Celebrate EVERY Day - Bright Ideas, Fairy Tales & Four-Legged Friends

Eureka and Happy Birthday to Thomas Edison!

Ronald Reagan proclaimed Edison’s birthday on FEBRUARY 11 to be the first NATIONAL INVENTORS’ DAY in 1983. Thanks to the genius of inventors, we can illuminate our world 24/7 with the flip of a switch (or a simple Alexa command), communicate with people on the other side of the globe, travel rapidly from coast to coast, complete household chores with less work, and so much more! Most of our modern conveniences and technology are the result of someone trying to solve a problem with their own ingenuity and, often, persistence. While some became household names, like Otis, Tesla, and Zamboni, the vast majority of inventors go unrecognized for their creations. A couple ways to celebrate: Visit the MOSAIC Museum on Jekyll Island to see what part the Jekyll Island Club Resort played in a historic 1915 phone call made by Alexander Graham Bell. Use your electric-powered kitchen appliances to make a birthday cake honoring ol’ Tom. Blowing out the candles would be quite appropriate! 

It was an inventor/chemistry teacher from Kentucky who came up with NATIONAL PERIODIC TABLE DAY on FEBRUARY 7. Yes, that table with all the elements and abbreviations you had to memorize in school. He chose February 7 to commemorate the date John Newlands’ table was published in 1863 to highlight the challenges overcome in developing the calendar. It also happens to be the day before the birthday of the scientist most famously associated with the periodic table, Dmitri Mendeleev. In the first century, the known elements were gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, mercury, sulfur, and carbon. When Newlands and Mendeleev did their work the table included approximately 60 discovered elements, now there are 118.

The periodic table has remained largely unchanged since the early 20th century and maintains its integrity today as one of the most valuable tools in the science of chemistry. The United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table, calling it "one of the most significant achievements in science.” Just for fun, see how many elements and abbreviations you remember. 

FEBRUARY 8 is Spring (right, Punxsutawney Phil?!) cleaning time for your laptops and desktops. First promoted by the Institute for Business Technology in 2000, NATIONAL CLEAN OUT YOUR COMPUTER DAY reminds you to do some basic housekeeping on your PC to help keep it running smoothly and performing at its best. Without regular clean-up, unused programs and old processes can clog the memory and cause confusion during retrieval and use of other data, slowing down your PC. What to do? Organize your folders and files. (Subfolders are your friend!) Remove all duplicate and junk files. Delete any old files or programs you don’t use. Be sure to empty the trash! Clean up your email files and delete what you don’t need there too. Make sure you are using current versions of programs and operating systems. If not, update. While you’re at it, it’s a good time to clean and sanitize your screen, keyboard, mouse, and touch pad too, ya filthy animals! 

SAFER INTERNET DAY on FEBRUARY 9 goes hand-in-hand with your computer clean-up, by providing tools, education, and awareness to make your computer’s internet experience safer. As we use the internet more and more for entertainment, work, school, business, financial, and retail transactions, there is increased risk of becoming a victim of internet crimes. Issues like identity theft, fraud, and cyberbullying can make the internet a frightening place. However, we can learn what steps to take to become more cautious and savvy internet users and how to protect ourselves and our children from cybercrimes. Since 2013, Safer Internet Day and ConnectSafely.org have been striving to make the internet a better place for all by bringing together organizations and individuals with the common goal of reaching as many internet users as possible and providing them with the tools and resources to keep them safe. For this year’s live stream event and additional information, visit saferinternetday.us. 

Appropriately wrapping up National Children’s Dental Health Month on FEBRUARY 28 there’s NATIONAL TOOTH FAIRY DAY. Our fictional dental hygiene helper was born in 1927. Since toothpaste back in the 1920s didn’t have fruity flavors and sparkles to get kids excited to brush their teeth, advertising and public health campaigns had to go a different route. Esther Watkins Arnold printed an eight-page playlet for children called “The Tooth Fairy” in 1927. The world was ripe with imagination at that time because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had just “proved” his claim that fairies and gnomes are real with “verified” pictures of two little girls surrounded by fairies. It was a prime time to introduce a tooth fairy who collects the lost teeth of little boys and girls and leaves a coin behind! Arnold’s play was performed in schools and the tooth fairy has been leaving money under the pillows of sleeping children ever since. The nickel or dime payout has increased significantly however, with today’s average reward for a lost tooth being up to $5!

And speaking of fairies, there's NATIONAL TELL A FAIRY TALE DAY on FEBRUARY 26 to keep us believing in their magic and happily ever after. Indulge your inner child and dust off the storybooks or get to Googling and find some fairy tales to share. These stories known the world over were once oral histories, myths, and legends that were retold around the fire or by traveling storytellers, and then written down and passed through the ages. Most fairy tales were cautionary, told to children to make them behave, teach them a lesson, or shared like ghost stories around a campfire. While many of the stories had some basis in truth, fairy tales took on a more magical quality over the years and featured fairies, giants, dragons, mermaids, and gnomes. 

The Brothers Grimm published some of the more well-known fairy tales, seeking to preserve them at a time when the tradition of oral storytelling was fading. They published their first volume of stories, “Household Tales” in 1812. Their tales, including Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel and Gretel, had a darker quality and were clearly meant for an adult audience. Aesop’s fables had more of a moral slant and date back to ancient times. Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, first published in 1829, bestowed us with lighter, warmer tales like The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid. 

Calling all pet lovers! FEBRUARY 20 is NATIONAL LOVE YOUR PET DAY. What do you need to do? More of what you’re already doing, lavishing some extra attention and pampering on our precious pets today. This day focuses on the special relationship we have with our pets and the importance pets have in our lives. Most U.S. households have at least one pet, with dog-owning households surpassing cat owners (though not by much). Interesting since there are more cats than dogs in the U.S. Of course, cats and dogs aren’t the only animals we keep as pets. Many people enjoy the companionship of reptiles, fish, birds, and other animals like Guinea pigs, rabbits, or hamsters. Owning a pet has been shown to lower stress and increase longevity so make sure to do something special for your pet in return today. If you need a new pet in your life, perhaps today is the day you can help a dog or cat at Glynn County Animal Control or the Humane Society of South Coastal Georgia find their furever home. 

Speaking of treats for your pet, FEBRUARY 23 is NATIONAL DOG BISCUIT DAY, also observed around the world as International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day. Available in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and flavors, dog biscuits can be a training tool, good behavior reward, or simple show of affection. They can also be used for administering important medications and supplements or to help keep teeth healthy and clean. Remember to pick up your pup’s favorite snacks at Pet Exchange or grab a special “bakery style” biscuit from Island Dog to celebrate the day. 

FEBRUARY 23 is also WORLD SPAY DAY, so help spread the word about the importance of spaying and neutering pets or donate to agencies in the community that provide this service. The Doris Day Animal League founded Spay Day USA in 1994 as a day to bring attention to the stray pet overpopulation problem in the U.S. and to encourage animal population control by neutering pets. The movement later spread globally, is now known as World Spay Day, and observed annually on the last Tuesday in February. 

“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do.” Maybe we can’t have a hippo as a pet like the song suggests, but we can celebrate this magnificent beast on WORLD HIPPO DAY on FEBRUARY 15.

And when we say magnificent, we’re not kidding. The blue whale and the African elephant are the only mammals in the world larger than the hippopotamus, who weighs in at a whopping 8,000 pounds! There are only two species of hippo on the planet, the common hippopotamus and the pygmy hippo, and they are found exclusively in Africa. These herbivores live up to 50 years in the wild. Although you might not think it, hippos are the most aggressive animals in the world and kill approximately 500 humans each year. They may not look fast but can run up to 19 miles per hour. Predators of the hippo include crocodiles, hyenas, and lions. Sadly, humans have also become a primary predator.

To celebrate this day, take a trip to the zoo to see a hippo or donate to an organization trying to preserve their existence. If you’ve still got a Hungry Hungry Hippos game around, start chomping some marbles!

Recognized since at least 2011, NATIONAL POLAR BEAR DAY, also known as International Polar Bear Day, on FEBRUARY 27 promotes learning about the polar bear and highlights conservation efforts.

Founding credit goes to Polar Bears International, and organization that sponsors educational challenges annually. Another massive animal, polar bears can reach a height of 9 feet and a weight of 1400 pounds. They have a warming layer of fat under their thick coat of insulating fur which helps them live in colder environments. Powerful swimmers with slightly webbed large front paws that act as paddles, some polar bears have been spotted swimming hundreds of miles from land. Admittedly, they may have floated on sheets of ice to cover some of that distance. Organizations use National Polar Bear day to raise awareness of the declining number of polar bears worldwide and the possible loss of their natural habitat due to global warming. Learn more about how you can help with conservation of endangered animals like the polar bear at worldwildlife.org.