Hey, Fishy Folks!

If you love fishing then you’re sure to love today! It’s National Go Fishing Day! Meant to be spent fishing and nothing else, today encourages everybody to pack up your poles and tackle box and spend the day casting your line out into the water. Fishing may reap the reputation of a ‘boring sport’, but when you’re out there all day, some pretty wild things are liable to happen.

Read on to learn some pretty interesting stuff about the world of fishing. Whether you’ve never been fishing before or you’re a seasoned a-FISH-ionado, you’re sure to find these facts on fish rather fantastic.

Tastiest Fish
Our first fun fact comes from delicious fish—people find fish delectable the world over.  Somewhere in our 7000 taste buds, we’ve really developed a taste for fish. But did you know that most fish wear their taste buds all over their bodies? That means they can taste things just by coming into contact with it. I’m pretty happy with the location of my 7000 taste buds being on my tongue, but catfish make me jealous, boasting 27,000 taste buds!

Fastest fish
It was never an easy thing to tell how fast certain fish can swim until some fishermen conjured up a simple method. Here’s how it works: when you get a bite on your line and the fish takes off, measure how much of your line comes off the spool in a certain amount of seconds. Some elementary mathematics will calculate the speed of the fish. The fastest fish ever in the world is the sailfish which took 300 feet of line within three seconds. It swims at 68 mph. That’s one fast fish!
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Largest Fish
The largest freshwater fish, the Mekong giant catfish, measured in at 646 lbs. and nine feet in length. That’s roughly the size of a fully-grown grizzly bear! That’s a big fish. But that’s nothing when considering the biggest fish ever caught including saltwater—a 3,427 pounder! It was a Great White Shark. The inspiration for Captain Quint from ‘Jaws’, one Captain Frank Mundus is responsible for reeling in the shark—the largest fish to ever be caught by rod and reel!

So, you see, fishing may have plenty of downtime, but when the other shoe drops, it can make for a pretty wild time! Get out there and catch the biggest fish you’ve ever caught and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Protected Citizens,

Today, we remember the heroes who lost their lives while on duty as officials of law enforcement. Today is National Police Officer Day, the official day of observation within National Police Week—is also sometimes referred to as National Peace Officer Week to be inclusive of all law enforcement officials.

Sworn to protect and to serve us, police officers put their lives on the line in order to maintain public order and put a stop to crimes. They hold authority to arrest and detain deviant individuals in order to uphold public safety. Unfortunately, just in performing the duties of their jobs, some policemen and policewomen end up paying the ultimate price.

Whether you knew them or not, today is a day to remember those who were killed. There are many ways that communities and individuals can demonstrate their remembrance. Here are a few ideas on how you can play a role in memorializing those who have fallen in the line of duty.

Observe a Moment of Silence.
Setting a little time aside during the school day or even just alone in your room can be very helpful to all participants. With silence comes peace.

Fly the Flag at Half-Staff.
Flags are flown at half-staff to commemorate the deaths of ranking officers.

See the Names of the Victims.
You can see a list of the names of the officers who lost their lives in the last year if that's something you'd like to look into. This is a difficult list on which to focus, but it’s important that these names are remembered.

Honoring the Heroes.
The bravery of the men and women who risk their lives to uphold the peace and safety that we enjoy everyday will never be forgotten as our heroes are honored and loved ones remembered on this day of observance.

National Police Week sees a number of events in Washington D.C. every year like the annual Blue Mass Candlelight Vigil, a Wreath-Laying Ceremony, the National Police Survivors Conference, the Honor Guard Competition, as well as the Emerald Society & Pipe Band March/Service. There are 25,000 to 40,000 law enforcement officers and their families take part in these events every year.

Honor the fallen officers in whatever way you can today and, as always, thank you for reading.

- John

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