Today is...Make Up Your Own Holiday Day

Today is Make Up Your Own Holiday Day. What is your holiday?

My personal holiday would be Fun Facts Day!

The record for the highest seasonal total snowfall was measured at Mount Baker Ski Area outside Bellingham, Washington during the 1998-1999 winter season, with 95 feet of snow.

Bellingham, Washington has the Bellingham Theatre Guild, a non-profit community theater that Hilary Swank performed at before moving to LA to pursue acting as a career.

Swank made her acting debut in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.

Though both written by Joss Whedon, the movie and tv versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer do not have continuity. Whedon wrote the pilot of the show as a sequel to his original screenplay, which changed dramatically in filming.

Joss Whedon has been nominated for one Academy Award: Best Original Screenplay for Toy Story.

Toy Story was the first feature-length computer-animated film. It was also the first film produced by Pixar.

Pixar started as a division of Lucasfilm in 1979 before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986, funded by Steve Jobs. When The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006, Jobs became Disney's largest shareholder.

Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.05 billion. Around the same time, Disney and Lucasfilm announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Episode VII in 2015.

J.J. Abrams, who previously directed Star Trek, will be the director of Star Wars Episode VII.

Today is...Tolkien Reading Day

Today is Tolkien Reading Day. What is your favorite fantasy novel?

Fantasy literature has been around since the 1400s, but it wasn't until the advent of high fantasy and the popularity of Tolkein that allowed fantasy to enter the mainstream, in the 1930s and 40s.

Only five authors have had fantasy novels debut at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list: Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Terry Goodkind, and Patrick Rothfuss.

Fantasy novels are part of a genre of fiction known as Speculative fiction, which also includes Alternate history, Horror fiction, and Science fiction.

The Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually for the best sci-fi or fantasy works.

Robert A. Heinlein has received the most Hugos for Best Novel, with 5 along with 11 nominations. Other notable Hugo Best Novel winners include  Philip K. Dick,  J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Robert J. Sawyer, and Orson Scott Card.

Harlan Ellison has received the most Hugos for Best Short Story with 4. Connie Willis has received teh most Hugos for Best Novella also with 4.

Today is...the birth anniversary of animator/producer Joe Barbera

Today is the birth anniversary of animator/producer Joe Barbera. What is your favorite cartoon?

Joe Barbera and William Hanna co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio, in 1957.

Together, they won 7 Academy Awards and 8 Emmy Awards.

The first Hanna-Barbera show produced was The Ruff & Reddy Show, an animated series starring a smart cat and a stupid dog. It began in December of 1957. Other shows from the 50s included The Huckleberry Hound Show, and The Quick Draw McGraw Show.

The 1960s were big for Hanna-Barbera with shows such as The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and Wacky Races.

One of the most popular Hanna-Barbera series was The Smurfs, which began airing in 1981 and ran for 9 seasons.

Don Messick was a voice actor who worked most notably with Hanna-Barbera, giving voice to characters such as Scooby-Doo, Bam Bam Rubble, Astro the dog, Dr. Benton Quest, and Papa Smurf.

The last shows that Hanna-Barbera produced were co-produced by Cartoon Network. The last three shows were Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, and the Powerpuff Girls.

Hanna-Barbera ceased to be beginning in 2001 when William Hanna died of throat cancer. Barbera continued to work for Warner Brothers until his dead in 2006.

Hanna-Barbera is now an in-name-only unit of Warner Bros. Animation.

Today is...National Puppy Day

Today is National Puppy Day. What is your favorite kind of puppy?

All puppies are cute, but Golden Retriever puppies are the cutest.

                                                 (Photo from The American Kennel Club)

Today is...As Young as You Feel Day

Today is As Young as You Feel Day. How young do you feel?

Ideas for feeling young:

Play outside in the snow/dirt/mud

Splash in a puddle

Spin in a circle until you get so dizzy you fall down

Read a picture book

Eat ridiculously sugary cereal

Lay on the floor and throw a temper-tantrum

Play with dolls/action figures

Color with crayons

Eat ice cream and get it all over your face

Today is...Memory Day

Today is Memory Day. What is your favorite memory of ONU?

Short-term memory, the recall of information for a period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal, has a limited capacity. According to George A. Miller at a study at Bell Laboratories, it was shown that the short-term memory storage was 7 +/- 2 items.

Long-term memory can store large quantities of information for a potentially unlimited duration. The capacity for long-term memory is immeasurable.

In 2007, German researchers found they could use odor to re-activate new memories in people while they slept, causing volunteers to remember things better.

Though it is a generally held idea that goldfish have a three second memory, they can actually be trained. Dr. Phil Gee of the University of Plymouth trained goldfish to push levers. The levers only gave food for an hour of the day and the goldfish knew when to push the levers and remembered where they were.

Today is...Won’t You Be My Neighbor Day

Today is the birth anniversary of Fred Rogers, also known as Won’t You Be My Neighbor Day. What is your favorite children’s program?

Fred McFeely Rogers was born on March 20, 1928 in Latrobe Pennsylvania.

Before creating Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers was a Presbyterian minister.

Rogers created Mister Rogers' Neighborhood because he hated kids tv. He wanted a show that nurtured those who watched.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood began airing in 1969 and ran for 895 episodes.

Rogers felt that it was important to be his honest self on his show and acted exactly the same off screen as on screen.

The only time Rogers appeared on television not as himself was when he played a preacher on an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Eddie Murphy did a parody on Saturday Night Live called Mister Robinson's Neighborhood, which Rogers found amusing and affectionate.

Michael Keaton, famous for Beetlejuice and Batman & Batman Returns, got his first major acting break as a "Neighborhood of Make-Believe" character.

Today is...the start of National Wildlife Week

Today is the start of National Wildlife Week. What is your favorite wildlife creature?

To celebrate National Wildlife Week, please enjoy these animal fun facts!

The male Anglerfish is much smaller than the female. To mate, he latches onto her with teeth and starts to disappear, leaving only the testes, which the female uses to impregnate herself.

In 1760, the College of Physicians and Faculty of Divinity in Paris classified the beaver as a fish because of its scaly tail. As a result, beaver can be eaten during Lent.

Catfish have more taste buds than any other creature.

Genertically speaking, every cheetah living today is as close as an identical twin to every other cheetah.

Pigeons process visual information three times faster than humans. If a pigeon watched a 24 frame per second film (the normal frame rate), it would look like a slide show to them. They would need at least 75 frames per second to create the illusion of movement on the screen.

A rat can swim for 72 hours non-stop.

The average spider will spin more than four miles of silk in a lifetime.

The kiwi bird has the shortest bill of all the birds since bills are measured from the tip to the nostril and the kiwi has nostrils at the end of its beak.

Camels originated on the continent of America 20 million years ago. After spreading to other continents by the Bering Strait when it was land. They then became extinct in North America during the last Ice Age.

Giant Pandas have the biggest teeth of all mammals.

A group of baboons is called a congress.

The longest animal in the world is the Bootlace worm, which can be up to 180 feet long. Its mucus is toxic.

Today is...Ides of March

Today is Ides of March. What is your favorite Shakespeare work?

The Roman calendar did not number days sequentially from first until last day; instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month: the Nones (5th or 7th), the Ides (13th or 15th), and the Kalends (1st).

The Ides were supposed to be determined by the full moon, which put it midpoint of the month. This was on the 13th except for March, May, July, and October when it fell on the 15th.

The Ides each month were sacred to Jupiter and involved a sacrifice each month.

In the Roman calendar, March was the first month of the year. The Romans celebrated the new year from the first until the Ides.

The Ides of March was the Feast of Anna Perenna, a goddess of the year.

In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar was assassinated by stabbing at a meeting of the senate.

Brutus and Cassius lead as many as 60 conspirators.

According to Plutarch, a Greek historian who lived from AD 46 to AD 120, Caesar was warned by a seer that harm would come to him no later than the Ides of March.

On the 4th anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BCE, Augustus executed 300 senators and knights who fought against him under Lucius Antonios. The executions were one of many actions taken by August to avenge Caesar's death.

Today is...Pi Day

Today is Pi Day: a day to celebrate pi—the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter (3:14). What is your favorite pie?

Pie first appeared around 9500 BC in the Egyptian Neolithic period. They started out as freeform, flat, pastry wrapped around honey, called a gallette.

The first reference to "pyes" appeared in the 12th century in England.

King Henry VI had Peacock pie at his coronation in 1429.

Though apple pie became a symbol of American prosperity and national pride in the 19th and 20th centuries, it has its history in England, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Some pies are pies in name only, like the Boston cream pie, which is actually a cake.

Through pie at someone can be either a slapstick act or a political statement, depending on the target and intention.

The first "pie to the face" gag was in the silent film Mr. Flip, starring Ben Turpin in 1909, where a pie was pushed into his face for taking liberties with a woman.

The first political pieing was in 1970 when the founder of High Times magazine, Thomas King Forcade pied Otto N. Larsen, the Chairman of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

Today is...the anniversary of the introduction of the Ken doll

On this day in 1961, Mattel introduced the Ken Carson doll—a boyfriend for Barbie. What is your favorite childhood toy?

Ken's full name is Ken Sean Carson. He was created in 1961 as a boyfriend for Barbie. Ken and Barbie met on the set of a TV commercial.

Ken got underwear permanently molded onto his body in 1977, along with a more muscular physique, his dimpled smile, and arms that bent.

Ken's best friend is Allan Sherwood, who is Midge's boyfriend and later her husband.

In February 2004, Ken and Barbie broke up, though they remain friends. The separation was rumored to be partially due to Ken's reluctance to getting married.

Ken and Barbie may have rekindled their relationship in 2006, though there is no solid evidence to that fact.

In the 53 years that Ken has been dating Barbie, he has held at least 40 different jobs.

Today is...the Anniversary of the founding of the Girls Scouts

On this day in 1912, the Girl Scouts of the USA was founded. What is your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

Girl Scouts have sold cookies since 1917.

There are up to 28 varieties of Girl Scout cookies offered.

Thin Mints comprise 25% of the sales.

The current flavors include:

Thin Mints
Caramel deLites (Samoas)
Peanut Butter Patties (Tagalongs)
Peanut Butter Sandwiches (Do-sidos)
Shortbreads (Trefoils)
Thanks-A-Lot
Mango Cremes
Lemonades
Savannah Smiles
Dulce de Leche
Thank You Berry Munch

Today is...Bobby McFerrin’s birthday

Today is Bobby McFerrin’s birthday. McFerrin is best known for his 1988 hit “Don’t worry, be Happy.” What makes you happy?

Bobby McFerrin was born on March 11, 1950 in Manhattan, NYC.

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" was released in September 1988. It became the first a cappella song to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men spent the most weeks at #1 with 16 weeks.

Nicki Minaj's Starships spent 21 weeks in the top 10, the most consecutive weeks in the top ten ever.

The song with the most total weeks on the Hot 100 is "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, staying there for 76 weeks.

Elvis Presley has the most top 40 singles, with 80. Madonna has the most top 10 singles with 38. The Beatles hold the record for most #1 singles with 20.

Cher became the oldest female to hit #1 for "Believe" when she was 52.

Bad by Michael Jackson and Teenage Dream both hold the record for most #1 singles from an album with 5 each.

Today is...the anniversary of the transition of the first telephone message

On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first telephone message. What is your favorite cell phone feature?

The first transmitted message was "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you".

Bell's suggestion for how to answer the phone was with "Ahoy!" instead of "Hello!"

Bell was not actually the first person to invent the telephone, he was just the first person to patent the idea. Most notably upset by this was Antonio Meucci who was unable to pay a $10 fee that would have stopped a patent being given to Bell.

The German phrase for cellphone is "mein handy".

The use of "hello" as a telephone greeting was suggested by Thomas Edison to the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh.

The first mobile phone call was made from a car in 1946.

The first text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK. The first phone-to-phone text message was sent in Finland in 1993.

Today is...the Birth Anniversary of Dr. Seuss

Today is the birth anniversary of Theodor Giesel (Dr. Seuss). What is your favorite Dr. Seuss Book?

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Geisel went to Dartmouth, where he was in Sigma Phi Epsilon and the editor-in-chief of the humor magazine Jack-O-Lantern.

Geisel was caught drinking gin with friends in his room, resulting in him being forced to resign all extracurricular activities, including the magazine.

To continue writing for the magazine without the administrations knowledge, he started signing work with the pen name Seuss.

The correct pronunciation of Seuss actually rhymes it with voice. His collaborator on the Jack-O-Lantern wrote a poem to teach people how to pronounce it:

You're wrong as the deuce
And you shouldn't rejoice
If you're calling his Seuss.
He pronounces it Soice
     --Alexander Liang,

He eventually switched the pronuncation because it associated him with Mother Goose.

Today is...the Anniversary of Ohio being admitted as the 17th State

On this day in 1803, Ohio was admitted as the 17 U.S. State. What is your favorite thing about Ohio?

Here are some Ohio fun facts to celebrate!


Ohio is the 7th most populous state in the United States. California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are the only states with more people.

Ohio was the 17th state admitted to the Union and was the first under the Northwest Ordinance, the ordinance that established the Northwest Territory.

The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in the new territory thereby making the Ohio river the boundary between free and slave territories between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River.

Though President Jefferson signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution on February 19, 1803, Congress never formally passed the resolution making Ohio a state. Though not technically required, this was an oversight, which was rectified on August 7, 1953 when President Eisenhower signed an act that officially declared Ohio a state as of March 1, 1803.

in 1853 Ohio and Michigan "fought" in the Toledo War, which was a mostly bloodless war for the Toledo Strip. Michigan lost the Toledo Strip when Congress intervened to say that the original boundaries of Ohio would stick, but gave Michigan the Upper Peninsula as a consolation  The UP proved to be extremely profitable to Michigan due to copper and iron deposits along with timber.

During the Civil War, Ohio provided more soldiers per-capita than any other state in the Union.

Ohio is known as the birthplace of aviation. This was made official in June 2003 by a U.S. House vote, ending the argument between Ohio (the Wright Brothers are from Dayton, Ohio) and North Carolina (the first flight from the Wright Brothers was in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina).

Ohio has produced 24 astronauts, more than any other state, the most famous being John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.