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Make Your Own Head Day

November 28, 2016/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

Today is Make Your Own Head Day. Grab anything: clay, a bar of soap, a roll of tinfoil, dryer lint, mashed potatoes, peanut butter—even ice cream, if you plan to work fast. If you’d rather put pens, paints, pencils or crayons to paper or canvas, that’s fine. too. The medium is up to you.

The object of this holiday is to have fun while exercising your creativity. How does Make Your Own Head Day fire your imagination?

While we’ve been unable to determine the origin of this holiday, we’re fairly sure it was dreamed up by a teacher. Make Your Own Head Day is popular in elementary school art classes, but it’s a great day for adults, too. We look at our faces every day in the mirror. What do we see? How will we translate it: is it realistic, trippy, round, flat, square? There’s no wrong answer. What could be better than that?

Fun fact: The weight of the average adult human head is about eight pounds. This butter sculpture carved of Minnesotan Dairy Princess Betty Holdvogt weighs fifty pounds and had been sitting in a freezer for four years before she hauled it across the country to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2007.

Here are a few guidelines from Instructables to help you get the proportions right when sculpting your head:

1. The eyes are in the middle of the head. For real, the forehead and hair are the full top half. Fold a face in half and the eyes are right there on the crease.
2. If you fold that same face in quarters, the fold above the eyes is the hair line and the fold below is the bottom of the nose.
3. So now that you’re all into folding faces, fold it into thirds lengthwise. The eyes are in the middle of the two lines. The mouth stretches the middle third.
4. If you have two eyes (which most of us do), an imaginary third eye of the same size should fit between them.
5. Ears line up with the middle of the eye and the bottom of the nose.
6. In profile, the brow and chin line up, and the ears are in the middle of the head.

Or create your face in fondant using these handy directions:

What are you waiting for? Make your own head and share the results! We’d love to see what you’ve created! Have a happy and fun Make Your Own Head Day!

Tie One On Day

November 23, 2016/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

Tie One On Day takes place every year on the day before Thanksgiving. But it has nothing to do with Drinksgiving or Blackout Wednesday and doesn’t promote alcohol use or abuse.

It began on Thanksgiving eve in 2003, when EllynAnne Geisel wrapped a pie in an apron, slipped a handwritten note of sympathy into its pocket and delivered it to a neighbor who was going through a difficult time. Her gesture was met with warmth and gratitude. EllynAnne was inspired to share the joyful connection she felt by creating Tie One On Day.

It’s easy to participate. On Thanksgiving Eve,

EllynAnne has collected over 600 vintage aprons, written three books and created an award-winning apron exhibit that has been traveling around the country since 2004. (You can book it for $500 per week plus shipping.)

She also designs and sells aprons, including one that appeared in Vogue magazine. She has been interviewed on CBS News Sunday Morning and NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered. She spoke at 2015’s Southwest Conference on Language Teaching, sharing aprons as a teaching tool in her presentation entitled “Global Apron: How Tying One On…(an Apron, of Course!) Unifies Through Remembrance, Art and Language.”

Tie One On Day is recognized by Chase’s Calendar of Events, the bible of unofficial holidays. Join EllynAnne and “give from the heart on Wednesday–then give thanks on Thursday.” You might discover a cottage industry while you’re at it.

Happy Tie One On Day!

November 19 is World Toilet Day

November 19, 2016/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day was established on November 19, 2001, by the World Toilet Organization to raise awareness of the global need for proper sanitation facilities. Since then, it has grown in scope and recognition. In 2013, the United Nations passed a resolution recognizing World Toilet Day as an official UN international day.

Each year, World Toilet Day has a different theme:

2016’s observance centered on toilets and jobs, pointing out that disease transmission at work, primarily due to poor sanitation and hygiene practices, causes 17% of all workplace deaths. It represented several professions with a unique visual aid.

The focal points for 2015 were toilets and nutrition. Participants were urged to pose on their commodes like Rodin’s The Thinker, take selfies and post them on the World Toilet Day site. While we’re not sure how that relates to nutrition, we applaud the time-honored tradition of reducing this sculpture to a bathroom humor punchline.
The 2014 campaign emphasized equality and dignity. (In other words, no self-portraits straining on the john, thank you very much.)
The slogan in 2012 was “I give a sh*t, do you?” Indonesian stars embraced it in this video.

Every year, World Toilet Day calls attention to the fact that more than 2.4 billion people–about one in three–don’t have access to a toilet. Over one billion must defecate in the open. To raise awareness of this harsh reality, a “see through loo” was set up at the September 2015 Global Citizen Festival in New York City.

What You Can Do:

Open your door and share your toilet. (The World Toilet Day site respectfully suggests you clean it first.)

Host a mass squat. “Stop, drop, squat and share!” Be advised that the World Toilet Organization will not post bail. Plan your plein-air dump locale accordingly.

Share informational tweets such as, “The world’s untreated poop would fill Cowboy Stadium in just two days.” (How can they know that? And why?)

No matter what you do today, doo today or number two today, take some time to celebrate World Toilet Day in your own way. Don’t forget to bring a magazine.

Happy World Toilet Day!

Related:
Global Handwashing Day (October 15)

November 12 is Guinness World Records Day

November 12, 2016/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

Today is Guinness World Records Day, when hundreds of thousands of people around the globe will try to make it into the famous book.

Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said, “Guinness World Records Day unites people across the planet from all walks of life, all of whom have one common goal – to become the greatest in the world at something.”

While today’s records are now being set, let’s take a look at a few recent successes.

Skateboarding Dog

In Lima, Peru, a skateboarding bulldog named Otto passed through 30 pairs of legs, earning him the Guinness World Record for Longest Human Tunnel Traveled Through by Skateboarding Dog.

Thirty people faced in one direction and stood with their feet apart to allow the three-year-old English Bulldog, to freely pass through the human tunnel without being led or touched.

A crowd gathered to watch the cute canine’s record-setting attempt. The video clearly shows that Otto was not simply rolling along. He was steering, leaning and course-correcting with his paws.
Guinness World Records adjudicator Sarah Cusson witnessed the event and presented Otto and his proud owners Luciana Viale and Robert Rickards with an official certificate. The record has yet to be broken.

Basketball Wizardry

Exhibition basketball team The Harlem Globetrotters celebrated Guinness World Records Day 2015 by achieving seven incredible world record titles at the Talking Stick Event Arena in Arizona, USA.

Farthest Kneeling Basketball Shot Made Backward–60 feet 7.5 inches (18.47 meters)

guinness book of world records day harlem-globetrotters-furthest-kneeling

Handles Franklin

Longest Underhand Basketball Shot–84 feet 8.5 inches (25.81 meters)

guinness book of world records day Harlem-Globetrotter

Hammer Harrison

Longest Basketball Shot Made Blindfolded–69 feet 6 inches (21.18 meters)–Thunder Law

Furthest Blindfolded Basketball Hook Shot–50 feet 3.5 inches (15.32 meters)–Big Easy Lofton

The Globetrotters also set records for Most Basketball Three Pointers Made by a Pair in One Minute, Longest Duration Spinning a Basketball on the Nose (7.7 seconds) and Most Basketball Slam Dunks in One Minute (19).

Find these and many more basketball world records here.

Stunt Parking

On November 12, 2015, Alastair Moffatt successfully reversed a classic Mini Cooper into a parking space, leaving a combined distance of just 34 centimeters between his car and the vehicles in front and behind.

Pedal to the floor, Alastair performed a dramatic J-turn, then a hand brake turn, to slot into an almost impossibly small space and break one of the most competitive records in the stunt driving field:

Tightest Parallel Parking in Reverse

An on-site official confirmed that Moffatt bested the previous record of 35 centimeters by 1 centimeter. (That is less than 13.39 inches!) The video is short, amazing and definitely worth watching.

Puppy Love

Let’s bookend the fun with another talented pooch. Purin, a nine-year-old Beagle, earned her place in the 2015 Guinness Book of World Records when she “saved” 14 mini soccer balls, smashing her previous record of 11.

Most Balls Caught by a Dog with the Paws in One Minute

She also holds the record for Fastest 10 Meters Traveled on a Ball by a Dog, after she balanced on an inflated ball and crossed the finish line in 11.9 seconds.

Check out thousands more records in the Guinness Book of World Records 2016 print edition, on its official website and YouTube page. Have a chart-bustingly great day!

Posts

Make Your Own Head Day

Tie One On Day