Hey, Sports Fans!

It’s been four years since the last Winter Olympics so it’s time to bust out the bobsleds, skis, ice skates, and other fun winter sports equipment. If you’re an Olympics fan, then you probably already know that last night Sochi, Russia kicked off the start of the XXII (22nd), 2014 Olympic Winter Games. This year’s Winter Olympic Games will stretch from last night until the 23 of February.

Ever since 1924, the Winter Olympics have been celebrated every four years. There was, however, a 12-year-long interruption as World War II, for obvious reasons, put a stop to international sports competitions from 1936 to 1948.

The first Winter Olympics were incredibly successful. Held at Chamonix which is in the French Alps, spectators of the games were held in awe at the amazing skills displayed during the Ski Jump, Bobsled races, Ice Hockey, Curling, Speed Skating, and Figure Skating.

In the first year, there were only these six sporting events as opposed to today’s 15. The Winter Games now include Snowboarding, Cross-Country Skiing, Nordic Combined (the combination of cross-country skiing and ski jumping), Freestyle Skiing, Biathlon (a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting), Alpine Skiing (which is downhill skiing), Luge and Skeleton (a couple additional sledding sports), Short Track Speed Skating, as well as the original games.

They didn’t call it the Winter Olympics back then. It was originally called the “International Winter Sports Week.” It wasn’t until 1928 that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed and dubbed this highly successful winter sports week the Winter Olympic Games.

Yes, quite a bit has changed over the years, but one thing that has remained all along is its own popularity and the fandom for the Olympics—winter and summer. While many countries show us amazing, gold-winning athletes, the United States is the only one to have earned the gold for each of the Games.

Enjoy the Games this year! It’ll be another four years before they’re back!

Sincerely,

John

Hey, Groundhog Dayers!

Hey, Groundhog Dayers!

As you may have heard at least a couple times today, today is Groundhog Day, so get used to things happening happening with double the pleasure and double the fun! Let me repeat that: double the pleasure and DOUBLE the fun! Happy Groundhog Day, Everybody!

For anyone familiar with the classic film, Groundhog Day, you’re already aware of a portion of the day’s history. The movie revolves around this holiday in which Punxsutawney Phil, a Pennsylvanian groundhog (also known as a woodchuck) comes out of his hole to see if he casts a shadow or not. If he does, it means six more weeks of wintry weather. If not, then he predicts an early spring.

Bill Murray also finds himself in a seemingly endless, inescapable loop of reliving the same day over and over again. But that’s a whole different story. Bill Murray also finds himself in a seemingly endless, inescapable loop of reliving the same day over and over again. But that’s a whole different story.

In any case, to get to the bottom of this holiday you have to go way back. The tradition of Groundhog Day officially started 127 years ago in 1887. Local newspaper editor Clymer Freas is credited with the creation of our current celebration.

However, this 127-year-old piece of history is just the tip of the Groundhog Day iceberg.

See, there’s actually something rather meaningful about the date of Groundhog Day, February 2. It’s the halfway point between the winter solstice (shortest day of the year) and the spring equinox (when day and night are equal length). Thus, this date (with or without groundhogs) has been celebrated for thousands of years as a show of our anticipation for spring.

Originally a Pagan celebration, Christianity turned it into Candlemas. A sunny Candlemas predicted 40 more days of chilly winter weather, or so the Christians believed. It wasn’t until the Germans put their spin on the holiday, claiming that a day was only sunny if a badger could see its own shadow. Immigrants from Germany brought this tradition along with them when they settled in Pennsylvania.

But the native groundhog (also known as a woodchuck) became the new forecaster. Happy Groundhog Day, Everybody!

Hey, You Crazy Kazoos!

I’m sure everybody reading this is well-versed with the art of the Kazoo. After all, it isn’t the hardest instrument to master. If you can hum Mary Had a Little Lamb, you can surely play it on the Kazoo too! If, on the off chance that you never before learned to play the Kazoo, what better day is there to learn than today—National Kazoo Day!

It’s real easy. Just put the wide end of the Kazoo to your lips and hum—don’t blow—into it. The vibrations you cause from humming travel through the Kazoo and through the resonator, the circular piece that juts out the top of the Kazoo. This is what amplifies your hum and makes that buzz.

And now that you know how to play it, there’s still a lot you can learn about this peculiar instrument. For instance, how old is the Kazoo and where did it come from?

The history of the Kazoo goes all the way back to the 1840’s in Macon, Georgia. Invented by an American man named Alabama Vest, he had his idea made up by a German clock maker, Thaddeus Von Clegg. In 1912, when the strange instrument was discovered by a traveling salesman named Emil Sorg, he brought the idea of manufacturing these instruments to New York.

Emil Sorg created a partnership with a die maker named Michael McIntyre as well as the owner of a metal forming plant named Harry Richardson.

And so, in 1914 on Main Street in Eden, New York, Harry Richardson’s metal forming plant became the Original American Kazoo Company. It still stands today as North America’s exclusive metal kazoo factory. And they’re still manufacturing kazoos today in the exact same way that they were manufactured back then! This factory is one of the last working museums in the world!

Like the Pet Rock, the Slinky, and Beanie Babies, the Kazoo caught on immediately and has become a classic piece of American history.

Click here to listen to our version of Camp Granada played on kazoos, you’ll have a good laugh!

Happy Kazoo Day, Kids!

- John

P.S. Don’t drive your parents too crazy!

Hey, Readers!

Are you crazy about chocolate cake? Go crazy! It’s Chocolate Cake Day. You’re certainly far from the only one.

Actually, people have been enjoying chocolate cake for thousands of years. Believe it or not, the ancient Egyptians were pretty good bakers. I imagine you may feel some astonishment to read that cake baking is an ancient practice—but it’s true.

You may also have a false picture in your head which is making it hard for you to see it. If you’re thinking of a round, two-layer cake cloaked in a beautiful coat of chocolaty frosting, then you’ve got the wrong idea. See cakes back then weren’t nearly the same as cakes that we know today.

When chocolate was first discovered by people, it caught on immediately. It quickly exceeded gold in value and different variations of chocolate beverages (hot chocolate, chocolate milk) became the popular drink. All that chocolate cake used to mean was simply a spice cake that you ate while enjoying a chocolate drink.

At that time nobody really knew how to bake with chocolate. It wasn’t until some time around the 1830s that people got the idea to use chocolate in the icing of a white or yellow cake. And so ‘chocolate cake’ came to suggest any kind of a white or yellow cake that had chocolate icing on it.

It was another 20 years before bakers finally discovered how to use chocolate as an actually baked ingredient in the cake. This practice still took some time before chocolate cakes started to look the way they do nowadays. After the turn of the century , the very beginning of the 1900s is when chocolate cake really started to look like the chocolate cake that we know today.

Happy Chocolate Cake Day, Everybody and thanks for reading!

Goodbye, Readers!

It’s horrible to have to write to you again. If you’re all as dumb as I expect you are, then you probably don’t know that it’s Opposite Day…and by that I mean, it’s not Opposite Day because on Opposite Day you would say that something ISN’T in order to say that it WAS, right?

Er—I mean—wrong?

Okay, okay. Fingers crossed. Time out. This is getting too confusing. Let’s just talk with a little break from the rules of Opposite Day in order to say with absolute clarity that today is Opposite Day. This unofficial holiday is exactly what it sounds like: a day when up means down, yes means no, cold is hot, and summer camp is lame!

Of course, we don’t mean any of that! Summer camp is awesome! It’s just what we say because on Opposite Day, we say the opposite of what we mean.

Reminiscent of the ol’ fingers-crossed-behind-the-back trick that kids use when they mean the reverse of what they’re saying, Opposite Day is essentially an entire, hands-free day of having your fingers crossed. But don’t cross your fingers on Opposite Day—unless, of course, you actually want to mean what you say (like me for the last three paragraphs—I’m typing one-handed, by the way).

Some people ask, “How did Opposite Day ever get started?” And to that I respond, “Why is the sky blue?” And then they usually say, “Yeah…what’s your point?”

Well, the point is Opposite Day is a fact of life. It’s a part of nature. The flip-side of identical. Every positive charge has a negative and every day has a night. And, as the Yin and the Yang teaches us, you really can’t have one without the other. I think Opposite Day (while it may be a tad confusing at times) is a great reminder of the crazy world in which we live where the nonsensical and sensible stand alongside each other and laugh at logic.

On that closing note, I’ll uncross my fingers and, as never, thanks for not reading.

- John