Posts

June 12 is National Jerky Day

/1 Comment/in

Today is National Jerky Day, created in 2012 by the Wisconsin Beef Council to bring awareness to the history, nutritional benefits and status of meat snacks as the “fourth-largest-grossing sector in the overall salty-snack category.”

For 2014’s celebration, Jack Link’s beef jerky company built a replica of Mount Rushmore, covered it in 1,600 pounds of jerky and displayed it in New York City’s Columbus Circle. They called the monument “Meat Rushmore.”

national jerky day

Meat Rushmore

Preserving meat via drying and salting dates back at least as far as Ancient Egypt. It became popular in Spain in the 1500s when conquistadors brought it back from South America. The name “jerky” is derived from the Native American Quechua term “ch’arki” (dried meat).

Today, there are hundreds of varieties: turkey, chicken, duck, buffalo, alligator, ostrich, kangaroo, camel, rabbit, python, antelope, rattlesnake, elk, venison, wild boar, alpaca, and pheasant in flavors like ginger-lime, ghost pepper, butter mesquite, and honey sriracha.

Shark, salmon, tuna, and trout are available for pescetarian jerky fans. One purveyor offers gluten-free buffalo and elk jerky. Another offers pineapple jerky for herbivores. (Caution: Manufactured in a plant that processes meat and meat-like  products.)

One variety that hasn’t survived is Zombie Jerky. From the tone of some of its Amazon reviews, it may have, in fact, consisted of the undead. It’s a shame the company went under after its epic struggle to get its packaging approved. The USDA found the original description of the main ingredient, “naturally occurring zombies,” factually inaccurate, objected to “teriyucki” as a confusing flavor, and rejected the assurance that the product is “mutagen-free” and “doesn’t turn you into a zombie” as potentially misleading. (Everyone knows mutagens are a tasty side-benefit of jerky!)

national jerky day

Are you trying to cut back on coffee but need a morning pick-me-up? Perky Jerky is marinated with guarana seeds, which have twice the caffeine of coffee beans, but is all-natural and therefore healthier for you, right? Well, coffee beans are natural, too, and have the advantage of containing little to no jerky, as far as we know.

In 2023, Meat+Poultry reported on a new cannabis-infused jerky created by The Good Shroom Co:

OG Jerk contains 60 grams of beef jerky (2 x 30 gram vacuum sealed packages) infused with a total of 9 mg of THC (2 x 4.5 mg of THC vacuum sealed packages), which permits the consumer to consume in doses accordingly and enjoy beef jerky in the process.

We applaud the genius of a product made to simultaneously create and cure the munchies. In February of 2025, the Canadian company changed its name to Mercanto Holdings. Some corporate buzzkill must have said it sounds more legit. At least its Canadian stock exchange designation will remain MUSH, so there’s that.

Alas, even OG Jerk couldn’t make us hungry enough to try Earthworm Jerky. This Amazon reviewer takes us on a stream-of-consciousness rollercoaster ride.

It reminds me of an old joke. One woman says to the other, “The food here is terrible!” And the other says, “Yes, and such small portions!”

However you decide to celebrate, have a happy National Jerky Day!

Share this:

June 10 is the Banana Split Festival

/0 Comments/in

June 10, 2026, marked the 32nd annual Banana Split Festival. Behind the scenes of this sweet celebration, a battle has raged for years between the citizens of two All-American towns.

Each year, the festivities honor Ernest Hazard of Wilmington, Ohio, who concocted the treat in 1907 to attract Wilmington College students to his establishment.

He halved a banana, added three scoops of ice cream, topped each with chocolate syrup, strawberry jam, or pineapple bits, sprinkled ground nuts on top, covered it in whipped cream, and added two cherries for good measure. He later brainstormed the name with a cousin.

banana split festival

Hazard’s Cafe, Wilmington, OH

In June 1995, the people of Wilmington created the Banana Split Festival to commemorate Hazard’s invention. It’s been celebrated every year since.

However, in August 2004, residents of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, announced that pharmacist David Strickler had invented the dessert at Tassel Pharmacy in 1904, three years before Hazard. The town instituted its own Great American Banana Split Celebration, pegged to the 100th anniversary.

The National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified Latrobe as the birthplace of the banana split. Food historian Michael Turback, author of The Banana Split Book, agreed, although he was unable to find any hard evidence, such as newspaper clippings on which to base his decision.

banana split festival

Tassel Pharmacy, Latrobe, PA

“Soda fountains were very competitive,” Turback explained of the opposing claims.  “They were always trying to outdo each other, to see who had the most elaborate sundaes.”

While Wilmington, Ohio, and Latrobe, Pennsylvania, continue to duke it out for dessert dominance, the real winners are banana split fans who have not one, but two events to celebrate their love for a whole lot of ice cream with a little bit of fruit.

Ohio’s festival features live music, pony rides, a petting zoo, a baseball tournament, a 5K run, and a banana split eating competition (no hands allowed!). However, the featured attraction every year is a “make your own banana split” booth. Yum!

Happy Banana Split Festival! (And don’t worry: you’ll get another chance to celebrate in August!)

Share this:

National Yo-Yo Day

/0 Comments/in
national yo-yo day

Greek boy with yo-yo, 440 BC

Today is National Yo-Yo Day, created by Daniel Volk in 1990 to celebrate the birthday of Donald F. Duncan (1892-1971), whose company popularized the toy.

A simple yo-yo resembles a small spool with a string knotted around a center groove or axle. Holding the free end of the string, one uses spin, gravity and momentum to cause the yo-yo to unwind and rewind. While it travels back and forth easily, the knot prevents it from doing sophisticated tricks.

The first known painting of a yo-yo is on a Greek vase from approximately 440 BC. Illustrations from 18th-century Northern India and France show adults playing with yo-yos.

In 1928, Pedro Flores moved from the Philippines to Santa Barbara, CA, and opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company. His design had a doubly-long string, twisted to make a loop that would slip around the axle, enabling a range of motions and configurations. By November 1929, Flores had three factories which produced a total of 300,000 units per day.

Soon afterward, Donald F. Duncan purchased Flores’ company and trademarked the name “Yo-Yo.” In 1965, he sued Royal Tops Manufacturing Company for using the name and a federal court of appeals rescinded his trademark, ruling that “Yo-Yo” had become a common part of speech. As a result of the suit and associated legal bills, Duncan sold the company three years later. He died in a car accident in 1971.

Side note: Companies are required to keep their brand names from becoming genericized. Every mention of Kleenex includes “tissues.” Nintendo pushed the term “games console” to protect its name. Band-Aid changed its jingle from “I am stuck on Band-Aid, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me” to “I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me.” Google sends cease-and-desist letters to anyone who uses the term “googling.” What could Duncan have done to prevent people from saying they were “yo-yoing”?

Daniel Volk, a Yo-Yo Master who appeared on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 1960s, created National Yo-Yo Day in 1990 as a tribute to Donald F. Duncan. The Duncan Yo-Yo was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY, in 1999.

To see a world-class performance, watch this 2013 TED Talk by Japanese yo-yo artist BLACK, a two-time world champion who quit school to become a professional performer and landed a one-day part in Cirque du Soleil. Did anyone in the exceedingly earnest, reverent audience so typical of TED Talks think, “While I’m amazed by his talent and filled with joy at his story of hope, when I return to my life of relative comfort and privilege, how will he make a living with a yo-yo”? Or simply, “What’s for lunch?”

Happy National Yo-Yo Day!

Share this:

Festival of Popular Delusions Day

/0 Comments/in

festival of popular delusions dayToday is Festival of Popular Delusions Day. It is said to have originated in Germany on June 5th, 1945. Let’s begin with some background information about this mysterious holiday.

On June 6th, 1944, over 160,000 Allied soldiers landed on a 50-mile stretch of beach in Normandy, France. Nazi troops heavily guarded the area to prevent enemy access to the country’s interior. Operation Neptune, which would become known as D-Day, aimed to break through the line and free continental Europe.

The assault was initially scheduled to take place in May but had to be postponed until more landing craft could be secured. It appeared that poor weather conditions on the morning of June 6th would cause another delay. General Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to proceed as planned.

Heavy cloud cover hindered air strikes, and some airborne troops who parachuted in missed their landing zones by miles. By the end of the day, an estimated 10,000 Allied troops had been killed, wounded, or were missing in action. The Allies fought to gain ground, ultimately breaking out of Normandy on August 15th. Ten days later, they liberated Paris. German forces retreated soon afterward.

On June 6th, 1944, German troops weren’t expecting an invasion. They assumed the Allies wouldn’t attack when the bad weather would put them at a disadvantage. June 5th, 1944, turned out to be the last day the Nazis could delude themselves that they would rule the Earth for a thousand years. One year later, this holiday was inaugurated to mark the first anniversary of that day.

Supposedly, that was the inspiration for the first Festival of Popular Delusions Day. Maybe we’re delusional for wanting to believe this legend. There are undoubtedly plenty of popular delusions to choose from these days. No matter which one you pick, have a happy Festival of Popular Delusions Day!

Share this: