Today is National Frozen Food Day, which honors the pioneering work of Clarence Birdseye. While living in Canada, he learned from the Inuit how to fish through a hole in the ice. He noticed that the day’s catch froze almost instantly, tasted fresh, and didn’t turn to mush like conventional slow-frozen foods when thawed. Convinced he had discovered something revolutionary, he developed a freezing machine and patented it in 1927.
It took time for the world to catch up. Railroads used ice for its refrigeration “reefer” cars and wouldn’t accept responsibility for possible spoilage. Markets had no freezers to store the fish. Although home refrigerators were available, separate compartments with room for more than a few ice cube trays wouldn’t be introduced until 1940. Birdseye ran out of money, sold his company to Postum Cereals (now Post Consumer Brands), and took a job there.
With the company’s financial resources, Birdseye began the painstaking process of convincing the public what a boon frozen food could be to busy mothers and families. In March 1930, he placed display freezers into several stores in Springfield, MA, stocking them with 27 different foods from haddock to spinach.
Fifty-four years later, Senate Joint Resolution 193 requested that Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States of America, officially designate March 6th as Frozen Food Day. Proclamation 5157 reads, in part:
…The international frozen food industry started in the United States. Frozen vegetables, fruit, meat, and fish were first packaged and offered to consumers in 1930, contributing greatly to the convenience of life and freeing consumers permanently from the cycle of limited seasonal availability of many foods.
Between 1935 and 1940, frozen foods became available to the public on a large scale. During World War II, ration point values posted in stores and carried in newspapers focused public attention on frozen food. Frozen food became a part of the space age when Apollo XII astronauts took frozen meals on board. Seventy-two frozen food items were stored on the Skylab for a five hundred-day supply of meals for the crew…
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim March 6, 1984, as Frozen Food Day, and I call upon the American people to observe such day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighth.
Ronald Reagan
TV dinner in the Reagan White House
Happy National Frozen Food Day!
https://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/national-frozen-food-day-birdseye.jpg321500Kathleen Zeahttps://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WWWH-New-Header-2-e1501022841118.jpgKathleen Zea2026-03-06 10:45:502026-03-06 11:58:56National Frozen Food Day
When I first wrote about G.I. Joe Day 10 years ago, many longstanding sources declared February 1st “G.I. Joe Day.” Years later, I stumbled across a Joe superfan forum and was surprised to see that I’d been singled out as the nefarious originator of this damnable lie that went on to infect the entire Internet.
I certainly inspired some vitriol, including from a user (perhaps ironically) named “skinny,” who wrote this:
When dealing with historical facts, accuracy is important.
December 7, 1941
September 11, 2001
June 6, 1944
July 4th 1776.
Of course there are exceptions to every rule. Presidents day celebrates two Presidential birthdays on the same day. George was first so we celebrate on his Birthday. Sorry Abe.
Then there is the whole confusion about Easter so we just pick a random day in April or March.
and of course Christmas…
May the 4th is just catchy and has no significance other than cuteness to Star Wars.
However in this case we have an actual date to go by. Remember, G.I. Joe was introduced at Toy Fair in New York City on Sunday, February 9th, 1964.
Not so fast, mon frère. According to the New York Times, the American Toy Fair opened on March 9, 1964. It reported on the toy fair in its pages on March 10th, 11th, and 12th. Since I researched the archives of its printed editions, which I’m quite certain were reported contemporaneously, I’m going to give the newspaper my vote of confidence.
According to one Joe memorabilia site, a short film and prototypes were shown to prospective buyers before the fair’s opening date, but there’s no evidence that a meeting took place on February 9th. (You can watch the film here or on YouTube. Ignore the title, which misstates the toy fair as having taken place in 1963.)
So, “skinny,” it looks like we both got it wrong. In my case, though, I’m not going to compare your offense to, oh, say, getting the date of a terrorist attack wrong.
Without further ado, here is my original post. The first two sentences have been corrected. I stand by the rest.
Today is NOT G.I. Joe Day. In March of 1964, toymaker Hassenfeld Brothers (later shortened to Hasbro) introduced its first doll specifically intended for boys at the American Toy Show in New York. The company hoped to duplicate the success of Mattel’s Barbie, which had been introduced in 1959 and sold a record 351,000 units in its first year.
But there was a problem. Parents wouldn’t buy dolls for their sons. Playing with dolls was considered a girl’s activity, and boys generally wanted nothing to do with that. Some parents feared it might cause them to become effeminate and possibly even homosexual.
In a brilliant bit of marketing, the toymaker solved this issue by coining the term “action figure,” which has been used for countless toys since. It further masculinized the toy by making it a military man: G.I. (Government Issue) Joe. The name came from a 1945 American war film called The Story of G.I. Joe.
They also placed a scar across his right cheek. Not only did it denote manly ruggedness, combat, and valor, but it also enabled Hassenfeld Brothers to copyright the toy. (A generic human figure cannot be copyrighted.) The scar made it an identifiable character, as did a production glitch that gave Joe an inverted thumbnail.
Four original G.I. Joes were released in 1964. In June 1964, Joe was featured in LOOK magazine. An African-American soldier followed in 1965. In late 1966, the makers of “America’s Moveable Fighting Man” received a patent for its 21 points of articulation. Unlike standard toy soldiers, which were one-third the size and made of hard plastic, the Joes were fully poseable, allowing more creative play.
The Joes had been introduced while the U.S. was in the middle of an undeclared war in Vietnam. As it escalated and casualties mounted, the toys that had symbolized the brave fight against all foes, Communist and otherwise, lost their luster.
Women picketed the 1966 toy show in New York, holding umbrellas that read, “Toy Fair or Warfare?” Sears later dropped all war toys from its catalog. Fearing a boycott, Hasbro (which had shortened its name in 1968) phased out military uniforms and added flocked hair and beards. By 1970, the company had replaced the war-oriented Joe with the G.I. Joe Adventure Team.
There were individual Land, Sea, and Air Adventurer Joes, along with the more generalized Adventurer Joe and the mysterious Man of Action Joe. The kung-fu grip was born. Hasbro upped the merchandising quotient by selling props for scenes like White Tiger Hunt, Revenge of the Spy Shark, Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb, Capture of the Pygmy Gorilla, and Sandstorm Survival.
We don’t know whether kids got bored with every aspect of playtime being mapped out for them, or whether Hasbro was ahead of its time in roping parents into buying ancillary items, something that seems normal today. By 1976, the Joe brand was in trouble. Hasbro tried to cash in on the superhero craze by adding BulletMan to the lineup and throwing in a villainous caveman from outer space for good measure.
Nothing worked, and production shut down in 1978. Joe was “furloughed,” according to Hasbro, never expected to return. But the stratospheric profitability of Star Wars merchandise would give Joe one more chance. Shrunken to the same size as those action figures–a little less than 4 inches tall—Joe came back on the scene in 1982.
In an inspired feat of cross-promotion, Hasbro produced a television cartoon, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, as a vehicle for selling toys. It debuted as two five-part miniseries in 1983 and 1984 and ran as a regular series from 1985 to 1987. The show introduced new heroes, villains, and storylines, spawning an ever-increasing number of action figures and turning viewers into avid collectors.
Each episode concluded with a Joe teaching kids valuable lessons like “don’t go with strangers,” “don’t paint your bike in the garage,” and “blind kids can find lost kittens, too.” The kids would say, “Now we know!” and Joe would reply, “And knowing is half the battle!”
Now you know.
PS: I joined the fan forum to apologize and clarify that I hadn’t originated the date and had believed the sources that placed it on February 1st. The moderator, Jeff, wrote to me privately:
Don’t worry about it… some people are just waaayyyy serious about GI Joe and take it too far. Like skinny comparing it to 9-11… jesus.
I locked the thread because it was stupid drama.
I responded:
Thanks. I really do hate getting things wrong but I didn’t make it up. I don’t create the holidays.
As I read through the thread afterward, I saw that there was some disagreement. I assume someone chose February 1st to just get it sort of right. I don’t know who created it, so I can change the date on my blog but every other blog which has that date, most predating mine by years, will still be wrong.
Or is it right? Unless I can get to Source Perrier to find who created the holiday, I can’t know that GI Joe is actually meant to signify his “birthday” or just a general day celebrating GI Joe.
I know people take their interests very seriously. I recently incensed a square dancer by including it as a “weird” holiday. I suggested if he was sensitive, maybe square dancing is not the hobby for him.
I stand by that statement, too.
Have a happy G.I. Joe Day, whenever that may be!
https://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/GI-Joe-Day.jpg315400Kathleen Zeahttps://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WWWH-New-Header-2-e1501022841118.jpgKathleen Zea2026-02-01 12:55:512026-02-01 15:39:14February 1 is NOT G.I. Joe Day but Neither is February 9
Today is Thomas Crapper Day, commemorating the death in 1910 of the man widely believed to have invented the flush toilet. Although that is, as they say, crap, Crapper was a shrewd marketer, leveraging his status as plumber to the British royal family to popularize indoor plumbing. He owned the first showroom of bathroom facilities and publicized the toilet at a time when no one spoke of such “necessities.”
Crapper is one small part of the largely untold history of the device that transformed the world. Humans have been building indoor plumbing for millennia. Excavations have uncovered evidence of flushing toilets dating back to 2600 B.C., during the mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley Civilization.
John Harrington (also spelled Harington) invented a version in 1596 with a cord that, when pulled, would allow a rush of water from the “water closet,” flushing away waste. He installed one at his home and also built one for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I. He called it the Ajax as a play on”jakes,” a slang term for toilet in use at the time. He may be the reason we sometimes call it a “john.”
An author, Harrington wrote “A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorphosis of Ajax.” Superficially, its subject was his invention; in truth, it was a thinly-veiled allegory about political stercus (manure) poisoning the state. The book got him banished from court for a time, and the queen called him her saucy godson.
(Side note: A scent called Stercus was introduced at Smell Festival 2014 in Bologna, Italy. The perfumer named his brand Orto Parisi to honor his grandfather, who fertilized his garden with his own excrement. The bottle was displayed on a slab of dried, pressed manure inside a golden frame. Order here if you dare.)
Yup, that’s a tray made of poop.
Fellow Brits refined Harrington’s design. Alexander Cumming invented the S-trap in 1775, which used a sliding valve called a “stink trap” to seal the bowl’s outlet and prevent sewer stench from entering the home. It is still in use today. Two years later, Samuel Prosser patented the “plunger closet,” which featured a separate flush tank.
After noticing that the toilets he installed in London tended to freeze in winter, Joseph Bramah replaced the sliding valve with a hinged flap and also developed a float valve system for the flush tank. Many sources state that a coworker named Mr. Allen devised the apparatus. But Bramah received the patent in 1778 and, as a result, we can’t even find Allen’s first name in historical records. In 1852, George Jennings patented his own improvements and later constructed London’s first public toilets.
At last, we’re back to where we started. When did Thomas Crapper receive patent #4990, prominently featured in his advertisements? He didn’t. Albert Giblin was awarded patent #4990 for his “Improvements to Flushing Cisterns” in 1898. (Many sites mistakenly report the year as 1819. We have located the original patent and drawings.)
Adam Hart-Davis of Exnet used the British Library to painstakingly track down all patents awarded to Thomas Crapper. According to him, “Mr. Crapper took out exactly six, starting in 1881 (#1628) to do with ventilating house drains, and ending in 1893 (#11604) for a mechanism to flush a lavatory by means of a foot lever. None of his patents was #4990. None of his patents was for a valveless water-waste preventer (WWP).”
It’s possible that Giblin, of whom little else can be learned, sold his patent to Mr. Crapper. One source states that he was Crapper’s employee, which would explain a lot. What we can say with certainty is that Thomas Crapper and Company, claiming to be “The Original Patentees and Manufacturers of Bathroom Appliances,” is still in business today.
The company website tells the story of Crapper’s design of the first automatic flush toilet, featuring a spring-loaded seat that would fly up, pulling rods that triggered the flushing action. Unfortunately, with time and use, the rubber buffers attached to the seat’s underside began to break down and become sticky.
“This caused the seat to remain down, attached to the loo pan for a few seconds as the user got to his feet. Seconds later the seat, under stress from the powerful springs, would free itself and sweep violently upwards – striking the unfortunate Victorian on the bare bottom!”
It became known as the “Bottom Slapper” and was not a commercial success. (One could say it was a hit and then it wasn’t.) We trust that the royal family, who contracted Crapper to install plumbing fixtures at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, were never subjected to that indignity.
Manhole covers bearing the company name have become minor tourist destinations. One in particular, outside Westminster Abbey, another site supplied by Crapper, has become a popular spot to take brass rubbings. Some of the enthusiasm for this activity may stem from the misconception that the slang term “crap” for human waste originated with Thomas Crapper. In fact, it predated him by hundreds of years.
He may have been indirectly responsible for the American habit of calling a toilet “the crapper.” Every time U.S. soldiers stationed in Britain during World War I used a bathroom, they saw “CRAPPER” in the porcelain of the toilet and sink. The association between “crap,” “Crapper,” and the act of crapping in a Crapper was so irresistibly hilarious that they brought it home with them, and their descendants continue to use it every day—-in word and deed.
If this holiday, focused as it is on a distasteful bodily function, seems undeserving of your attention, ask yourself this question: If you could only choose one, which could you live without? Your toilet or your iPhone?
Take that, Apple.
https://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/thomas-crapper-day.jpg293300Kathleen Zeahttps://www.worldwideweirdholidays.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/WWWH-New-Header-2-e1501022841118.jpgKathleen Zea2026-01-27 07:55:002026-01-03 18:30:06Thomas Crapper Day
Cremation Day is more fun than it sounds. Let’s rephrase: it’s more fun to read about than it sounds. Trust us.
On December 9, 1792, the first recorded open-air cremation in the United States took place in Charleston, South Carolina. The decedent was Colonel Henry Laurens, former president of the Continental Congress, who had once co-owned the largest slave trading company in North America.
Laurens, who suffered from a fear of being buried alive, stipulated in his will that his body be burned on the grounds of his plantation. (One wonders why it never occurred to him to be afraid of being burned alive.) His ashes were then placed in an urn and buried in the family cemetery.
The plantation is now a Trappist monastery, exposed by PETA in 2007 for starving chickens for weeks to increase egg production. Now the monks raise mushrooms instead.
Humble Beginnings
Cremation dates back to ancient Greece and Rome, where urns called amphorae were used to store the ashes of the cremated. The Greeks buried them under mounds of earth and stone. Romans built columbaria, vaults containing niches to hold the urns.
Vikings burned the dead atop funeral pyres, but the rest of what we see on TV and in movies is bunk. They did not place the deceased in boats and set them ablaze. An untended fire over water could not reach or maintain a temperature high enough to incinerate a body, leaving charred remains to be picked apart by birds or washed ashore.
Also, boats were much too valuable to burn every time someone died. They would have spent all their time shipbuilding. Ship captains were sometimes buried with a small ceremonial ship. One of these boats, dating back to the ninth century, was unearthed in Norway in 1904. It contained sacrificial women and livestock but no burnt timber. Sorry, Hollywood.
The first cremation chamber, called a retort, was constructed by Professor Lodovico Brunetti and introduced at the Vienna Medical Exhibition of 1873. He displayed the furnace with four pounds of cremated human remains and a sign that read: “Vermibus erepti, puro consumimur igni!”, which, loosely translated from Latin, means “Saved from worms, we are consumed by pure fire!”
Dr. Francis J. LeMoyne constructed America’s first modern crematory in 1876 on property he owned in Washington, Pennsylvania, after the local cemetery refused to host it. Housed in a simple brick building, it remains in remarkable condition 139 years later. (Tours are available the second Saturday of May through September from 2 to 4 pm.)
As luck would have it, the New York Cremation Society had just come into possession of its first dead body, Baron Joseph Henry Louis Charles De Palm, a German aristocrat who had apparently died without a penny to his name(s).
The society contacted LeMoyne and requested the use of his facility, seeing it as an opportunity to showcase the superiority of cremation. On December 6, 1876, surrounded by a throng of reporters, scientists, and physicians, the baron’s body was produced.
Unfortunately, DePalm had been dead for six months, poorly preserved with potter’s clay and phenol. The gruesome sight of the withered, shrunken corpse did not further the cause. Though the procedure went well, the herbs and pine branches could not alleviate the stench. Newspaper accounts were less than glowing.
It’s said that Dr. LeMoyne built the crematory due to his own fear of being buried alive. (Honestly, does anyone look forward to that possibility?) He died in 1879 and, in accordance with his wishes, was cremated on the premises.
Happy Endings
Cremation’s acceptance grew slowly. Between 1876 and 1901, 25 new crematories were built across the U.S. By the time the Cremation Association of America was founded in 1913, there were 52. More than 10,000 cremations took place that year.
Bronze urns became fashionable in the 1920s, some so heavy that the floors underneath had to be reinforced. Various styles were favored across the country. Round ones were preferred in the Northeast, while rectangular and book shapes sold well on the West Coast. In the Midwest, book, box, and vase models were popular, according to Jason Engler, Senior Cremation Advisor to the National Museum of Funeral History, which can be rented for parties and has a lovely gift shop with items like this “Any Day Above Ground is a Good One®” beer koozie.
In the 1980s, bronze prices soared, and urns made of aluminum, cloisonné, and other lower-cost materials made post-cremation receptacles affordable to the masses. Times have changed since then: Of the 1.9 million people cremated in the U.S. in 2023, about 600,000 chose to be scattered rather than stored.
If only they’d known about LifeGem, a company that turns ashes into a cocktail ring. Just seal no more than eight ounces of your loved one in a plastic container and ship it. (Add a lock of your hair to create a “unity LifeGem heirloom diamond.” Why should the dead have all the fun?)
The carbon is extracted and superheated, which “converts your loved one’s carbon to graphite with unique characteristics and elements that will create your one-of-a-kind LifeGem diamond.” What kind of graphite? Like a pencil? A fishing rod? Fuselage? A neutron moderator in a nuclear reactor?
Specialists transfer the graphite to a machine that heats and compresses it for several weeks. At this point, any resemblance to your loved one is purely ceremonial, DNA long gone, so it’s faceted and etched with your choice of messages to guarantee its uniqueness.
A half-carat colorless LifeGem costs $5,599. Volume discounts are available. Now everyone can have a piece of Grandpa. Just make sure you take him off when you wash the dishes.
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