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July 4 is Rube Goldberg Day

Today is Rube Goldberg Day. On July 4, 1883, Reuben Garrett Lucius “Rube” Goldberg was born in San Francisco, CA. In his 87 years on the planet, he was a cartoonist, engineer, inventor, author, sculptor and scriptwriter.

He is best known for his cartoons depicting absurdly complex contraptions used to perform simple tasks. One such device was an intricate system, triggered by the movement of a spoon, that would automatically mop one’s upper lip after taking a sip of soup as seen in the following commemorative stamp.

rube goldberg day

“Self-Operating Napkin” US Stamp, 1995

As an engineer and inventor, Goldberg often brought these cartoons to life. In 1930, he wrote and made a cameo appearance in a film called Soup to Nuts which featured some of his crazy machines and starred the men who would later become known as the Three Stooges.

In 1948, Goldberg was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons. Few knew his work had aroused such anti-Semitic hatred during the war that he had insisted his sons change their surnames. They chose the last name George and it has remained the family name ever since; their children run a company called RGI (Rube Goldberg Incorporated) to continue their grandfather’s name.

rube goldberg day

Goldberg was a founding member and the first president of the National Cartoonists Society, the namesake of its Reuben Award, given to the Cartoonist of the Year. He is the inspiration for various international competitions, known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, many of which are sponsored by his descendants through RGI.

He is also immortalized in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Rube Goldberg
adjective Rube Gold·berg \ˈrüb-ˈgōl(d)-ˌbərg\
: accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply ; also : characterized by such complex means

Happy Rube Goldberg Day!

Copyright © 2017 Worldwide Weird Holidays

June 27 is Happy Birthday to You Day

happy birthday to you dayToday is Happy Birthday to You Day. On this date in 1893, teachers (and sisters) Mildred and Patty Hill composed a tune and lyrics for kindergarten students to sing before starting their school day. It was called “Good Morning to All” and used the music we now recognize as “Happy Birthday to You.”

Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning dear children
Good morning to all.

It was published that year in Song Stories for the Kindergarten. A few years later the lyrics were modified and the first note split to reflect the two syllables of Happy. Copyrights for that second version have been sold many times over the years. Many have complained that a song almost 125 years old should be in the public domain.

In 1996, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the industry’s main professional guild, sent letters to 6,000 Girl Scout camps demanding payment of fees for the singing of “Happy Birthday to You,” and “God Bless America,” among others. ASCAP’s director of licensing later apologized, saying, “What we were really chasing here…was going after the summer camps that are really like sending your kids to a resort.”

On August 5, 2013, scientists sent special instructions to the Mars Rover Curiosity’s surface sampling device. The apparatus, which employs a sound transducer at the business end to help it more easily penetrate a variety of soils and clays, audibly “hummed” Happy Birthday to You in celebration of its first year on the surface of a planet an average of 140 million miles away from Earth. NASA paid a royalty fee.

Fights over the validity of copyrights continued until June 27, 2016, when a judge affirmed a $14 million class-action judgment against Warner/Chappell Music, which had purchased the copyright in 1988. Poetic justice? Perhaps. Estimates that the company has made at least $2 million in fees per year since acquiring it rendered the penalty more poetic than just.

At least, we can all sing happy birthday without having to pay a toll. But what about this other schoolyard favorite:

Happy birthday to you,
You live in a zoo,
You look like a monkey
You act like one too.

That one might cost you.

Copyright © 2018 Worldwide Weird Holidays

Donald Duck Day

donald duck dayJune 9 is Donald Duck Day. It celebrates the date in 1934 when he first appeared in a Disney cartoon called “The Wise Little Hen.”

In his 1941 authorized biography, The Life of Donald Duck, he revealed he’d been born on Friday the 13th. When he starred in “Donald’s Happy Birthday” in 1949, his car’s license plate number read 313, which many fans took to mean he was born on March 13th.

This has caused a schism between those who celebrate Donald Duck Day on June 9th and those who insist it should be observed on March 13th. Although his publicist has not returned our calls, we believe Donald Fauntleroy Duck would approve of at least two days dedicated in his honor.

His performance in “Der Fuehrer’s Face” helped it win the 1943 Academy Award for best animated short film. In it, he awakens in a nightmare world where he is a Nazi. (Its original title was “Donald Duck in Nutzi Land” but was changed to “Der Fuehrer’s Face” after the novelty song by that name became a runaway hit.)

Propaganda films weren’t unusual, but because Donald appeared as a Nazi, however unwillingly, the cartoon was considered objectionable and relegated to the Disney vault after the end of World War II. In 1994, a group of 1,000 members of the animation industry voted it one of the 50 greatest cartoons ever made. Ten years later, Disney finally released it in a set called “Walt Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines.”

It’s possible to find the compilation for sale on eBay but prices are high because Disney made only 250,000 sets in 2004. We can’t find it on the Disney youTube channel but if you’re curious, the cartoon is available through a few unofficial sources. Here’s one:

There are links here and here to a version that includes a short explanatory prologue.

We’d like to leave you all with an observation made by Chandler Bing on the TV show “Friends.”

You know what’s weird? Donald Duck never wore pants. But whenever he’s getting out of the shower, he always puts a towel around his waist. I mean, what is that about?

Happy Donald Duck Day!

Copyright © 2017 Worldwide Weird Holidays

National Yo-Yo Day

national yo-yo day

Greek boy with yo-yo, 440 BC

Today is National Yo-Yo Day, created by Daniel Volk in 1990 to celebrate the birthday of Donald F. Duncan (1892-1971), whose company popularized the toy.

A simple yo-yo resembles a small spool with a string knotted around a center groove or axle. Holding the free end of the string, one uses spin, gravity and momentum to cause the yo-yo to unwind and rewind. While it travels back and forth easily, the knot prevents it from doing sophisticated tricks.

The first known painting of a yo-yo is on a Greek vase from approximately 440 BC. Illustrations from 18th-century Northern India and France show adults playing with yo-yos.

In 1928, Pedro Flores moved from the Philippines to Santa Barbara, CA, and opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company. His design had a doubly-long string, twisted to make a loop that would slip around the axle, enabling a range of motions and configurations. By November 1929, Flores had three factories which produced a total of 300,000 units per day.

Soon afterward, Donald F. Duncan purchased Flores’ company and trademarked the name “Yo-Yo.” In 1965, he sued Royal Tops Manufacturing Company for using the name and a federal court of appeals rescinded his trademark, ruling that “Yo-Yo” had become a common part of speech. As a result of the suit and associated legal bills, Duncan sold the company three years later. He died in a car accident in 1971.

Side note: Companies are required to keep their brand names from becoming genericized. Every mention of Kleenex includes “tissues.” Nintendo pushed the term “games console” to protect its name. Band-Aid changed its jingle from “I am stuck on Band-Aid, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me” to “I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me.” Google sends cease-and-desist letters to anyone who uses the term “googling.” What could Duncan have done to prevent people from saying they were “yo-yoing”?

Daniel Volk, a Yo-Yo Master who appeared on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s, created National Yo-Yo Day in 1990 as a tribute to Donald F. Duncan. The Duncan Yo-Yo was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY, in 1999.

To see a world-class performance, watch this 2013 TED Talk by Japanese yo-yo artist BLACK, a two-time world champion who quit school to become a professional performer and landed a one-day part in Cirque du Soleil. Did anyone in the exceedingly earnest, reverent audience so typical of TED Talks think, “While I’m amazed by his talent and filled with joy at his story of hope, when I return to my life of relative comfort and privilege, how will he make a living with a yo-yo”? Or simply, “What’s for lunch?”

Copyright © 2017 Worldwide Weird Holidays