Tag: wacky holidays

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Wacky Wednesday: February 10

Today is a bit lack luster in the wackiness department, but it’s still fun. We continue with our old English insults and I think these two words will find more uses in today’s society. The first is Snoutband. This refers to someone who constantly interrupts a conversation, typically only to contradict or correct someone else. There are many snoutbands on the internet. Some of them are pre-teen gamers. Our next word is Sorner. This refers to someone who unappreciatively lives off other people. Sorning was the 16th century equivalent of mooching or sponging. There are many of those people in the world, too.

We begin the holidays section with our token food holiday, National Cream Cheese Brownie Day. The first documented recipe of a cream cheese brownie was published in 1906. Next is a holiday I know you’re all really excited about, National Home Warranty Day. Unlike homeowner’s insurance, home warranty covers repairs and replacement of appliances that break down from normal use. Do you have warranties for your appliances? Finally, today is also National Umbrella Day. The basic umbrella has been around for over four thousand years. Evidence of them has been found in art and artifacts from Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China. Have you told your umbrella how much you appreciate the work they do?

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Wacky Wednesday: February 3

The first Wacky Wednesday of February is an interesting one. We are still trekking into the world of old English insults. Our first word of the day is Smell-feast. This refers to someone who turns up uninvited at a meal or party and expects to be fed. The next word is Smellfungus and it has a long backstory to how it came to be. It refers to someone who always finds fault in the places they visit. Below is the long backstory.

“When Laurence Sterne (author of “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy”) met the Scottish writer Tobias Smollett (author of “The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle”) in Italy in 1764, he was amazed by how critical Smollett was of all the places he had visited. Smollett returned home and published his “Travels Through France and Italy” in 1766, and in response Sterne published his “Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy” two years later. Part-novel, part-travelogue, Sterne’s book featured a grumblingly quarrelsome character called Smelfungus, who was modeled on Smollett. The name soon came to be used of any buzz-killing faultfinder.”

We have a few interesting holidays. Today is National Carrot Cake Day and this is my favorite kind of cake which makes this a win for me. It is also National Women Physicians Day, celebrated women in medicine and the birthday of Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States in 1849. Today is National Missing Persons Day. About 2,300 people are reported missing every day in the United States. And the saddest part of the day, it’s The Day the Music Died.

On February 3, 1959, there was an airplane accident near Clear Lake, Iowa taking the lives of pilot Roger Peterson, 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 17-year-old Richie Valens, and 28-year-old J.P. Richardson, aka: “The Big Bopper.” The phrase The Day the Music Died was first mentioned in Don McLean’s song “American Pie” in 1971.

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Wacky Wednesday: January 27

We are ending the month with some extra light wackiness. Our first old English insult is Scobberlotcher. This refers to someone who never works hard. It is believed to be derived from scopperloit and old dialect word for a vacation or a break from work. Skelpie-limmer refers to a badly behaved child. Coined by the Scottish poet Robert Burns from the old Scots word skelpie, meaning “misbehaving” or “deserving punishment.”

We have only one token food holiday today, National Chocolate Cake Day. This is the cake that most people prefer, and rumor has it has been around for a couple hundred years. The first chocolate cake recipe was published in 1847. The first chocolate cake is believed to have been made in 1765. Today is also Library Selfie Day, the fourth Wednesday of January. Arrange your collection of books and take a selfie with them. Then go to the library and look at their collections (assuming the library is open right now because of Covid-19). Or even go to the local bookstore and national bookstore. The point is celebrate books and libraries.