Today is...National Tooth Fairy Day

Today is National Tooth Fairy Day. Who/what is your favorite make-believe character?

The Tooth Fairy has very few details as to its origin. The myth seems to come from Europe with the tradition to bury baby teeth that fell out. On the 6th tooth, the parents would leave a gift or money.

In northern Europe, there was a tooth fee that was paid when a child lost their first tooth.

The current average amount children receive in the US is $2.60 per tooth (When I was a kid, I got $.50).

In a 1984 study, 74% of people thought that the tooth fairy was female, while 7% thought the tooth fairy could be male or female.

There is a related myth in Spanish and Hispanic American cultures, originating in Madrid in 1894, that when a child looses a tooth, the Ratoncito Perez (Perez Mouse) will exchange it for a gift.

There is a tradition in Asian countries to through teeth onto the roof if the tooth came from the lower jaw, or beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. While doing so, it is traditional to give a prayer  for the tooth to be replaced with a mouse.

Relatedly, Finland has a tooth troll, Hammaspeikko, which is used to explain tooth decay to children.

Today is...Inconvenience Yourself Day

Today is Inconvenience Yourself Day. What will you go out of your way to do today?

A smattering of random fun facts for your day!

The Immortal jellyfish lives forever. After having sex, it can turn back into a child, regenerating its cells. Immortal Jellyfish can only die by being eaten or by disease.

6% of Americans and 25% of Britons do not believe the moon landing actually happened. Buzz Aldrin once punched someone for saying that. 12 people have walked on the moon.

As a commodity, the whole human body is worth approximately $635,000, including all the organs and trace metals.

The brain is 80% water.

A hagfish can turn 20 liters of water into slime in one minute. It can also tie itself into a knot.

Tomatoes eat insects. Tomato plants trap insects in the furry layer of their stems until they die and fall off. As the insect dissolves into the soil, the plant will absorb the nutrients.

A vampire bat is most likely to bite your big toe.

Termites create the most methane in the world.

The first animals to be herded for food were snails in the year 10,700 BC.

Mercury was once used to cure syphilis, though if it is used, it turns your teeth green (and poisons you).

A Blue Whale cannot swallow anything bigger than a grapefruit.

Today is...National Personal Chef Day

Today is National Personal Chef Day. What are you hungry for?

The word "chef" is from the term "chef de cuisine" meaning director or head of a kitchen. The French word comes from the Latin caput, which is chief in English.

A personal chef is a chef who is hired by different clients and prepares meals in the clients' home kitchen.

This is different than a private chef, which refers to a chef who is employed exclusively by one client.

The idea of a "chef" in England came about with Haute cuisine, in the 19th century. Haute cuisine refers to gourmet restaurants and meticulously prepared and presented food.

The first cookbook to go beyond medieval recipes and the first to present haute cuisine was written by Lancelot de Casteau.

Medieval cuisine was relatively unchanged from the 5th to the 16th century, focusing on the staple of cereal.

Food Network was founded on April 19, 1993 and launched on November 23, 1993. Emeril Lagasse was one of the original line-up, with Mario Batali and Bobby Flay joining the network in 1995.

Today is...The Snow Moon

Today is the Snow Moon: February Full Moon. When do you think it will start to get warm again?

A Snow Moon is the traditional name for a full moon that occurs in February.

The other names for the full moon in February are Storm moon, Hunger moon, Little Famine moon, and Full Bony moon.

The other months are as follows:

January - Wolf moon
March - Sap moon
April - Growing moon
May - Flower moon
June - Strawberry moon
July - Hay moon
August - Corn moon
September - Harvest moon
October - Hunter's moon
November - Beaver moon
December - Winter moon

Today is...the 85th Academy Awards Ceremony

Today is the 85th Academy Awards ceremony. What film do you think deserves to win best picture this year?

To celebrate, here are some Academy Award firsts/records:

First non-Caucasian to win a directing award - Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain in 2005
First woman to win Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2008
First animated film to be nominated for Best Picture - Beauty and the Beast in 1991
First X-rated film to win (and to be nominated) for Best Picture - Midnight Cowboy in 1969

Youngest winner for acting - Tatum O'Neal, age 10 for Paper Moon in 1973
Youngest winner for Best Director - Norman Taurog, age 32 for Skippy in 1931
Oldest winner for Best Director - Clint Eastwood, age 74 for Million Dollar Baby in 2004
Oldest winner for an acting award - Christopher Plummer, age 82 for Beginners in 2011

Most Oscars won without winning Best Picture - Cabaret with 8 in 1972
Most nominations without a Best Picture nomination - They Shoot Horses, Don't They with 9 in 1969
Most nominations without any wins - The Turning Point in 1977 and The Color Purple in 1985, both with 11
Highest "perfect score" - Mark Berger, nominated and won 4 Oscars for sound editing
Lowest grossing film to win Best Picture - The Hurt Locker
Longest film to win Best Picture - Gone with the Wind

Today is...World Sword Swallowers Day

Today is World Sword Swallowers Day. What daring or dangerous thing would you like to learn to do?

Sword swallowing originated at some point before 2000 BC in India. It isn't swallowing as much as repressing swallowing to put a sword through the mouth, down the esophagus, and into the stomach.

Sword swallowing was sometimes used as a demonstration of divine power. But then was transformed into a theatre act.

In the 1900s, sword swallowing was most often seen as part of circus sideshow acts, which also included fire eating, knife throwing, body piercing, and lying on a bed of nails.

Rasputin's daughter Maria worked as a dancer and tiger and lion trainer for the Ringling Brothers Circus. She was mauled by a bear in Peru, Indiana, but stayed with the circus.

Peru, Indiana is the Circus Capital of the World due to being the winter headquarters for several famous circuses, including Ringling Brothers, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Today is the anniversary of the release of It Happened One Night

On this day in 1934, It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, was released. The romantic comedy was the first film to sweep all major Academy Awards. What is your favorite Academy Award winning movie for Best Picture?

It Happened One Night won Best Picture, Best Director for Frank Capra, Best Actor for Clark Gable, Best Actress for Claudette Colbert, and Best Screenplay for Robert Riskin.

The other two pictures that have swept the main categories are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

No actor has won Best Lead Actor more than twice. If Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor are combined both Walter Brennan and Jack Nicholson have won 3 times (Nicholson 2 Best Actor, 1 Best Supporting Actor; Brennan, 3 Best Support Actor).

Spencer Tracy and Laurence Olivier were both nominated for 9 Best Actor Oscars; Jack Nicholson was nominated for 12 Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor Oscars.

Adrien Brody is the youngest Best Lead Actor winner, winning at 29.

Katharine Hepburn won the most Best Lead Actress Oscars with 4.

Meryl Streep has been nominated for 14 separate Best Lead Actress awards and 3 Best Supporting Actress Oscars.

Marlee Matlin is the youngest Best Lead Actress winner, winning at 21.

John Ford has won the most Best Director Oscars with 4; William Wyler was nominated the most number of times, at 12, with 3 wins.

Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Return of the King have all won 11 Academy Awards, the most of any movie.

The Return of the King is the only film to win in every category it was nominated for.

Walt Disney won 22 Oscars, the most of any man; Disney also won the most in one year, with 4.

Today is...the anniversary of the publication of the New Yorker magazine

Today is the anniversary of the publication of the New Yorker magazine. What is your favorite magazine?

The New Yorker's first issue was released on February 21, 1925.

It was founded by Harold Ross, who wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine.

Though continuing on its path of humor, The New Yorker also started establishing itself as a forum for serious fiction literature and journalism. Some of the respected writers that have been published include Roald Dahl, Haruki Murakami, J.D. Salinger, John Updike, E.B. White, and Shirley Jackson.

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" drew more mail than any other story in the magazine's history.

"The Lottery" was published on June 26, 1948 and is today ranked as one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature.

Response to the story was extremely negative, causing readers to cancel subscriptions and send hate mail. It was banned in South Africa.

The most reprinted cartoon for The New Yorker was by Peter Steiner's 1993 cartoon of "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog".

The total circulation of The New Yorker as of 2012 was 1,043, 792.

Today is...the anniversary of the closest a comet as approached Earth

On this day in 1491, an unnamed comet made the closest ever approach to Earth, coming within 860,000 miles. If given the chance what would you have named the comet?

In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide in order to reach what they believed was an alien space craft following the Hale-Bopp comet.

The Heaven's Gate members believed that the Earth was about to be "recycled" and that they needed to leave it immediately if they wanted to survive.

They believed the human body was just a vehicle to help them on their journey.

The leaders, Applewhite and Nettles, adopted the idea of ancient astronauts who populated current humanity. Supposedly the aliens had come to reap the harvest of their work, choosing people to join the ranks of flying saucer crews.

The group asserted that a mass suicide was the only way to evacuate Earth, claiming that a space ship was trailing Hale-Bopp. A few months prior to the suicide, the group purchased alien abduction insurance to cover up to 50 members.

The members took phenobarbital, an anti-seizure medicine, mixed with pineapple, washed down with vodka. They also secured plastic bags around their heads to induce asphyxiation.

Each body had a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets, which was for the interplanetary toll.

The brother of Nichelle Nichols, best known for playing Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series, was among the dead. Possibly related, the Heaven's Gate cult used numerous Star Trek references, including arm bands that read "Heaven's Gate Away Team".

Today is...the birth anniversary of Nicolaus Copernicus

Today is the birth anniversary of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). How do you want to leave your mark on the world?

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun in Royal Prussia, part of the Kingdom of Poland.

Copernicus is most remembered for his astronomical model, which put the Sun near the center of the Universe, with the planets rotating around it.

Though Copernicus is most well known for a heliocentric system, there were astronomical models with the Sun in the center from as far back as Philolaus in approximately 400 BCE.

Johannes Kepler proposed an alternative model to the Copernican one but making the planetary orbit ellipses instead of circles. 

The immediate response from the Catholic Church to Copernicus was mild controversy. Galileo was suspected of heresy and put on house arrest for the last decade of his life for following the position of Copernicus.

Part of why Copernicus probably did not stir as much controversy with the church is that he died prior to the publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). He was presented with an advance copy the day he died.