Happy 122nd birthday tomorrow to The Tramp!

April 16th is the birthday of Sir Charles "Charlie" Spencer Chaplin (1889 – 1977) was the first world-famous movie star, a respected movie writer, director, editor, producer and composer. He remains one of the most recognizable icons of the silver screen today. He began starring in low budget one-reeler comedies at Keystone Studios in 1914. By the end of the year, he had starred in 35 movies, many of which he directed as well, and was known around the world. By 1916, he would work for the more prestigious Mutual Studios and would be the writer, directer, star, editor, and producer of his own comedy films. In 1919, he co-founded United Artists - one of the major film studios that still operates today. He would continue making entertaining and influential comedies, shifting later to dramatic movies.

He is best known for the character of Charlot or The Tramp, a poor, downtrodden man who nevertheless takes on life with vim and alacrity, defeating the bully/policemen/figure of authority and getting the girl before walking into the sunset.

Today's google doodle silent film piece is a tribute to Chaplin.


(Source: tvtropes.org; photo credits: Standing Chaplin, its-all-for-love.blogspot.com; Closeup Chaplin, nndb.com)

Today's celebrations

April 15th has a bunch of celebrations to consider:

Tax Day: Income Tax Pay Day (US & Philippines)
National Take a Wild Guess Day
National That Sucks Day
Rubber Eraser Day
National Glazed Ham Day *
Global Youth Service Day
Law of universal gravitation Day (1726): Isaac Newton develops theory upon seeing an apple fall in his garden

DNA Day (varies) 
Education and Sharing Day

Titanic Remembrance Day: The Titanic hits an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic ocean as sinks. (1912)
Jackie Robinson Day: Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier in 1947 (Major League Baseball)


Christian Feast Day: Abbo II of Metz, Father Damien Day (Hawaii), Hunna, Paternus of Avranches
St. Aristarchus' Day
Arirang Festival, held to commemorate Kim Il-sung's birth. (North Korea)
Fordicidia, in honor of Tellus. (Roman Empire)
Father Damien Day (HI)
Emancipation Day' observed (DC)
Latest day on which New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures can fall. (see April 14)


(* in posts, previously or to follow)

(^ Photo credit: Tax maze, forum.belmont.edu; DNA, ghr.nlm.nih.gov; Titanic siniking, anunews.net)

Today's food holiday: "National Pecan Day"!

April 14th is "National Pecan Day"!
Not to be confused with "Pecan Day" which was March 25th, National Pecan Month (April) or "National Pecan Pie Day" which is July 12th.

The name "pecan" is a Native American word of Algonquin origin that was used to describe "a nut requiring a stone to crack.” The pecan is the only nut indigenous to North America. It is estimated that in the 1500’s, Native Americans utilized and cultivated wild pecans. It is speculated that pecans were used to produce a fermented intoxicating drink called "Powcohicora" (where the word "hickory" comes from). There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans.  Many are named for Native American Indian tribes, including Cheyenne, Mohawk, Sioux, Choctaw and Shawnee.

Why April 14th? George Washington planted pecan nuts several times at Mount Vernon in an effort to grow trees. He also received pecan seedlings from Thomas Jefferson in 1794. Thomas Jefferson gave "Illinois nuts" (Pecans, Carya illinoinensis) from his nut orchard at his home in Monticello, Va., to George Washington. It is believed that on April 14th (and/or March 25th), Washington planted the trees at Mount Vernon, VA. (Side note: The pecan tree in the photo was estimated to be 140 years old and this tree does not date to Washington’s lifetime and was probably planted in the 1860s.  It was removed on Monday, March 1, 2004, in order to protect George Washington’s home. The tree, irreparably damaged during Hurricane Isabel last fall, stands 140 feet tall and is one of two towering pecan trees located within a precarious 115 feet of the Mansion.)

Washington and Jefferson's pecans were not the first, as they were cultivated by Native Americans and were a favorite of pre-colonial residents. It is one of the first known cultivated pecan tree plantings, by Spanish colonists and Franciscans in northern Mexico, appears to have taken place in the late 1600’s or early 1700’s. These plantings are documented to around 1711—about 60 years before the first recorded planting by U.S. colonists. 

One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie, a traditional southern U.S. recipe. Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline candy, most often associated with New Orleans. In addition to the pecan nut, the wood is also used in making furniture, in wood flooring, as well as flavoring fuel for smoking meats.

In the United States, pecans are second in popularity only to peanuts (which are not even true nuts). The United States produces about eighty percent of the world's pecans. Albany, Georgia, which boasts more than 600,000 pecan trees, is the pecan capital of the U.S.  Many southern states host annual National Pecan Festivals, usually in the Fall. In 1919 the 36th Texas Legislature made the pecan tree the state tree of Texas. In southeast Texas, the Texas Pecan Festival is celebrated every year. In 1906 then Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg asked that a pecan tree be planted at his grave instead of a traditional headstone, requesting that the nuts be distributed throughout the state to make Texas a "Land of Trees"

Pecans are a good source of protein and unsaturated fats and help reduce high cholesterol. Like walnuts (which pecans resemble), pecans are rich in omega-6 fatty acids, although pecans contain about half as much omega-6 as walnuts. A diet rich in nuts can lower the risk of gallstones in women and eating pecans daily may delay age-related muscle nerve degeneration.

(Source: Wikipedia, foodcreate.com, mountvernon.org, ilovepecans.org & news.yahoo.com; photo credit: pecan in cracked shell, sandy creek pecans.wordpress.com; Fall pecan tree at Mt. Vernon, voices.washingtonpost.com; Winter pecan tree and Mount Vernon by zachstern, flickriver.com; pecan pie, allpierecipes.com; Pecans with and without shells, US Department of Agriculture, Wikipedia)

Today's celebrations (actually yesterday's)

April 14th has a bunch of celebrations to consider:

National Pecan Day * ^
Look up at the Sky Day
Reach as High as You Can Day 
International Moment of Laughter Day
Children With Alopecia Day (overall hair loss)
National D.A.R.E Day
Pan-American Day
Ex Spouse Day

President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., 1865 (He died the next day) 

Christian Feast Day: Bénézet, Domnina of Terni, Lidwina, Peter González
St. Tiburtius' Day
Day of Mologa (Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia)
N'Ko Alphabet Day (Mande speakers)
Ambedkar Jayanti (India)
Black Day (South Korea)
Youth Day (Angola)
Dia De Las Americas (Honduras)
Vaisakhi (India)
Cultural Unity Day, recognized by India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal

New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures, celebrated on the sidereal vernal equinox: ^
-Assamese New Year, or Rongali Bihu (India's Assam Valley)
-Bengali New Year, or Pohela Boishakh (Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state)
-Burmese New Year, or Thingyan (Burma)
-Hindu and Sikh New Year, or Vaisakhi (Punjab region)
-Khmer New Year, or Chol Chnam Thmey, most commonly celebrated on April 13 (Cambodia)
-Lao New Year, or Songkan / Pi Mai Lao, generally celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Laos)
-Malayali New Year, or Vishu (India's Kerala state)
-Nepali New Year, or Bikram Samwat / Vaishak Ek (Nepal)
-Oriya New Year, or Maha Visuba Sankranthi (India's Orissa state)
-Sinhalese New Year, or Aluth Avurudhu (Sri Lanka)
-Tamil New Year, or Puthandu (India's Tamil Nadu state)
-Thai New Year, or Songkran, celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Thailand)
-Tuluva New Year, or Bisu (India's Karnataka state)
-The first day of Takayama Spring Festival (Takayama)

(* in posts, previously or to follow)

(^ Photo credits: candiedpecans.net; Team Singapore fireworks display from Singapore Fireworks Festival 2006, Wikipedia)

Happy 62nd birthday Scrabble!

Today is the birthday of the Scrabble inventor: An unemployed architect from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Alfred Mosher Butts, invented the game in 1931, which was a hard sell to game manufacturers at first.

Originally, he called it 'Lexico' and in 1938, he renamed the game to 'Criss Crosswords'.

Entrepreneur James Brunot loved the game, the pair worked out the kinks and the board game was born in 1948 and trademarked that year. In 1949, the Scrabble game was released to the public. Today commemorates the birthday of inventor Butts (April 13, 1899 to April 4, 1993).

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works (e.g. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) provide a list of permissible words. The Collins Scrabble checker can also be used to check if a word is allowed.

(Source: Wikipedia, wiki.answers.com, news.yahoo.com; photo credit: blackberryempire.com)

Today's food holiday: "National Peach Cobbler Day"!

Cobblers are variations of pies requiring less flour, cook quickly and easier to make in rugged conditions like  the early Americans had. According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, without brick ovens, colonial cooks often made cobblers in pots over an open fire (like dutch oven cooking). This hearty dessert has been a southern staple for generations. 

It is a variation of a meat pie that originated in Europe. It is similar to a pot pie that you see today but cobblers have a thicker top crust or biscuit crust with fruits inside instead of meat. As with a pie, a scoop of ice cream on top is great!

What is a cobbler?
Cobblers are an American deep-dish fruit dessert or pie with a thick crust (usually a biscuit crust) and a fruit filling (such as peaches, apples, berries). Some versions are enclosed in the crust, while others have a drop-biscuit or crumb topping.

The Dictionary of Americanisms traces the first instance of the word cobbler (as it applies to a pie dish) in print to 1859: "Cobbler...a sort of pie, baked in a pot lined with dough of great thickness, upon which fruit is placed."

Peach History Trivia
Fresh Georgia peaches are available only 16 weeks each year, from mid-May to August. Franciscan monks introduced peaches to St. Simons and Cumberland Islands along Georgia's coast in 1571. By the mid-1700s, peaches and plums were cultivated by the Cherokee Indians. The first peaches were planted in Georgia in the 18th century. The first commercial production did not occur until the mid-19th century. Raphael Moses, a planter and Confederate officer from Columbus, was among the first to market peaches within Georgia in 1851 and is credited with being the first to ship and sell peaches successfully outside the South.

The first Georgia Peach festival was staged in Fort Valley in 1986 where it still remains 25 years later, usually in early June. At the festival, they present a contender for the "World's Largest Peach Cobbler" to beat their record in 2007. The colossal cobbler was 11x5 feet and about 8 inches deep, made with 90 pounds of butter, 150 pounds of sugar, 150 pounds of flour, 32 gallons of milk and 75 gallons of peaches. 


(Source: Wikipedia, worldslargestpeachcobbler.com, whatscookingamerica.net, peach-cobbler.net, itawambahistory.blogspot.com & voices.washingtonpost.com; photo credit: The Lady and Sons Peach Cobbler, Paula Deen, foodnetwork.com; Dutch oven pot of peach cobbler, barbequelovers.com; bushels of peaches, kingorchards.com; world's largest peach cobbler, home.earthlink.net)

Today's celebrations:

April 13th has a bunch of celebrations to consider:

National Peach Cobbler Day *

Blame Someone Else Day

Scrabble Day: Scrabble is sold in 121 countries, in 29 different languages ^

Plant Appreciation Day *

Thomas Jefferson Day: Birthday of President Thomas Jefferson (3rd President)

Tiger Woods wins first major in golf 14 years ago, in 1997

Christian Feast Day: Hermenegild, Pope Martin I

New Year festivals in South and Southeast Asian cultures: Cambodian New Year, Cambodia; First day of Songkan, Laos; First day of Songkran, Thailand; Songkran Festival, Singapore; Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Sri Lanka

Fisherman's Festival

Huguenot Day, France

(* in posts, previously or to follow)

(^ Photo credit: Scrabble pieces, inventorspot.com; Fireworks over Singapore, bizybay.blogspot.com)