small caps are supposed to look slightly different from just capital letters in a smaller font. Real small caps are a little thicker and further apart than small-font capitals, to make them flow better with the rest of the text”

ACTIVITIES TO CELEBRATE

• Baptiste Candellier designed a Chrome extension so that, on each holiday, you’ll be unable to type in lower case and will display almost every page you load in upper case
  • https://dev.outadoc.fr/projects/caps-lock-day
• You can also download Billy Mays Caps Lock, created by John Haller. When you hit the Caps Lock key, you’ll hear Billy Mays say: 
  • “Hi, Billy Mays here!”
  • It’ll make your whites, whiter!”
  • Order right now and we’ll double the value!”
  • “Here’s how to order!”
  • https://johnhaller.com/useful-stuff/billy-mays-caps-lock
• From checkiday.com: “CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY BY PUTTING THE CAPS LOCK ON AND LEAVING IT ON ALL DAY. SEND TEXT MESSAGES AND EMAILS IN ALL CAPS. IF YOU HAVE MORE IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS YOU NEED TO WRITE TODAY, YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO TYPE THEM IN ALL CAPS AS WELL. BESIDES ANNOYING MANY PEOPLE, YOU MAY RUN INTO OTHER PROBLEMS AS WELL. FOR EXAMPLE, IF YOU HAVE PASSWORDS IN WHICH LETTERS ARE NOT ALL CAPITALIZED, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO LOG INTO SOME OF YOUR ACCOUNTS. THIS IS A SACRIFICE YOU HAVE TO MAKE ON INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TAKING OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.”

SOURCES

• https://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/international-caps-lock-day/
• https://www.writerswrite.com/journal/dec99/e-mail-etiquette-netiquette-12995
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caps_Lock
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/53297/today-international-caps-lock-day
• https://www.checkiday.com/f3882f5952a0738725f007a3ee9071b5/international-caps-lock-day
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_and_Mehitabel
• https://www.google.com/search?q=caps+lock+meme&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS806US806&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF19WtveXhAhX9wMQHHdGFAVwQ_AUIDigB&biw=1707&bih=816&dpr=1.13
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mays
• https://www.dailyinfographic.com/the-history-of-caps-lock
• http://mentalfloss.com/article/68376/15-interesting-things-you-can-do-capital-letters
• https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CAPSLOCK
• SEXY MEHITABEL:
  • https://www.rashmee.com/2015/10/24/how-an-evening-at-gerrys-made-me-long-for-a-21st-century-archy-mehitabel/
  • https://io9.gizmodo.com/mel-brooks-co-wrote-a-musical-based-on-the-archy-and-me-1684098007
• MR. COOL ICE:
  • https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mr-cool-ice

PHOTOS

The first illustration of Archy, seen in an advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 11, 1922

HAPPY GLOBAL GARBAGE MAN DAY! Join us as we celebrate the brave people who haul away all the crap we don't want anymore. Today we're celebrating with the best sister in the world, Amy Cowan (Twitter: @aacowan / RereadingMyChildhood.com)! Let's party!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

HAPPY GLOBAL GARBAGE MAN DAY! Join us as we celebrate the brave people who haul away all the crap we don't want anymore. Today we're celebrating with the best sister in the world, Amy Cowan (Twitter: @aacowan / RereadingMyChildhood.com)! Let's party!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

Find the show notes at: https://laughowenslaugh.com/holiday-party-june-17-2019-global-garbage-man-day-with-amy-cowan/  

HAPPY NATIONAL CELLOPHANE TAPE DAY! Join us as we celebrate the sticky stuff that's keeping your cracked window together. Today we're celebrating with friend, comedian, art educator and craft supplies expert Elizabeth Norman (Twitter: @lizzynormal / Instagram: lizzynormal / elizabethnorman.net)!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

HAPPY NATIONAL CELLOPHANE TAPE DAY! Join us as we celebrate the sticky stuff that's keeping your cracked window together. Today we're celebrating with friend, comedian, art educator and craft supplies expert Elizabeth Norman (Twitter: @lizzynormal / Instagram: lizzynormal / elizabethnorman.net)! Let's party!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

Find show notes at https://laughowenslaugh.com/may-27-2019-national-cellophane-tape-day-with-elizabeth-norman/

Happy National Graduation Tassel Day! Join us as we celebrate those thingies on top of your weird cardboard hat on this important holiday. Today we're celebrating with friend, comedian and vaguely recent tassel-wearer Donnie Sengstack (Twitter: @donsengstack / Insta: donstengstack / donniesengstack.com)! Let's party!

Holiday Party – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Insta: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM / [email protected]

Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / alyssapants.com

Happy National Graduation Tassel Day! Join us as we celebrate those thingies on top of your weird cardboard hat on this important holiday. Today we're celebrating with friend, comedian and vaguely recent tassel-wearer Donnie Sengstack (Twitter: @donsengstack / Instagram: donstengstack / donniesengstack.com)! Let's party!

Find Holiday Party online – Twitter: @HOLIDAYPARTYPOD / Instagram: HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST / HOLIDAYPARTYPODCAST.COM

Find Alyssa – Twitter: @alyssapants / Instagram: lettertalkpodcast / alyssapants.com

SHOW NOTES

History + fun facts about the holiday

• According to nationaldaycalendar.com, Tassel Depot founded National Graduation Tassel Day on 5/17 to celebrate the keepsake that marks one of the milestone achievements of our lives
  • The Registrar at National Day Calendar proclaimed the holiday to be observed annually in 2018
• Tassel Depot is a company that produces “Tassels without Hassles®”, and was established in 1864 by Hofmann & Leavy, Inc. It has been owned and operated by the Leavy family for more than 3 generations, and their products can be found all over the world
  • No word on what happened to Hofmann
  • According to tasseldepot.com, “the Tassel is the only ornament crafted that has lasted throughout history. It is an item that ties loose ends of yarn together and has been used to adorn many things including clothing and uniforms. The tassel was very often the status symbol that differentiated people in the military or religious fields. Cords with tassels were used dating back to the 14th century to represent levels of learning which is similar to the type of Academic Regalia that we still have today. Tassels were also used in the past on keys and other furnishings, creating an art form, now dressing up interiors all over the world. Today, the tassel is used in graduations and other ceremonies both for differentiation and unifying purposes.”
• According to Wikipedia, a tassel is a finishing feature in fabric and clothing decoration. It is a universal ornament that is seen in varying versions in many cultures around the globe
  • Tassels are normally decorative elements, and as such one often finds them attached, usually along the bottom hem, to garments, curtains, pasties covering the nipples of burlesque performers, or other hangings.
    • The tassel is primarily an ornament, and was at first the casual termination of a cord to prevent unraveling a knot. As time went on, various peoples developed variations on this, until by the 16th century in France, the first Guild of Passementiers was created and documented the art of passementerie. This includes not only the tassel, but all fringes, ornamental cords, galloons, pompons, rosettes, and gimps.
  • In the Hebrew Bible, the Lord spoke to Moses instructing them to tell the Israelites to make tassels (Hebrew: tzitzit--tseet-tseet) on the corners of their garments, to help them remember and keep all the commandments of the Lord and as a sign of holiness.
  • Tassels and their associated forms changed style throughout the years, from the small and casual of Renaissance designs, through the medium sizes and more staid designs of the Empire period to the Victorian Era with the largest and most elaborate decorative flourishes. Some of these designs are returning today from the European and American artisans, who may charge a thousand dollars for a single handmade tassel. The majority of the world's tassel production, however, takes place in China which mass-produces and exports them globally.
  • In the Middle East, tassels were worn as talismans, especially on headwear. In Egypt, Mesopotamia, and throughout the Arab world tassels were worn by children on hoods or caps to protect them from malevolent spirits and ward off demons.
  • Ceremonial wear--in the US, tassels (or liripipes) are also found on mortarboards during university graduation ceremonies and possibly upon the shoes of the graduates at the ceremony.
• According to theclassroom.com, the origins of academic dress including hats, tassels, gowns, and hoods date back to the 12th century when universities began to organize.
  • Under Henry VIII’s rule, Tassels (also called tufts) were traditionally worn by Oxford and Cambridge University undergraduates on their caps, those wearing gold tassels were those who had paid for the status of gentleman-commoner, thus receiving increased social prestige and more luxurious accommodation than ordinary commoners who wore plain black tassels on their caps. Today, only the Chancellor of Oxford wears a gold tassel.
  • While European universities vary in the traditions they use, American schools follow a uniform costume code first established by Gardner Cotrell Leonard in 1893
  • There was a sharp decline in academic dress in the years immediately following the Civil War. In Leonard’s opinion, the cause was an Anglophobic distaste for all things British
  • In 1894, an American Intercollegiate Commission met at Columbia University to standardize the styles and color of academic dress, with slight variations of quality and look between the gowns for bachelors, masters, and doctors, respectively. The lining of the hood would indicate the University
  • The idea was that the wealthy students would dress the same as a scholarship student--since they were equal in academic terms, they would be equal in their vesture
    • David Starr Jordan, the founding and, at the time, active president of Stanford University in 1901, held the opposing view that medieval ceremonies should not be artificially revived
  • In 1932, the American Council on Education appointed a committee to review the 1895 code. The updated code for academic costumes was approved in 1932, with some revisions following in 1959 and 1986. Though some schools just do whatever the fuck they want
  • Caps are usually black and generally made from cotton, broadcloth, rayon, or silk. They match the gown material and are only velvet when used for a doctoral degree candidate
  • A long tassel is fastened to the middle point of the top of the cap. The tassel should be black or the color appropriate to the subject, with the exception of the doctor’s cap that may have a tassel of gold. The colors associated with the different disciplines are as follows:
    • Agriculture – Maize
    • Arts, Letters, Humanities – White
    • Commerce, Accountancy, Business – Drab
    • Dentistry – Lilac
    • Economics – Copper
    • Education – Light Blue
    • Engineering – Orange
    • Fine Arts, including Architecture – Brown
    • Forestry – Russet
    • Journalism – Crimson
    • Law – Purple
    • Library Science – Lemon
    • Medicine – Green
    • Music – Pink
    • Nursing – Apricot
    • Oratory (Speech) – Silver Gray
    • Pharmacy – Olive Green
    • Philosophy – Dark Blue
    • Physical Education – Sage Green
    • Public Administration, including Foreign Service – Peacock Blue
    • Public Health – Salmon Pink
    • Science – Citron
    • Theology – Scarlet
    • Veterinary Science – Gray
  • Many schools have adopted a practice of asking candidates to start the graduation ceremony with their tassels on the front right side of the cap until the degrees are conferred, at which point tassels are moved to the left front side of the cap
    • This practice is done as a substitute for individual hooding, which is a tradition where master’s and doctor’s candidates have a hood with their specific discipline colors placed on them by a school representative
    • The practice is a visual indication of the fact that the person can now claim title to the academic degree they earned
• David Starr Jordan, tassel objector:
  • He was not just the founding president of Stanford University, but also an ichthyologist, educator, peace activist, and eugenicist.
  • At first glance I was excited, because the ichthyosaur is Nevada’s state fossil. Turns out ichthyology is just the study of fish, and ichthyosaur is simply Greek for ‘fish lizard.’
  • He promoted the concept of eugenics “through removal from the breeding pool of those deemed unworthy to reproduce,” and “sought to prevent the decay of the Anglo-Saxon/Nordic race by limiting racial mixing and by preventing the reproduction of those he deemed unfit." He also chaired the first Committee on Eugenics of the American Breeders Association, from which the California program of forced deportation and sterilization emerged
    • The CA program saw the sterilization of over 20K people between 1919 and 1953 (a third of the US national total of these sterilizations for the same period), to improve their “physical, mental, or moral condition.” This vague wording meant that the law could be applied to patients considered mentally ill, handicapped, sexually deviant, or criminal.
      • Targeted groups fell into three general categories: dependent, delinquent, or mentally deficient
        • “Dependent”: those receiving welfare payments and lacking formal education. This was intended to prevent the poor from procreating
        • “Delinquency”: criminal behavior and sexual promiscuity (specifically among women), the latter of which was seen as a symptom of “feeble-mindedness” so sterilization was used as a “cure”
        • “Mental deficiency”: included, but was not limited to: sexual promiscuity, schizophrenia, alcoholism, epilepsy, Down’s syndrome, the “insane,” and manic depression.
      • People with Spanish surnames were 2.5X as likely to be sterilized as those without. According to theconversation.com, “contemporary politicians and state officials often described Mexicans as inherently less intelligent, immoral, ‘hyperfertile,’ and criminally inclined...their sterilizations were described as necessary to protect the state from increased crime, poverty, and racial degeneracy.”
      • Jordan was a “peace activist” insofar that he contended that war was detrimental to the human species because it removed the strongest men from the gene pool. To be fair, he also thought it was financially irresponsible.
  • He also launched the coverup of the murder of Jane Stanford, who co founded Stanford University with her husband Leland Stanford, and who died on February 28, 1905 at age 76 by strychnine poisoning while vacationing in Oahu. Jordan hired a physician from Hawaii to declare that she had died of heart failure, “a condition whose symptoms bear no relationship to those actually observed.”
    • Strychnine is a crystalline alkaloid commonly used as a pesticide, especially for birds and rodents
    • The symptoms of heart failure typically include shortness of breath, excessive tiredness, and leg swelling, with shortness of breath usually being worse both with exercise and while lying down.
    • Meanwhile, symptoms of strychnine poisoning are considered some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any known toxic reaction. “10-20 minutes after exposure, the body’s muscles begin to spasm, starting with the head and neck in the form of trismus (lockjaw) and risus sardonicus (abnormal, sustained spasm of the facial muscles that appears to produce grinning). The spasms then spread to every muscle in the body, with nearly continuous convulsions, and get worse at the slightest stimulus. The convulsions progress, increasing with intensity and frequency until the backbone arches continually. Convulsions lead to lactic acidosis (the buildup of lactate in the body), hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), and rhabdomyolysis (damaged skeletal muscle starts breaking down rapidly). These are followed by postictal depression (altered state of consciousness after seizure). Death comes from asphyxiation caused by paralysis of the neural pathways that control breathing, or by exhaustion from the convulsions. The subject usually dies within 2-3 hours after exposure.”
      • In fact, Jane’s last recorded words were, “My jaws are stiff. This is a horrible way to die.”
    • This was actually the second time that Jane had been poisoned with strychnine. The first time occurred on January 14, 1905, when she drank mineral water that “tasted bitter.” She forced herself to vomit, then sent the water to a pharmacy for analysis after her maid and secretary agreed that it tasted strange. When the analysis turned up with a lethal dose of strychnine, Jane moved out of her house, and the maid fell under suspicion since she had previously shared with the rest of the staff tales of English aristocrats being poisoned by their servants. The maid was subsequently dismissed, but follow-up investigations turned up zilch about anything tying her to the incident.
      • Depressed that some unknown person tried to kill her as well as dealing with a cold, Jane took a trip to Hawaii. On February 28, she asked for bicarbonate of soda (a baking soda solution) to settle her stomach. Her personal secretary (the only other person at the original scene of the crime as well as trusted employee of 20 years) prepared the drink for her
      • The baking soda had been purchased after the firing of the maid, and had been accessible to anyone in Stanford’s residence during the period of time that the party was packing for the trip and hadn’t been used until the night of her death.
    • Jordan’s version of her death was largely accepted until the 1980s, when the appearance of several publications which emphasized the evidence that she was murdered. The source of the strychnine has never been identified.
      • Possible motives for the cover-up include that he may have been acting to protect the university’s reputation, since its finances were precarious at the time; or he may have had a personal motive to eliminate suspicions around an unsolved crime, given that he and Jane had a difficult relationship and she reportedly planned to remove him from his position at the university (how is this motive for JUST the cover-up??)
      • He went so far as to accuse the doctor who attended Jane’s death that the doctor had added the strychnine to the drink AFTER she died.
    • Key quotes from our pal David Starr Jordan: “There cannot be perfect civilization until Man realizes that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own.”
      • And, “Whatever you attempt, go at it with spirit.”

 

SOURCES

• https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-graduation-tassel-day-may-17/
• https://www.tasseldepot.com/tasselhistory.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassel
• https://www.theclassroom.com/reason-switching-tassel-graduation-8232355.html
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/20/why-caps-and-gowns-at-graduation-lets-go-back-900-years/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f1d15030e2b2
• http://www.thenorthernlight.org/tassel-the-hassle-origins-of-graduation-traditions-explained/
• https://www.graduationsource.com/blog/graduation-cap-and-gown-history/
• https://commencement.colostate.edu/history-of-academic-regalia/
• https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/20-best-graduation-songs-of-the-last-20-years-167659/green-day-good-riddance-time-of-your-life-61243/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Starr_Jordan
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Stanford
• https://stanfordmag.org/contents/who-killed-jane-stanford
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strychnine_poisoning
• https://stanfordmag.org/contents/who-killed-jane-stanford
• https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/01/california-sterilization-records/511718/
• http://theconversation.com/forced-sterilization-programs-in-california-once-harmed-thousands-particularly-latinas-92324
• https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/CA/CA.html

Happy National Pigs in a Blanket Day! Join us as we celebrate meat wrapped in pastries on this important holiday. Today we're celebrating with friend, comedian and pigs in a blanket enthusiast Cody Skinner (Twitter: @codyskinnerfan)! Let's party! / Find us at holidaypartypodcast.com / @holidaypartypod on Twitter / holidaypartypodcast on instagram / [email protected]