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National #2 Pencil Day

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Today is National #2 Pencil Day. Though this holiday’s provenance is unclear, there’s no question that this classic writing instrument has made its mark on history. (Sorry, had to do it.)

There’s no lead in a pencil; its core is made of graphite. According to Britannica, it was initially believed to be a type of lead. We’ve used the misnomer “pencil lead” ever since. After the discovery of a large deposit in Borrowdale, England, in the 1500s, shepherds found that the black mineral was perfect for marking sheep—and humans quickly realized it worked on paper too.

In the late 1700s in France, Nicolas-Jacques Conté developed a process to mix clay with graphite to control its hardness. Over time, manufacturers around the world instituted their own grading variations, but here in the US, a simple system has prevailed. There are four basic designations, from #1 (softest and darkest) to #4 (hardest and lightest).

The #2 pencil won out because early machines like the Scantron that scored standardized tests required moderately dark, easily legible marks. (Remember filling in those multiple-choice bubbles?) The #2 had the perfect balance of darkness and smudge resistance while being soft enough to easily erase. More modern scanners didn’t have that issue, but the #2 was already established, and it has remained, well, #1 ever since.

An oft-repeated “fact” states that each standard pencil can draw a line about 35 miles long (or write roughly 45,000 words). On May 4, 2007, Keith Eldred of Hollidaysburg(!), PA, put pencil to paper to test that assertion. On June 9, he and a group of volunteers finished transcribing To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The novel has about 90,000 words. We love a good debunking!

Per Guinness World Records, the longest pencil measured 1091.99 m (3582 ft and 7.73 in) and was achieved by BIC in Samer, France, on 10 October 2017. The pencil was made out of a graphite center encased in polystyrene, making it flexible and light so it could be easily assembled and then measured without having to hold it in a straight line and support the weight of the wood. Personally, we think this is cheating, and we’re surprised Guinness allowed it. BIC’s mechanical pencil is a cheat in itself, with its graphite snapping off so easily and its woefully inadequate eraser. But we digress.

What should you do today? Why not journal by hand, sketch and shade, write a note to a friend, jot down a grocery list, or just sharpen one and let the smell of pencil shavings take you back like a grade-school version of Proust’s madeleine.

No matter how you choose to celebrate, have a happy National #2 Pencil Day!

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July 26 is Esperanto Day

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international esperanto day

Dr. L.L. Zamenhof

Today is Esperanto Day. On July 26, 1887, Dr. L.L. Zamenhof published Dr. Esperanto’s Lingvo Internacia (International Language), also known as Unua Libro (First Book), a textbook about the new language he’d just invented.

Zamenhof didn’t create Esperanto as an intellectual exercise. It was his practical solution to an issue dividing people and cultures. He created a common language that would enable everyone to communicate freely, without the need for translation or governmental manipulation.

Esperanto is comparatively easy to learn due to its logical construction. It employs phonetic spelling and 16 basic rules of grammar that have no exceptions, thereby eliminating the frustration familiar to students of any other language. Because it uses the roots of European languages, mastering Esperanto as a second language can make it easier to learn a third.

Zamenhof wrote, “An international language, like a national one, is common property.”  He renounced his rights and placed his work in the public domain. He used the pen name “Doktoro Esperanto” (Doctor One-Who-Hopes). Students began to call it “Esperanto,” and the name stuck.

Today, approximately two million people speak Esperanto, and there are numerous magazines, books, clubs, and pen-pal programs devoted to it. Community members often seek each other out when traveling. Esperantists make friends around the world.

Dr. Zamenhof would be proud.

Fun fact:

In 1966, William Shatner starred in Inkubo (Incubus), the first and only film entirely shot in Esperanto. In his autobiography, Shatner wrote that he simply memorized his lines and never saw the completed film because he doesn’t watch his own performances. He joked in the book that he certainly wasn’t going to break that self-imposed rule to watch himself trying to speak Esperanto. (If you care to watch this scene, we think you’ll agree that he made the right decision.)

Shatner was cast in Star Trek soon after and never had a need to learn the language. Some Esperantists who’ve seen the horror film say his diction was off, and at times, the actors appeared to be reading from off-camera cue cards. We’re not sure how Dr. Zamenhof would feel about that.

Happy Esperanto Day!

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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.

bikini day

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.”

bikini day

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.

bikini day

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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Rube Goldberg Day

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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 the film Soup to Nuts, which featured some of his innovative 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 honor their grandfather’s last 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!

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