fun, strange holidays grouped by month

Sadie Hawkins Day

/1 Comment/in ,

Sadie Hawkins DayToday is Sadie Hawkins Day, an American rite of passage for generations of teenagers. Misogynistic, antiquated, and awkward for all involved, it supposedly empowers girls to switch gender roles and ask out the boys. Did we mention it’s misogynistic and antiquated? Its true origin is much, much worse.

Sadie Hawkins was a character created in 1937 by Al Capp in his Li’l Abner cartoon, set in the fictional hillbilly town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Sadie was the “homeliest gal in all them hills.” She waited in vain for a suitor to show up at her door, but not a single prospective husband came a-courting. After fifteen years, Sadie was in full panic mode, and her father didn’t want to support a spinster daughter for the rest of her life.

Sadie’s dad decided to get creative. He called all the unmarried men of Dogpatch together and declared it Sadie Hawkins Day. The town’s bachelors would run for their lives with Sadie in hot pursuit. The “lucky” man she caught would have to marry her. As her Pappy explained, “Th’ one she ketches’ll be her husband.”

Sadie_Hawkins_Day origin lil abner comic strip

The rest of the spinsters in Dogpatch (how many were there?) thought the race was an excellent idea and made Sadie Hawkins Day a mandatory yearly event, much to the chagrin of the bachelors in town, who had no say in the matter.

The Sadie Hawkins Dance appeared in the strip sometime later, taking place the night before the race. The spinsters wore hobnail boots to stomp on the feet of the single men, potentially making them easier to catch in the next day’s race.

The Li’l Abner comic strip debuted in 1934. From the start, it was bawdy and filled with sexual innuendo, not to mention scantily-clad, bucket-breasted women. But it was apparently considered wholesome family fare. In 1939, Life magazine ran a story stating that 201 colleges were celebrating Sadie Hawkins Day.

By 1952, it was reportedly celebrated at over 40,000 different locations. Eventually, it evolved into an all-day event. Capp wrote of the phenomenon:

It’s become my responsibility (to include Sadie Hawkins Day every year in the strip). It doesn’t happen on any set day in November; it happens on the day I say it happens. I get tens of thousands of letters from colleges, communities, and church groups, starting around July, asking me what day, so they can make plans.

Li’l Abner was an enormous success for its creator, who grew rich through merchandising, movie deals, product tie-ins, and a short-lived TV puppet show. In the 1960s, he underwent an ideological transformation from a New Deal Democrat to a hippie-hater and a close friend of Richard Nixon. He became a highly paid speaker on the college campus lecture circuit. His routine was to insult and provoke his audience into a shouting match.

sadie hawkins day al cappCapp attempted to use his fame to “seduce” young women. The biography Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary characterized him as something of a failed serial rapist since the few women who reported him to the authorities always got away. (Capp had lost one of his legs as a boy and routinely removed his prosthetic leg along with his pants.) One would-be victim described tipping him over like a floor lamp, as he crashed into the hotel furniture.

Of course, grotesque slapstick aside, there was nothing funny about his sexual assaults. And the winking acceptance by those who knew the truth underscored the culture’s lack of regard for young women. In 1971, Capp succeeded in physically forcing a 20-year-old Wisconsin college student to perform oral sex on him. To her credit, and against overwhelming pressure, the student pressed charges.

Capp was not charged with rape, but with three lesser counts: indecent exposure, sodomy, and “attempted adultery.” He was only found guilty of the latter. Although his career and reputation never fully recovered, he continued to publish the Li’l Abner comic strip until 1977. He died two years later.

Sadie Hawkins Day is not what it seems. She wasn’t a real person. It has nothing to do with women’s emancipation. What do you think? Does the true story of Sadie Hawkins Day and its twisted creator matter if no one knows it, or cares?  Should it continue to be celebrated as harmless fun or be consigned to the dustbin of history?

Share this:

Air Day

/0 Comments/in ,

Take a deep breath. Air keeps us alive. With the notable exception of anaerobic bacteria, living things need oxygen to survive. Not pure oxygen, mind you. That would be too much of a good thing. Air (usually) has just the right mix of gases and, for that, we owe it a debt of gratitude. If Air were sitting on the barstool next to you, you’d slap it on the back and buy it a drink.

But Air Day doesn’t celebrate Earth’s unique blend of gases.

Air DayNovember 11, 1929, was named Air Day by Governor Lawrence Judd to commemorate the first commercial air service flights between the Hawaiian Islands. Two Sikorsky S-38 planes flew from John Rodgers Airport, later renamed Honolulu International Airport, to the Big Island with a stop on Maui. Forty-nine military planes escorted them as far as Diamond Head; six accompanied them all the way to Hilo. 

Four planes were put into service on the route. More than 10,000 passengers flew on Inter-Island Airways in 1930, its first full year of service, an astonishing number considering there were only eight seats on each plane. Cruising at about 110 miles per hour, the flight, including the stop, took about three hours. 

Impressive. We suggest a couple of other air-related festivities worth celebrating.

Air Guitar Day –  Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which a person pretends to play a non-existent guitar, including riffs and solos. It requires exaggerated strumming and picking motions, often including lip-synching, to simulate a raucous performance.

Air guitar simulates the raucous sound of electric or acoustic guitar. The 30th Annual Air Guitar World Championship was held on August 22, 2025, in Oulu, Finland. Finnish air guitarist Aapo “The Angus” Rautio won by a hair, beating out Yuta Sudo “Sudo-chan” of Japan.

Air Hockey Day– Two players compete to score goals on a special low-friction table. Traditional tables blow a cushion of air through tiny holes onto the surface to increase play speed. Others eschew machinery and use a slick, often plastic, surface to reduce manufacturing costs.

Touchscreen tables are available but are not yet recognized by the United States Air Hockey Association (USAA), which celebrated its 50th anniversary in August with the 2025 World Air Hockey Championships held at the Margaritaville Lake Resort in Conroe, Texas.

Would you like to help make Air Guitar Day and Air Hockey Day official? Find your Congresspeople’s phone numbers in this directory and call now.

Have a happy Air Day!

Share this:

International Accounting Day

/0 Comments/in ,

international accounting day pacioliWhat’s so exciting about International Accounting Day? On November 10, 1494, Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli published “Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita” (Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion).

It included a detailed description of double-entry bookkeeping, called the Method of Venice. Although this technique had been practiced for centuries, Pacioli’s treatise was the first of its kind in print and earned him the title of “Father of Modern Accounting.”

*****

Many in modern times have followed in Pacioli’s footsteps, with varying degrees of success.

Chuck Liddell is a former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion whose fighting skills have helped make mixed martial arts a mainstream sport. He is also a trained accountant, with a BA in Business and Accounting from California Polytechnic University. No one will be making any “boring bean counter” jokes to him.

Kenny G. is a world-famous saxophonist whose smooth jazz sounds have sold more than 75 million records worldwide. He also graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington with a degree in accounting, which he credits with helping him manage his finances early on in his career and paving the way for future success.

John Grisham earned a degree in accounting, intending to become a tax attorney. Instead, he decided to pursue a career in criminal law. His first novel, A Time to Kill, was based on evidence he observed at trial. He has written 47 books, 10 of which have been made into movies, and has sold over 300 million copies in print. (Fun fact: Grisham wrote a comedic novel, Skipping Christmas, which was made into the movie Christmas with the Kranks!)

In 1962, Mick Jagger was studying accounting and finance — on scholarship — at the London School of Economics when he formed the Rolling Stones with Keith Richards and Brian Jones. We think you’ll agree that it worked out for the best.

*****

Need more proof that accounting is cool? Click here to apply for a job at the FBI! According to FBI.gov:

The Forensic Accountant (FoA) role is one of the most vital and sought-after careers
in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Forensic accountants use their accounting
skills, auditing, and investigative techniques to research and follow the systems through
which money may be funneled or laundered by terrorists, spies, and criminals involved in
financial wrongdoing.

How many are there, exactly? We could tell you, but then we’d have to kill you. (Not really; we just don’t know.)

Happy International Accounting Day!

Share this:

Chaos Never Dies Day

/2 Comments/in ,

chaos never dies dayToday is Chaos Never Dies Day. At least, I think it is. When I first wrote about this unofficial holiday a decade ago, I had no idea I’d get tangled up in that chaos thanks to the Internet and a Florida man’s radio talk show. (More on that later.)

Why this holiday? Since no one has claimed responsibility for creating it, there’s no one to ask. Although a current AI search traces the first mention to 2016, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine still has a snapshot of my post about it from November 2015, and I can tell you I didn’t make it up—unless I traveled through time to give myself the idea.

I’m reminded of debates over whether Kyle Reese could hop in a time machine and sleep with Sarah Connor, thereby fathering the person who would one day send him back. What? That paradox in The Terminator still gives me a headache, so I’m just going to have to let Skynet win this one. Please don’t judge me.

Why today? November 9th might have been chosen because it coincides with the Northeast blackout of 1965. Or the day in 1888 when the last-known victim of Jack the Ripper was found. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, why not both?

What is chaos? I’m reminded of  Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s response when asked to describe obscenity. He couldn’t define it, he said, “but I know it when I see it.”  Chaos can be equally hard to explain, at least for me, depending on myriad factors such as timing, location, and circumstances.

In Greek mythology, Chaos was the first primeval god to come into existence at the creation of the universe. Her name comes from the Latin khaos, meaning  “gap” or the space between heaven and earth.

Chaos theory is a branch of mathematics that describes the behavior of non-linear systems and attempts to find underlying order in what appear to be random events or data.

Here are a few quotes illustrating different views of chaos.

We live in a rainbow of chaos. – Paul Cezanne
Freedom is just chaos, with better lighting. – Alan Dean Foster
Chaos is the score upon which reality is written. –  Henry Miller
I like order. It allows me to have chaos in my head. – Dwight Yoakum

Here’s the dictionary definition.

Chaos
noun
1. A state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.
2. Any confused, disorderly mass: a chaos of meaningless phrases.
3. The infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe.
4. The personification of this in any of several ancient Greek myths.
5. Obsolete. A chasm or abyss.

And here comes my role in the story.

Chaos, 2017

On November 8, 2017, I was invited to speak about Chaos Never Dies Day on a radio show. With less than 24 hours’ notice, I scrambled to cram the online equivalent of Chaos Theory for Dummies to prepare.

The show’s booker told me I’d also be asked to explain how I came to write about weird holidays and talk about any notable ones taking place before the end of the year. I gathered information on two of the wackiest: Start Your Own Country Day and Tió de Nadal, which involves a Christmas log that craps out presents when beaten with a stick.

He didn’t tell me the show’s theme was “Are we Stuck in a Bad News Hell?” or that the guests before me would be talking about parenting in the wake of a mass shooting in Texas.

The Michael S Robinson Show banner

When Michael S. Robinson introduced me, I described the beauty of the order hidden within what we perceive as chaos, using the example of football, which can’t be predicted in strictly linear terms by the sum of the players’ and team’s rankings, because of variables like team chemistry, whether it’s a home or away game, the quarterback’s attitude, etc. Since I’m confident you’ll never hear the interview, I’m going to say it was brilliant.

But Mr. Robinson wanted to talk about everyday chaos. How did I try so hard yet end up woefully unprepared? I didn’t just strike out. I left my bat in the dugout and brought a cello to the plate. I’d like to credit chaos in some artful way by suggesting it created a perfect trajectory I can’t identify. That’s hogwash, of course—or is it? (It is.)

In my defense, I’d never heard the radio show before, and in my rush to speak knowledgeably about the theory behind the holiday and bring the funny about two other wacky holidays, I didn’t take the time to check it out. I was never asked about any of that.

And during the call, I had feedback blasting my words back at me, making it almost impossible to speak normally. There’s nothing worse than hearing your own voice faltering in near-real time. Again, chaos. It’s probably just as well they spelled my name Kathlene Zaya.

$99,000 Answer The Honeymooners Ralph KramdenAll this reminds me of the $99,000 Answer, an episode of The Honeymooners in which Ralph Kramden prepares to go on a game show where he’ll be required to identify songs by the first few bars.

He rents a piano and has Ed Norton play musical selections all week to prepare for the event. Ed always warms up by playing the first few bars of “Swanee River,” which never fails to annoy Ralph.

The night of the show, the first tune played is “Swanee River,” which he can’t name. He loses despite all his preparation. I laughed but felt bad for Ralph, perpetual loser.

It also reminds me of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry David did something stupid or thoughtless because he misunderstood the context of a situation, or maybe because he was a jerk. (In other words, every episode.)

Fictional chaos theorist Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.” So do laughs, but not always the ones you want or on the schedule you’d prefer.

Chaos, Now

Unsurprisingly, I’ve never been asked to return to Mr. Robinson’s show. Perhaps my invitation got lost in the (e)mail. There’s certainly much to discuss: Trump’s hair—pure chaos!—or the discovery that the Mayans invented television. (In honor of today’s holiday and to wash away the image of Trump, please click on that last link for the whacked-out philosophical stylings of a character in one of my favorite movies, Repo Man. Better yet, watch it.)

Also, in the first update I wrote in 2017, I misidentified fictional character Ian Malcolm as David Malcom. I regret the error and know that my use of flawed web research has introduced yet another tiny bit of chaos to the Internet. Whether I created this holiday or not, I guess you could say I’m doing my part.

Whether you choose to fight chaos today or welcome it with open arms, have a wonderful Chaos Never Dies Day! See you next year.

Share this: