fun, strange holidays grouped by month

July 6 is Umbrella Cover Day

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Umbrella Cover DayToday is Umbrella Cover Day. Although the holiday got its start in 2014, its roots reach back to 1996, when Maine native Nancy 3. Hoffman founded the Umbrella Cover Museum, with the motto “Celebrate the Mundane,” dedicating it to “finding wonder and beauty in the simplest of things.”

Hoffman changed her middle name from Arlene to Three in 1992 after a typographical error on a form gave her the idea; she likes that “3” is universal to every language and needs no translation. She heads up an accordion band known as The Maine Squeeze. Her one-woman performance of “The Mikado” by Gilbert and Sullivan was once produced at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Many years ago, Hoffman explained her inspiration for the museum in her book Uncovered and Exposed:

I was cleaning out my house one day, and discovered that I still had all of the covers from all the umbrellas I’d ever bought (Seven or so.) That got me thinking. Then one day, around 1992, I was in a dime store and I stole a cover off of an umbrella…just the cover. Then I knew I was hooked. After that I started planning the Museum and soliciting donations for the exhibits.

In 1996, the Umbrella Cover Museum opened its doors — more specifically, the door to her kitchen, where the covers were displayed. Eventually, the collection grew so large that she moved it to its current two-room location on Peaks Island, Maine.

The museum is open during the summer months. (Hoffman winters in Key West, Florida.) Guided tours are available. The curator/director serenades lucky visitors with her rendition of “Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella” while accompanying herself on accordion.

For several years, Hoffman petitioned the Guinness Book of World Records to add a new category for umbrella sleeves. Guinness finally acquiesced, scheduling an official count on July 7, 2012. News of the upcoming event brought donations from around the world.

By the day of the event, the museum housed covers hailing from forty-eight countries. According to Guinness rules, to attain a record for the highest number of an object, the total must exceed 500. Handmade covers and duplicates were not allowed in the tally. Hoffman sailed into the record books with 730. As of this writing, the museum has received over 2,000 covers from 71 countries.

Hoffman is always happy to accept umbrella covers and solicited monetary donations to fund a long-time goal to host a British “pop-up” museum.  For two weeks in September 2017, she exhibited over 300 covers at “Centrespace Gallery” in central Bristol. Why? Because, Hoffman said, “Where else would umbrella covers be more appreciated than England?” (No word on whether she’ll take them to the wettest places on Earth. Or Seattle.)

On a scale from “Honey, get the pitchfork” to “She’s not hurting anyone,” Hoffman occupies the “lovable eccentric” zone. Maybe we shouldn’t need her Umbrella Cover Museum to help us find “wonder and beauty in the simplest of things,” as she puts it. But don’t we?

Happy Umbrella Cover Day!

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Ducktona 500

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ducktona 500Today marks the 36th annual Ducktona 500 in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, which is always held on the first Sunday in July. Hundreds of numbered rubber duckies will be dumped into the Sheboygan River and race downstream to win $1,000 for the lucky holder of the corresponding raffle ticket.

For 26 of those years, the races were illegal. In 2013, the Wisconsin Department of Justice warned the village of Mishicot that its annual duck race constituted gambling, outlawed in the state.

On April 16, 2014, Wisconsin governor and future failed presidential candidate Scott Walker took time from his busy schedule of union-busting, protesting the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage, opposing immigration and denying the need for climate change regulations to sign a law creating an exemption for duck races, similar to ones already enacted in Minnesota and Michigan.

Thank you, Governor Walker, for making Wisconsin safe for rubber duckies and the people who race them.

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Bikini Day

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Today is Bikini Day. On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Réard unveiled a two-piece swimsuit he named after a US atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, conducted only five days earlier. He believed his swimsuit would cause an “explosive commercial and cultural reaction.”

Two-piece outfits were not new. In 1960, while excavating the ruins of a fourth-century Roman villa, archaeologists discovered a mural depicting ten women, informally referred to as “the bikini girls.” There’s no evidence to suggest the clothing was used for swimming.

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Villa Romana del Casale – “the bikini girls”

In the 1930s, European women began wearing two-piece bathing suits — a halter top and shorts — that bared a bit of midriff and covered the navel entirely. During World War II, fabric rationing led to similar designs in the U.S.

In 1946, Réard wasn’t the only French designer determined to capitalize on the jubilant postwar mood with fashion evoking an odd, bomb-loving nostalgia. Jacques Heim had designed a bathing suit in 1932, when exposing the belly button was still considered scandalous. He rereleased it in June 1946 with the name “Atome” in honor of the atomic bomb, and advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.”

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Jacques Heim’s “Atome”

Réard’s swimsuit was smaller, constructed of a little bra top, two triangular pieces of fabric, and string. He planned to unveil it three weeks later, on July 5th at the Piscine Molitor pool, promoting it as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.”

One issue threatened to derail Réard’s plan: He couldn’t find a professional model who would agree to wear the skimpy bikini. His solution turned out to be a stroke of marketing genius. He hired exotic dancer Micheline Bernardini, who had no problem with appearing nearly nude in public.

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Réard’s “bikini”

To demonstrate his confidence in the headlines his bikini would generate, he printed newspaper-style text across the suit’s material. The bikini was a hit, and so was Bernardini, who reportedly received 50,000 fan letters.

In less than ten years, the bikini became a familiar sight on beaches all over Europe. By the 1960s, it was popping up everywhere in the U.S. as well. Seventy years after its introduction, the design continues to dominate the market. Réard summed up its sexy allure when he stated:

“A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring.”

Happy Bikini Day!

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International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship

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international cherry pit spitting festivalJuly 5, 2025, is the 52nd Annual International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship, held each year in Eau Claire, MI, on the first Saturday of July. It has been billed as a “Spit-tacular Day” where you can “spit your pit in public with only a minimal loss of dignity while gaining fame.”
It’s the only cherry pit spitting contest recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. (In case you’re curious, the world record belongs to Brian “Young Gun” Krause, 37, of Lansing, MI,  who spat his pit a whopping 93 feet 6½ inches in 2003.)

There are some interesting ground rules. The spitting range is available for practice spitting from 10:00 a.m. until noon. Those wishing to practice are limited to a maximum of three spits.

No foreign objects may be held in the mouth which would give an advantage in spitting the pit. Denture racks will be provided for those wishing to remove their teeth.

We assume organizers accept no responsibility for lost property due to someone mistakenly taking the wrong dentures after the contest or intentionally taking someone else’s because they’re a nicer set of choppers. (Note: The perpetrator will be the person who never smiles when you’re around.)

Contestants must select three cherries from the regulation variety (Montmorency) supplied by the tournament committee. Cherries must be washed and chilled to 55-60°F pit temperature.

When called by the tournament judge, the contestant has 60 seconds to insert the whole cherry, chew and swallow everything but the pit and get to the line. No part of the cherry may be removed after insertion. The spit is forfeited if a pit is swallowed. Hands must stay below the shoulders to prevent popping one’s cheeks.

Spitters must stand flat on the ground — or ground level platform — to spit. Spitters are prohibited from using any kind of mechanical or other device to improve body thrust or spit length (including hydraulic hoists, wall support, etc.)

The contest is serious business. In addition to a distance judge, line judge, timekeeper, and scorekeeper, there is an official tournament judge, honorary judges, an emcee, and announcer—described as spit-by-spit announcer and color man—and a pit sweeper, which has our vote for least glamorous duty.

The first champion back in 1974 was Dan Kingman of Dowagiac, MI, with a distance of 41 feet. In 2015, Megan Ankrapp of Buchanan, MI, took the prize with a spit of 49 feet ¼ inch. Who will break Guinness Book’s world record? Do you have what it takes? It’s never too late to start practicing, preferably outside, where it’s less messy.

This year, if you have DirectTV, you can tune in for the festivities. Enjoy, but please refrain from spitting in the house. It’s hard to get the stains out of the carpet.

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