Fun Facts about Make Your Own Head Day

This year, Thanksgiving falls on November 28th. Everyone else's blog is talking about turkeys, pumpkin pie, pilgrims and tryptophan-induced naps. 

That's all fine and good, but another holiday falls on the same day. Have you ever heard of Make Your Own Head Day? Neither had I, but you, my dear friends, will be glad I've done some research and enlightened you about this fun holiday. 

Now, you can amaze your friends and family at the dinner table with your vast knowledge!

Who created Make Your Own Head Day? I'm not really sure.

It could have been in 2007 when this Minnesota State graduate, who was immortalized in 50 pounds of butter, had her 15 minutes of fame on David Letterman. You can read about it here

In any case, Make your own head day is a day to make a likeness of your own head in any creative medium you choose. 

You could draw your head with crayons, markers, pencils, or paint. 

You could sculpt your head using clay, Play-doh, tin foil, Rice Krispies, Legos, styrofoam, or even plant matter. Let your imagination fly!

Or since this year, the holiday falls on Thanksgiving, you could be more traditional and use butter. 

Display your head on your dining room table and have your guests use the butter on their biscuits. You may want to take a photo of your buttery creation before everyone digs in, though.

Come to think of it, feel free to send me photos of your work. No matter what medium you use. If I get enough entries, I will run a contest. The photos will be posted in December, and you can all vote on your favorite. The winner will receive a $10 Amazon gift card! You can use it to buy books, art supplies, and believe it or not, BUTTER! 

Send your entries to my e-mail: dee stan 62 @ g mail dot com 

(It's written that way to confuse the bots. Leave out the spaces and replace the word 'dot' with a dot.)

Fun Facts--International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th)

Ahoy! Everyone likes pirates. Not the smelly-rotten-teeth-sort-who-rob-innocent-people-and-kill-them kind of pirates.

No, no, no! I'm talking about the romantic-swashbuckling-flouncy-shirt-wearing kind of pirate. Avast!

Ahem. Aye. My pirate love began in 2003 when my daughter Amanda begged me to take her to the theater to see the new Orlando Bloom movie. I begrudgingly took her and settled in to take a nap in the dark, but when the opening credits showed an all-star cast and the music started playing, I was hooked.

In 1995, when a couple of guys began talking like pirates while playing raquetball, International Talk Like a Pirate Day was born. Read here for How it all started...


The Original Website has tons of activities like a Personality Test, Pickup lines, a map of the world, marking where the parties are, and even a free knitting pattern!

I'll leave you with a little video for your entertainment. Feel free to sing along!

Oh, and 'Hide the rum.'

Fun Facts--July 12th

It's a new month, and I've decided to veer off the beaten path a little. This month's feature is all about Heterochromia to celebrate Different Color Eyes Day.

Heterochromia of the eye may come in two varieties. With complete heterochromia, one iris is a different color than the other.

In partial or sectoral heterochromia, only a part of one iris is different.

Celebrities:

Mila Kunis--one green and one brown.

Wentworth Miller--one blue and one green.

Virginia Madsen--one green and one brown.

Jane Seymour--one green and one brown.

Elizabeth Berkley--one bluish green and one brown.

Dan Akroyd--one green and one brown.

Kate Bosworth--one blue and one brown.

Christopher Walken--one blue and one hazel.

Kiefer Sutherland--one blue and one green.

Animals:

Cats--Breeds such as Turkish Van, Turkish Angora, Khao Manee and Japanese Bobtail. These odd-eyed cats are white, or mostly white and have one blue eye.

Dogs--Siberian Husky, Australian Shepherd, and Catahoula Leopard.

Horses--More common in horses with pinto coloring, they have one brown and one white, gray, or blue eye. 

Complete heterochromia may also be seen in cattle, water buffalo and ferrets.

Sectoral heterochromia is often seen in dogs, specifically in breeds with merle coats, such as the Border Collie, Collie, Shetland Sheepdog, Welsh Corgi, Pyrenean Shephard, Mudi, Beauceron, Catahoula Cur, Dunker, Great Dane, Dachsund and Chihuahua.

Literary Characters:

Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones has one green eye and one black one.

The assassin Jonathan Teatime from Terry Pratchett's Hogfather has one grey magical glass eye and the other is yellow-white.

Wormtongue, in The Lord of the Rings, should have worn two pale blue contacts for the film, but the costumers discovered he looked creepier wearing only one.

Sally Owens, in Practical Magic, casts a spell for a man she thinks can't exist with one green eye, and one blue. Twenty years later, Detective Hallet is that man.

In the Anne of Green Gables sequel, Anne's House of Dreams, a pair of cousins have identical mismatched eyes.

In The Eternity Code, Artemis Fowl has one blue eye and one hazel because of an iris cam.

In Kristin Cashore's Graceling, all 'Gracelings' have this as a distinguishing characteristic. 

The evil sorceress Xayide has one red eye and one green in The Neverending Story. 

Leah from The Red Tent.

Alex in the Bill the Vampire series, has one brown eye and one green. 

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Do you have, or know anyone with Heterochromia?

Fun Facts about November

I know, you were all wondering, "Where is this month's Fun Facts?" Please forgive me for being a slacker this month. Here it is:

(Source)

November is the 11th month of the year and one of four months with a length of 30 days. November starts on the same day of the week as March and ends on the same day of the week as August.

Those born during the first half of the month are under the Zodiac sign of Scorpio, and those born in the latter part of the month are Sagittarians. The birth flower is the chrystanthemum, and the birthstones are topoz and citrine.

Events:

1st--First day of Winter in Ireland.
2nd--Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico.
        National Deviled Egg Day
3rd--Sandwich Day
5th--Guy Fawkes Night in Britain and New Zealand.
7th--Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day
10th--National Heroes Day in Indonesia.
          The birthday of the United States Marine Corps.
          Vanilla Cupcake Day
11th--Saint Maartens Day (Dutch version of Halloween) in the Netherlands. Songs are sung for candy.
          Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations and various European countries.
          Veterans Day in the US.
12th--National Pizza With The Works (Except Anchovies) Day
13th--Indian Pudding Day
14th--Children's Day in India.
17th--The Leonids Meteor Shower reaches its peak.
19th--Christopher Columbus discovers Puerto Rico in 1493.
          International Men's Day
21st--National Adoption Day
22nd--Thanksgiving is observed in the US and Puerto Rico.
23rd--National Parfait Day
          National Cashew Day

The first Tuesday of the month, Australia holds the Melbourne Cup horse race.
The first Tuesday after the first Monday is election day in the US.
November 11-17th is Geography Awareness Week.
The third Thursday of the month is The Great American Smokeout sponsored by the American Cancer Society and also International Philosophy Day.
The day after Thanksgiving is known as 'Black Friday' in the US.
The Monday immediately following Thanksgiving is known as 'Cyber Monday' in the US.

Famous Author's Birthdays

November 7, 1913--Albert Camus
November 8, 1847--Bram Stoker
November 8, 1900--Margaret Mitchell
November 9, 1818--Ivan Turgenev
November 11, 1821--Fedor Dostoevsky
November 11, 1922--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
November 13, 1850--Robert L. Stevenson
November 18, 1939--Margaret Atwood
November 22, 1819--George Eliot
November 22, 1869--Andre Gide
November 26, 1905--Emlyn Williams
November 26, 1922--Charles Schultz
November 29, 1832--Louisa May Alcott
November 29,1898--C.S. Lewis
November 30, 1667--Jonathan Swift
November 30, 1835--Mark Twain

November is the National Month for:

National Novel Writing Month
Aviation
Epilepsy
Diabetes Awareness
Stamp Collecting
Toilet Tank Repair
Peanut Butter Lovers
American Indian Heritage Month
Hunger Awareness
Raisin Bread
Pepper

Bizarre Holidays:

November 4th--Waiting For The Barbarians Day
November 6th--Marooned Without a Compass Day
November 9th--Chaos Never Dies Day
November 10th--Forget-Me-Not Day
November 11th--Air Day
November 20th--Absurdity Day
November 21st--False Confessions Day
November 22nd--Start Your Own Country Day
November 28th--Make Your Own Head Day (???)


Well, people, Fun Facts about the 'Months' posts have come full circle.
In December, I'll have to switch gears. I'm thinking of doing 'Holidays.' What do you think?

Fun Facts about October

(Source)

October is the tenth month of the year and one of seven months with a length of 31 days. In common years, January starts the same day of the week as October, but no other month starts on the same day in leap years. 

October is associated with Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. It happens to be my favorite time of year. I love the crisp Autumn air and the gorgeous colors. And October is the month my daughter was born, 25 years ago. Happy Birthday Amanda!!

Those born in the first half of the month are under the Zodiac sign Libra and those born in the latter part of October are Scorpios. 

October's birthstones are pink tourmaline and opal. It's said that an opal will crack if not worn by someone born in October.

The birth flower is the calendula.

And for all of you sports lovers, here's a tid-bit for you:  The last week in October is the only time of the year when all four major North American Sports Leagues schedule games. 

I have lots of stuff for you this month!!

Famous Birthdates:

October 2--Sting

October 4--Charlton Heston

October 7--Simon Cowell

October 12--Hugh Jackman

October 13--Paul Simon

October 16--John Mayer

October 20--Tom Petty

October 23--Ryan Reynolds

October 26--Hillary Clinton

October 28--Bill Gates

October 30--Henry Winkler

October Events and Holidays

First week of October--Children's Book Week (England)
(9/30-10/6)--Banned Books Week

(10/7-10/13)--National Fire Prevention Week 

October 2--International Day of Non-Violence (Shouldn't this be everyday?)

October 5--International World Teachers' Day

October 9--National Children Appreciation Day (Not sure if we should let them know this...)

               --Leif Erikson Day (Get your Viking on!)

October 12--Freethought Day (The anniversary of the effective end of the Salem Witch Trials.)

Second Monday of Oct--Columbus Day (Most of the US)

3rd Week in Oct.--Teen Read Week

October 16--World Food Day (A global movement to end hunger.)

October 20--Spirit Day (Wear the color purple to show support for LGBT young people who are victims of bullying.)

October 21--Apple Day

October 28--Ochi Day (No Day) in Greece (The anniversary of when their Prime Minister said "NO" to Mussolini in 1940.

October 31--Halloween, Samhain.

National Month for: (There are a whole bunch of them!)

Pork

Arts & Humanities

Domestic Violence Awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness

LGBT History 

Cyber Security Awareness

Fair Trade

Auto Battery Safety

World Blindness Awareness

German American Heritage

National Hispanic Heritage

Italian American Heritage

Polish American Heritage

Desserts

Seafood

Pretzels

Popcorn Popping

Country Music

Family History

Book Fairs

Car Care

Stamp Collecting

Caramel

Cookies

Spinach Lovers

Roller Skating

Bizarre Holidays:

10/1--Vegetarian Day

10/2--Name Your Car Day

10/3--Virus Appreciation Day

10/4--Toot Your Flute Day

10/6--Come and Take It Day

10/8--American Tag Day

10/9--Moldy Cheese Day

10/10--Angel Food Cake Day

10/11--It's My Party Day

10/12--Frustration Scream Day

10/14--Be Bald and Free Day

10/15--Grouch Day

10/18--Chocolate Cupcake Day which coincides with Menopause Day

10/21--Babbling Day

10/24--Bologna Day

10/25--Punk for a Day

10/26--Mule Day

10/27--Cranky Co-Workers Day

10/28--Ugly Pick-up Day

10/29--Hermit Day

10/30--Haunted Refrigerator Day

10/31--Increase Your Psychic Powers Day

So, which day are you celebrating?