Hey, Puzzle People!

Today is the perfect day to bust out the puzzles and start separating the frame pieces—it’s National Puzzle Day! A great way to pass the time on a chilly day in January, people LOVE jigsaw puzzles. Strengthening visual acuity as well as pattern recognition, puzzles are advantageous in more than one way. They were originally designed as educational tools, actually.

First made in the 1760’s by a mapmaker from London, named John Spilsbury, one day he put one of his maps up on a sheet of hardwood and cut out the countries. Spilsbury immediately recognized the usefulness this could have for means of education. It didn’t take schools very long to catch on to the genius of teaching children their geography by having them put together puzzles.

I still remember learning my states and capitals with a simple puzzle-map of the United States. Somehow, placing the position of a state myself really locked its location in my memory. It was a great method by which to learn geography.

Jigsaw puzzles stayed true to their original purpose for nearly 60 years. It wasn’t until sometime around the 1820’s that puzzles started breaking free of their educational shell, and by the 1880’s, a different style of jigsaw puzzles arrived on the market. Up until this point, most puzzles were made on plywood with the image glued or painted on the front and the pencil tracings (to show where to cut) on the back.

The late 1800’s brought about a jigsaw puzzle that was constructed from cardboard—pretty much what we all think of when we think of a jigsaw puzzle. However, despite its eventual success, manufacturers predicted that wooden puzzles weren’t budging from their place on top and that customers wouldn’t want something as cheap as a cardboard puzzle.

Of course, the cardboard puzzles only sold for 25¢ while the wooden ones sold for $1.00 and, back in the days of The Great Depression, people were looking to spend as little as possible. Cardboard or not, puzzles offered inexpensive hours and hours of entertainment.

They still do today, which is all the more reason to get one out now! Happy Puzzle Day, Everyone. As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Meet the Receptionist at Everything Summer Camp, Tim. Tim is the first person you’ll see when you walk into our Main Building. Down-to-earth and friendly, Tim is always there to help. Aside from answering business calls, he also handles endless spreadsheets of important Web information as well as all of our sales reports, and much more.

I could go on and on about Tim’s hard work, but today, I’m telling you about his favorite Everything Summer Camp product instead. What does Tim love? It’s our space-saving, efficiency-making Packing Cubes. There’s no better way to effectively pack up your C&N footlocker trunk than with these Cubes.

Speaking of cubes (and thus the third dimension), this is one aspect of our Packing Cubes that Tim loves. “They come in sets of three,” says Tim. “I obsess over the number three—all things add up to three.” Tim isn’t really imagining things here, either. For, you see, the number THREE is a MAGIC number!

It is often said that luck comes in threes—“third time’s a charm,” right? But the number three is far more than just lucky. For instance, there are 360° in a circle; cut that circle in half and you have 180°. Cut the circle into a quadrant and you have 90°. What do these three numbers have in common? They’re all divisible by three.

The sum of the angles in all standard polygons are also divisible by three. In fact, it seems that there’s something about the number ‘three’ that’s intricately woven into the very fabric of our universe! Three is everywhere you go! There are three primary colors. There are three feet in a yard. And Mario has to hit Bowser three times to defeat him.

Anyway, it’s everywhere else! You may as well keep ‘three’ in your camp trunk too with our set of Three Packing Cubes. They’re made of soft, nylon and have mesh tops with convenient labeling pouches so you don’t have to go rummaging through each one.

Check out our Packing Cubes Three Set for yourself and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Writers!

Chances are, assuming you’re older than a three-year-old, you’ve already written something today. Whether it was your name on a quiz at school, mailing information on an envelope, or a love poem for your sweetie, writing is definitely a staple art form in the world today. That’s why today is National Handwriting Day.

Of course, HANDwriting isn’t nearly as common as it used to be since modern technology has provided us with a speedier alternative to generate “written” words. Yes, the Qwerty keyboard and texting certainly gives the written word (*ahem*—HANDwritten word) a run for its money, however, handwriting is indeed, an art form and one that the world will be hanging on to for a while, I think.

After all, being a writer myself, I can certainly attest to the fact that there is a very different feeling between typing words out and scratching your pen against paper as it leaves a trail of your inky thoughts behind. It’s an intimate feeling shared by just you the pen and the paper without some bright, white, electronic page staring you down.

Of course, I appreciate the efficiency and speed of computers—I’m typing right now! At the same time, I hope that our modern technology doesn’t stop people from writing by hand altogether. It would be a horrible loss. Signatures would lose their flare. The callous would go away on the side of your middle finger. Stock in Bic would plummet.

But most importantly, we would lose an extremely unique way of expressing ourselves. Did you know that you can learn a lot about a person just by looking at their handwriting?

It’s called Graphology. By studying how big or small you write your letters, how much space you leave between your words, how much of an angle you give your letters, and more, you can tell whether a person is organized or not, shy or outgoing, punctual or a born-procrastinator, and much, much more.

Put a pen to some paper and enjoy analyzing your own handwriting today! For now, I'll thank you all for reading today's post and end it there. Till next time, Camp Folks!

- John

Hey, you Squirrely Camp Fans!

Coinciding with the underlying moral of Tolkien stories like ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ evolution has shown us that big things can come in small packages. Though you won’t find them carrying magical rings through Middle-Earth, squirrels are definitely small packages and may earn more of your respect than you might expect.

See, despite the fact that squirrels are typically garden-ruining, birdseed-eating, car accident-causing rodents, we likely owe our entire existence to these little guys. That’s why today we’re celebrating Squirrel Appreciation Day.

There’s a lot to appreciate about squirrels, but their diversity alone is impressive enough. They come in all different colors like grey, red, brown, and sand. Albino squirrels have white fur as a result of their albinism while other squirrels are jet black as a result of melanism (the opposite of albinism). Some are black with white spots and others are a reddish-brown with black spots. There are all kinds.

Did you know there are over 200 different species of squirrels the world over? From tree squirrels to ground squirrels, fox squirrels, grey squirrels, FLYING squirrels (which don’t actually FLY), and many, many more, squirrels have obviously been around for quite some time in order to have developed so many differences.

Squirrels have been around for a very long time, indeed, and longer than we had ever guessed! A recent fossil-discovery, however, proves that squirrel-like animals lived in China 200 million years ago which dates mammals about 50 million years older than what scientists had previously thought!

These ancient creatures found in China are likely the ancestors of the squirrels that we know and love today! But what’s even more thought-provoking than that is the likelihood that if it wasn’t for these little guys surviving the brutal elements of prehistoric nature better than the dinosaurs were able to, you and I wouldn’t even be here!

You can learn more about these ancient squirrel ancestors here. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Penguin People!

Penguins are a popular bird—probably an easy favorite for most people. With so many fans, it only makes sense that we have a day dedicated to penguins. And, actually, our love for these flightless birds runs even deeper as there are two days throughout the year that we’ve dedicated to penguins!

Today is Penguin Awareness Day, which consistently lands on January 20 (not to be confused with World Penguin Day—which consistently lands on April 25). There are 17 different species of penguins—all of which live in the southern hemisphere of the world (unless they live in the zoo). Penguins are naturally found in Antarctica, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and Peru, as well as the Falkland and Galapagos Islands.

The biggest of the 17 species of penguins is the Emperor penguin. Reaching an average of 4’ in height, and weighing anywhere from 50 to 100 lbs, Emperor Penguins are quite a big bird, but I know of a penguin that was even bigger! It may surprise you to discover that the cute, waddling penguins that we know and love today would have, at one point, towered over the majority of modern man!

Along with the end of the dinosaurs, the era of mammals brought drastic changes to life on this planet as well as this big bird that stood 6’ 7” tall. Yep, you read that right: these cute, blubbery birds stood much taller 37 million years ago than they do today. It’s been called ‘The Colossus Penguin’ (also known as Mega Penguin) and they came around at the same time as the world’s first horses, whales, and monkeys.

While the penguin may have arrived in the era of mammals, they cannot be exclusively classified as such because they live both on land and in the water. This bird is classified not only as a mammal, but as a fish and an amphibian as well. It’s no wonder that we find these creatures so fascinating! Happy Penguin Awareness Day, Everyone! You can learn more about our feathered friends here. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John