Holidays by Month Archives - Page 53 of 91

National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day

March 24, 2017/1 Comment/in March

Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day.

In 1927, the Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company had the brilliant idea of covering dried California grapes with chocolate. It named the results Raisinets and they’ve been a favorite of moviegoers and vending machine gourmands ever since. The formula changed hands several times before being purchased by Nestlé in 1984.

According to Nestlé, more than one million Raisinets are produced each hour. They’re coated, then machine-polished in large batches to achieve their round shape and high shine. In 2015, the company released this graphic:

They state on their website that if you lined up the number of Raisinets made in one year end-to-end, they would stretch around the globe twice, adding, “Every man, woman and child in the United States would receive 17 Raisinets if the amount made in a year were shared with all.”

Until then, keep buying them yourselves and have a happy National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day!

March 23 is Near Miss Day

March 23, 2017/0 Comments/in March

Today is Near Miss Day. On March 23, 1989, an asteroid passed uncomfortably close to Earth.

Asteroids fly by Earth fairly often, with no deleterious effects. If NASA notified us of every space rock in our general vicinity, we’d spend all our time:

watching Discovery channel disaster porn about the killer rock that’s probably on its way right now to snuff us like the dinosaurs,
sharing dash cam footage of the 2013 meteor explosion over Russia, or
searching Armageddon for clues about how to survive.
(Bruce Willis + Ben Affleck x Aerosmith = a fate worse than death)

The asteroid known as 4581 Asclepius passed us at a distance of 684,000 km (425,000 mi) and briefly occupied the exact spot where Earth had been only six hours earlier. It might have caused concern if anyone had noticed it at the time. Amateur astronomer Dr. Henry Holt discovered it a week later.

After the fact, NASA breathlessly reported a made-for-Hollywood doomsday scenario, stating that the asteroid was at least half a mile (over 800 meters) in diameter. But studies of its brightness, likely composition and other factors have created scientific consensus that 4581 Asclepius is most likely 300 meters in diameter.

Why is this important? An asteroid would have to be at least 1 kilometer in diameter to precipitate an extinction-level event. But a comparatively small asteroid, while not a planet killer, would still devastate a large area, whether it hit the ocean, cratered on land or exploded in the atmosphere.

The best spin we can put on it is this: If you’re reading this, nothing has happened yet. The scientists watching the skies can’t stop an asteroid strike, but they will be able to let us know we’re doomed so we can make our last moments count. (Hint: Delete Deep Impact from your Netlix queue.) Until then, have a happy Near Miss Day!

March 23 is Cuddly Kitten Day

March 23, 2017/0 Comments/in March

Today is Cuddly Kitten Day. We have been unable to locate its creators and can only assume they felt there were not enough photos, videos, books, magazines and websites dedicated to felines already. Perhaps our profile of National Cat Day on October 29th fell short of their expectations, too.

A day like this can be very stressful at Worldwide Weird Holidays, requiring hours and sometimes days of in-depth research and debate about what renders a kitten irresistible. We have concluded that nearly everything except their hairballs and stinky litter is cute, although there are some statistical outliers who think even hairballs qualify if the kitten barfs them up them in an endearing way.

We present, for your enjoyment, a small selection of kitties:

Since it just happens to be National Puppy Day, too, we’re throwing in kittens with puppies. Awwww!

Happy Cuddly Kitten Day and National Puppy Day!

March 22 is International Talk Like William Shatner Day

March 22, 2017/0 Comments/in March

Can’t talk…Spanx…too tight.

Today is International Talk Like William Shatner Day (ITLWSD). In 2009, Maurice LaMarche and Doug VanHorn bumped into each other on Facebook while each was attempting to have March 22nd–Shatner’s birthday—designated as ITLWSD. Though initially sworn enemies locked in a Lazarus-like battle over who’d thought of it first, the men eventually joined forces to promote the brash, percussive vocal stylings of Shatner.

If smooth jazz and slam poetry had a baby, then gave him up to be raised in a nunnery next door to the Playboy mansion, the conditions might be right to forge another Shatner-class individual. But in our opinion, it can’t be done. Shatner didn’t just break the mold: he smashed his way out and pulverized it with his pudgy newborn fists. Does any of this describe the man? Is the real Shatner somewhere in that bouquet of imagery? Who knows? That’s the mystery of Shatner. He runs too deep to plumb.

Maurice LaMarche is a voice actor known for his work on Futurama, The Simpsons, Pinky and the Brain, Team America: World Police and Frozen, among many others. If you play Six Degrees of Separation with him, you’ll be done after one. We’ve all heard his voice in something. (Take that, Kevin Bacon.) Mr. VanHorn’s personal Facebook page points out that Donald Trump looks alarmingly similar to an Oompa-Loompa. Look it up; the resemblance is astonishing.

In this inaugural video from 2009, LaMarche sets the stage with a lesson on the basics of talking like Shatner. A few days before the second annual ITLWSD, he and Kevin Pollak impersonate Shatner with lines from Sh*t My Dad Says, a short-lived sitcom.

Leonard Nimoy impersonated Shatner and his Star Trek 2 eulogy: “Of all the souls I have met in my travels, his was the most human.”

Here’s a fantastic standup Shatner bit by Pollak. Seth MacFarlane does Shatner on Bill Maher’s show. Watch John Belushi as Shatner in this classic Saturday Night Live sketch.

Of course, it is his day, too, so we’ll let the birthday boy have the last word.

international talk like william shatner day

Happy birthday, William Shatner! Happy International Talk Like William Shatner Day!

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