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Fill Our Staplers Day

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fill our staplers day

Fill Our Staplers Day connects Ben Franklin, bug hunting, Daylight Saving Time, and a club for dull men. We celebrate it twice a year, on the day after the shift from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November. It’s also known by the mnemonic “Spring Forward, Fall Back.”

Many people mistakenly believe that Daylight Saving Time was invented by Benjamin Franklin because of his 1784 essay, “An Economical Project.” In it, he described being shocked when he accidentally woke up early and saw that the sun was already up.

After painstaking analysis, he concluded that changing the hour, resetting all clocks, rationing candle wax, enforcing a mandatory curfew, and firing cannons at sunup would encourage the citizenry, who would otherwise fail to realize they could simply rise earlier, to take full advantage of daylight. One wonders if Franklin had to endure the utter lack of understanding of satire so commonplace since the invention of the Internet.

In fact, it was George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, who proposed it in 1895, mainly so he could spend more time hunting for insects. Unlike Franklin’s imagined citizenry, he understood he could personally get up with the sun, but still insisted, in all seriousness, that the time must be changed for the entire world instead. About 70 countries observe some variation of it today.

What has that got to do with office supplies? Not much, unless you work by lamplight in a post-apocalyptic hellscape without electricity, which sounds like the plot of a dozen Netflix streamers. A nice bit of Benjamin Franklin trivia may not get you far at a cocktail party, but it could be the secret handshake that gains you entry into the Dull Men’s Club (DMC), originators of Fill Our Staplers Day.

In 2010, the DMC announced its establishment of biannual Fill Your Staplers Days to help spare its members the mild annoyance of discovering they have run out of staples at the last minute before a presentation to their boss, who might have a thing against paperclips. (They know who they are.)

Why has the club designated the day after the time change? “The day clocks change in the spring has been designated as Check Your Batteries Day, ” the DMC website explains. “We could designate Fill Your Staplers Day to be that day as well but, when added to changing clocks and checking on batteries — too much to do all in one day. So we’ll do it the next day.”

That sounds perfectly reasonable to us. Have a happy Fill Our Staplers Day!

World Thinking Day

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February 22, 2026, is the 100th World Thinking Day. It doesn’t mean we get to lay off thinking for the rest of the year. It doesn’t mean the Earth is a sentient being. What is it? Read six (very short) paragraphs to find out.

In 1899, Robert Baden-Powell wrote a field manual for fellow British soldiers called Aids to Scouting. The following year, he was declared a war hero for his bravery in conflict, and the book became well-known. It was especially popular with boys, who staged elaborate games based on his instructions about observation and tracking.

After learning of this, Baden-Powell formed the Boy Scouts in 1907. The next year, he published Scouting for Boys, a guide stressing the importance of good deeds and morality. He designed a uniform and set up a central office to register new Scouts. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts.

In September 1909, 10,000 Scouts attended the first national Boy Scout rally at Crystal Palace in London. Many girls showed up, claiming to be members. Baden-Powell founded the Girl Guides, also known as Girl Scouts in many countries, as a separate entity in 1910, eventually appointing his wife, Olave, to run it.

The Girl Scouts held its first conference in Oxford, England, in 1920. It was held every two years until 1954 and every three years since. The 39th World Conference is taking place in Cambodia.

At the fourth World Conference in 1926, delegates met at Camp Edith Macy in Briarcliff Manor, NY, a facility owned by the Girl Scouts of the USA. Participants decided to dedicate a day to reflecting on their counterparts around the world and expressing their thanks to the organization that brought them all together.

They called it Thinking Day and chose February 22 as the date for its annual observance because it was the birthday of both Robert Baden-Powell and his wife, Olave Baden-Powell. It’s since become known as World Thinking Day, and millions of girls celebrate it.

Is all this new knowledge making you crave some cookies? There’s an app for that. The Girl Scout Cookie Finder is available on iOS and Android. Who says history can’t be delicious?

Happy World Thinking Day!

Tio de Nadal

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Some homes hang stockings from the mantelpiece. Families in Catalonia, Spain, celebrate the run-up to Christmas by placing a Tió de Nadal in front of the fireplace. Although Tió de Nadal translates most wholesomely as “Christmas log,” it is better known as Caga Tió, which we’ll refer to as “Poop Log” to avoid offending anyone’s delicate sensibilities. Feel free to fill in the appropriate four-letter word as needed.

Tio de Nadal

Originally a simple, rough-hewn piece of wood, the tió’s appearance has been upgraded in recent years. Modern iterations stand on two or even four stick legs, have a smiling face painted on the upper end, and often sport a red hat.

Beginning on December 8th, to coincide with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, children must “feed” the tió bits of fruits, nuts, and water, draping it in a blanket to keep it warm, in the hope that their care will awaken its spirit of generosity so it will poop out many gifts on Christmas Day.

The children’s kindness ends there. They must go into another room to pray for the poop log to deliver lots of goodies while the adults surreptitiously place gifts under the blanket. (We’re assuming the log doesn’t have magical powers.) Then the children reenter and beat on the log with sticks to make it defecate while they sing various versions of the Caga Tió song, loosely translated below.

“Caga tió, caga torró,
avellanes i mató,
si no cagues bé
et daré un cop de bastó.
caga tió!”

S***, log, s*** nougats,
hazelnuts and mató cheese,
if you don’t s*** well,
I’ll hit you with a stick,
s*** log!

After each verse, a child reaches under the blanket and takes a gift. After opening it, the song begins again. The tió gives candies, nuts, and dried fruits; larger items are believed to be delivered by the Three Wise Men. (Duh!)

The log drops a herring, head of garlic, or onion to indicate there is no more poop to be had. (That part may be magic. We’re not sure of the logistics involved.) At that point, the beatings cease, and the tió is thrown into the fire and burned.

 

You can’t make this s*** up.

 

Krampus

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KrampusOn Santa’s List Day, we suggested that children who learn the list of who’s naughty and nice has been finalized might be tempted to misbehave in the remaining days before Christmas, with no fear of reprisal. Krampus, today’s holiday, should thoroughly dispel that notion.

Krampus may have originated as a pagan figure in Europe’s Alpine regions, becoming associated with St. Nicholas in the 17th century. The word Krampus derives from the Old High German word for “claw” (Krampen). He is a goat-headed devil with fangs, a pointed tongue, and two cloven hooves or one hoof and one human foot.

Unlike the Santa Claus of North American tradition, St. Nicholas pays attention only to good children. He brings Krampus along on his rounds to deal with little miscreants for whom receiving a lump of coal is the least of their worries. He carries chains, birch branches, or a whip to mete out punishment and sometimes a sack or basket to capture bad children so he can drown them, eat them, or deliver them to Hell.

Europeans have been exchanging greeting cards featuring Krampus for two centuries. Greetings from Krampus (Gruß vom Krampus) cards feature humorous verse and depict the devil looming over children or pursuing buxom women. Modern cards tend to have a cuter, less menacing version of Krampus.

Although its tastefulness and propriety have been questioned over the past century, the holiday’s popularity has grown; celebrations have cropped up across North America, including Toronto, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. We assume that the successful completion of chores has skyrocketed in those towns.

Happy Krampus!