Hey, all you Doppelgangers!

Has anyone ever told you that you look just like….If you’re somebody’s twin, then today was quite literally made for you! Today is National Lookalike Day. Lots of people pride themselves on their impressively close appearance to famous celebrities or even cartoon characters.

If you’re one of these people who seem to be a celebrity’s long-lost twin, today is a great day to really show people just how similar you look to your particular celebrity. Do up your hair like they wear it, dress in clothes that they wear, and get bonus points for attempting to talk and behave as they do too!

The world is full of people who look alike. Often times, doubles can have a lot in common because of their similar appearance. For less than four dollars, you can sign up with a website called Twin Strangers to gain membership with over a million other people who are searching for their doubles. You’re bound to have a match among a million-plus!

But the Twin Strangers website and posing as a celebrity with whom you share physical qualities are more-or-less meant for adults. An approach to today that’s a bit more fun for kids is to simply dress up as your own twin. Whether you’re biologically identical or just happen to be the spitting image of your best friend, brother, sister, or whomever else, today is always a fun day to celebrate.

Similarly-looking pairs can make today especially mirroring by dressing the same in order to accentuate their identical appearances. The day will typically ensue with confusion from friends and teachers at school about who is who; you may even cause some head-scratching at home. Have fun with the day as you sabotage one another’s identity and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey Waffleheads!

Whether you top ‘em with butter, chocolate, syrup, berries, ice cream, all of the above, or something even better…waffles are an absolute favorite the world over! Often enjoyed as a breakfast food as well as an afternoon snack or even a dessert dish for after-dinner hours, waffles are transcendent of mealtimes. It’s no wonder we have a holiday to celebrate them!

Today is National Waffle Day.

Nowadays, waffle irons are household appliances. They’re the perfect contraption for creating the iconic pattern of square pocketed surfaces you’ll find on waffles. See, the old French word for waffle—wafla—means ‘a piece of honeybee hive’. It’s these ‘pockets’—the grid shape—that actually makes a waffle a waffle and not…well, a pancake!

Believe it or not, that is the only real purpose to the design of the waffle. It’s actually just a happy accident that the grid design doesn’t just look cool, but actually helps make the surface get evenly crispy and does a great job at holding your syrup, butter, or what have you.

The waffle iron wasn’t patented until 1869. But, the waffle itself had already been around for about 600 years! As advancements of forging metal came along in the 1200s, so came along the ability to craft cooking plates by impressing designs into the metal.

In fact, early waffle plates typically used more than the honeycomb design. Instead landscapes, crests, symbols, and other designs were imprinted on waffles. It wasn’t long before two waffle plates were attached by a hinge to make a sort of ‘iron’. Waffles spread like wildfire across the world and became almost as popular then as they are now!

A favorite among royalty, many kings thoroughly enjoyed waffles. King Francis of France had such a love for waffles that he requested that a waffle maker be specially made of silver just for his royal highness! Whether you’re a king or not, enjoy your waffles today of all days and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, 2016ers!

Today is a day that comes along just once every four years! No, it’s not the premiere of the Olympics. It’s February 29. But wait a minute!—aren’t there only supposed to be 28 days in February? Typically, yes. There are only 28 days in February. Every four years, however, we hang an extra day off the end of February and call it a ‘leap year’. What does THAT mean?

Well, let’s head to outer space for a moment to get our answer. Here’s how leap year works: we say that 365 days equates to a typical year. But REALLY, it takes the earth 365 days and one quarter (six hours extra) to complete its annual orbit. These six extra hours of our solar year are put on the backburner for three years and then on the fourth year we throw in a whole extra day (6hrs. x 4 = 24) to make up for it all. Thus, February 29 is commonly referred to as ‘Leap Day’.

It may seem a little odd, but it works!

Yet, while February 29 fixes our problem of an inefficient year that doesn’t account for the extra six hours our planet takes to orbit the sun, it also leaves an anomaly for roughly 4 million people in the world who were born on this date. People who were born on Leap Day are known as ‘leaplings’ and their birthdays are constantly in question (which always brings their age into question as well).

That’s right. You can never know just how old a leapling is. See, some leaplings celebrate their birthdays on February 28 for three years until the next leap year. February 29 is the 60th day of the year which is otherwise March 1 in non-leap years which is why you’ll find many other leaplings celebrating their birthdays on March 1.

My suggestion is that leaplings embrace their distinctiveness and observe only their authentic birthdays. Sure it means less cake and presents, but—hey, when your friends are all in their 80s, you can say that you’re just turning 20! Happy birthday to all leaplings today and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

February is the month in which we celebrate President’s Day—this holiday landed on the 15th. The day was conceived as a way to combine both presidential birthdays that fall in February: Abraham Lincoln’s and George Washington’s. I posted about Abraham Lincoln on his birthday earlier this month. Today is George Washington’s birthday, or the day we celebrate, anyway.

Why don’t we celebrate on Washington’s actual birthday? Well, he was born on February 11, 1731—as it fell on the Julian calendar. However, the colonies switched to the Gregorian calendar (the one we all know and love today) which displaced his birthday to February 22. The date of New Year’s Day shifted as well, changing his birthday to February 22, 1732.

Washington was one hard-hitting president—the kind of leader America needed to stand up to the British and take our independence! Yes, General Washington certainly fought the good fight and won. He did it all in the face of adversity too. He had a number of health problems—not to mention, he saw his fair share of the action. Check out a few of the things he was up against:

1.) He didn’t have wooden teeth as many people believe. He did, however, have some pretty horrible dental issues. Dealing with the terrible pain of incessant toothaches starting in his mid-20s, Washington started having his teeth pulled and started losing about a tooth per year.

By the time he was 57, he had just one, lonely tooth left in his head which was eventually pulled and led him to the need for dentures. Dental health is extremely important to overall health and specifically linked to the condition of a person’s heart. Brush your teeth, kids!

2.) He was the sickest president in the history of the White House. Poor George got hit with a slew of illnesses that left him bedridden. He was sick with diphtheria, tuberculosis, smallpox, dysentery, malaria, something similar to tonsillitis, carbuncle, pneumonia, and epiglottitis. Luckily, modern day vaccines have eliminated most of these illnesses for us, but Washington was not so lucky.

3.) Probably one of his most serious brushes with mortal danger happened when he was 23 and seemingly haunted him till the end of his days. Aide to the British General who was leading an expedition against the French in Pennsylvania at the time, Washington was so ill he was ordered to stay behind. He followed anyway, tying pillows to his saddle to reduce the pain of traveling.

That day, Washington found himself in a battle that neither he, nor the troop he was with were ready for. And despite his hat getting shot off and four bullets tearing through his coat, Washington came away from the battle unharmed, leading the 40-mile retreat. He did, however, suffered continuous attacks of fever and dysentery for the rest of that year—sicknesses from which he never fully healed.Whether you celebrate Presidents’ Day or Washington’s birthday, be sure to look into the very interesting and very amazing life of Mr. Washington. We can all learn a lesson or two from our nation’s first president and founding father. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Blog Buddies!

Today is February 12. It was 206 years ago today that the 16th president of the United States was born in a little town called Hodgenville, Kentucky. There’s a lot that we know about this former president from a much earlier time in our nation’s life. Pretty much everybody knows that his picture is on the penny, that he abolished slavery, or that he was an avid (and skilled) wrestler in his youth.

In observance of his birthday, however, I’d like to tell you three things that not a lot of people know about Mr. Abraham Lincoln.

1.) We all get away with calling him Honest Abe today, but if he ever caught any of us referring to him using that name, he would have put us in an arm bar (the good wrestler that he was). Well, maybe he’d go easier than that, but truth be told, he did not appreciate ‘Abe’ as a nickname.

2.) He was crazy about cats! Absolutely obsessed with them, Lincoln had an affinity with all animals, but cats above all. He was fascinated by felines and while he was in office, the official cat of the White House was named Tabby.

3.) Maybe you already knew that Lincoln was the first president to wear a beard. But did you know that he grew it at the request of an 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell who wrote him during his campaign for presidency?

“…if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of [my brothers] to vote for you,” she tells him. “You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.” Lincoln wrote the girl back and promptly began growing out his now-iconic beard.

I guess it just goes to show that sometimes the best advice comes from sources that you’d least expect! Happy, birthday Abe…err…I mean, Mr. Lincoln! And, as always, thanks for reading, camp fans!

- John