October 29 - D'oh, a really black stroke

 It's almost Hallowe'en and that's a spooky day, but even spookier was the "Black Tuesday" that happened in 1929 which was the start of the great depression.

16 million shares traded in a single day.  Billions of dollars... billions by 1929 valuation too.  Ouch.

Also scary for anyone is the risk of stroke.  It's World Stroke Day.

My mom suffered a stroke when I was in grade 8, it was scary.  It happens when blood supply is interrupted and can't get to your brain.

Sir Walter Raleigh had no fear of having a stroke, especially after today in 1618 as his head was removed by James I.

To help balance out the spooky and scary, today is also the birthday of Dan Castellaneta... you know, the voice of HOMER SIMPSON!  

He's 64 years old today.  D'oh

October 28 - Animation, Gulliver's Travels, Janine, the Doctor

 As a kid of the 80s, my life was just centred on cartoons.  Like it was all we wanted to get to the weekend to watch Saturday morning cartoons.  It was a ritual.

Today honours 'animation' as being International Animation Day.

Set up in 2002 by the International Animated Film Association.

An interesting thing I found out about a cartoon much later in life was the cartoon for the Ghostbusters had to be called "The Real Ghostbusters" as there already was a TV show called "Ghostbusters".

A character that's pretty underrated in that movie was Janine, the sarcastic / "I don't care" attitude was just 'cool' back in the day.

She was portrayed by Annie Potts who's now 69 years old.

Happy Birthday Annie - can't wait to see you reprise the role in the new movie "Ghostbusters Afterlife".

In another geeky jump dealing with the 'unexplained' is the Doctor and the 11th doctor, who was played by Matt Smith, turns 39 years old today.

Hope you celebrate with some fish fingers and custard!

The Doctor travelled to unknown places, and so did Lemuel Gulliver.  The book, written by Jonathan Swift was released today 295 years ago.

Great read.

October 27 - An Argument over Beer Recordings

 Today is World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

What that means that it's a day chosen by UNESCO to show the importance of having recorded sound and video for historical records and archives.  Making sure we have those recordings to listen to, to watch in the future.

I was first introduced to Monty Python via listening to the radio broadcasts and was hooked.  It was funny.

One of the troupe is funny man, John Cleese, who is turning 82 today.  

Wow, and I betcha still as hilariously funny today as during the Python era or Fawlty Towers era.

I bet the Python crew tended to do their best writing over a pint.  And what better day to celebrate that than with the States' National American Beer Day.

I'll leave the 'near to water' jokes to your own imagination.

October 26 - A Million Ways to Die by Cyberdyne

 In the movie Terminator, the day of August 29th, 1997 was significant as it was the day that the Cyberdyne corporation's machines turn on us.  Billions of people dead.  Thankfully, John Connor helped with the resistance and then sent back Kyle to stop a ... well, I'm not going to tell you EVERYTHING, you can just watch the movie on it. 

The Terminator

It was released on this day in 1984 and man, as a kid, it was awesome.

Seth MacFarlane was 11 when it came out.  

Sounds like a killer birthday party to go see that movie.

Happy Birthday Seth (now where is my next season of the Orville?)

October 25 - Toronto Longbow Artistry

There's always been this long division between the French and the English.  Two major powers living so close to each other and having such a long history there it's like 2 siblings.

One such sibling rivalry that is famous if the Battle of Agincourt, which happened on this day in 1415 (which is also St. Crispin's Day).

The English were vastly outnumbered but eventually won the day with their longbowmen who used the terrain to their advantage.  It was one of those pivotal battles that allowed the English to rally and precipitate the end of the 100 Years War.

The English, eventually spread themselves to the new continent and eventually founded a city in Upper Canada and called it York.  Eventually, we'd know it as Toronto.

In 1861  with its central financial powers it created a Toronto Stock Exchange.

Another treasure in Toronto, according to some is the Maple Leafs, and my father's favourite player is the famous Wendel Clarke, who turns 55 today.

A good hockey player is like watching art, so they say.  And it's International Art Day as well.

Whether by design, or just one of those universal coincidences it's also the birthday of Pablo Picasso.

He would have been 140.

October 22nd - Brother Cadfael's Online Argument

Oh the toxicity of online discussion sometimes.  Usually to get a point across, someone will use ALL CAPS as if to shout their point.  Pointless, in my mind.

But today is somewhat marked as a parody holiday of International Caps Lock Day.

Set up back in 2000... have we been arguing that long online?

One group that doesn't really argue, are those Benedictine Monks.  Except for probably one... my favourite Benedictine Monk - a brother Cadfael. I loved that series on BBC and the books as well.  But in the show, Cadfael was played by one Derek Jacobi.

Derek is now 83 years old.

You may also recognize him as the Master in a few episodes of Doctor Who, was in Gladiator...  but he'll always be that Crusades knight living out his years in a monastery solving crimes like a medieval Jessica Fletcher.

October 21 - Prize Winning Nacho Boat

 Did you know... nachos got its name from the guy that made it?  True story apparently.  

One day back in 1940 in a restaurant, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya was asked to make a different snack for a customer, saw some odds and ends in the restaurant, put em together and brought it out.  When asked "what is this?" they answered "Well, I guess we can just call them Nacho's Special".  

And then every drunk person for the next millenia just fell in love.  

Celebrate Ignacio's invention with International Day of the Nacho.

Took me a moment to figure out why his nickname was 'nacho'... Ignacio... Ig-nach-io... nacho.

Guy should have won a Nobel Prize.

Which was also named after a person - one Alfred Nobel, who was born on this day in 1833.

Alfred was an inventor and by far most well known for his patent on dynamite in 1867.

[interesting side note from the inner chemist - dynamite is a mixture of nitroglycerin as a safer means of transporting and exploding with a patented blasting cap... not to be confused with the red sticks you see in the cartoons that are TNT, trinitrotoluene]

Alfred was concerned over his use of dynamite in the war and people thinking he was profiting off of death, he left his vast fortune to start the Nobel Prize.

Dynamite for War, leading to a Nobel Prize, one of which is the Nobel Peace Prize... the next connection to October 21st is for the first ship in the Royal Canadian Navy, the HMS Niobe.

Originally launched in 1897 in the UK, the ship was sent to Canada and arrived in Halifax on October 21, 1910, our first ship.

2014 Canada officially recognized the date as "Niobe Day".

October 20 - Strider's Slow Vampire Math

 In one area, I found something that suggested today would be World Statistics Day - however, in an odd twist, the UN Statistical Commission had suggested to only celebrate it every 5 years (2010, 2015, 2020...)

How odd.  Guess we'll have a few years to wait.

That being said, it is International Sloth Day.

Slow little thing, hanging upside down.

Another thing that hangs upside down is a bat... and you probably immediately think of a vampire bat... think of a vampire bat and you think of vampires.  Most famous vampire is Dracula, obviously and you'll probably think of the famous portrayal by Bela Lugosi.

Bela was born on this day in 1882.

He just had that vampire look about him.

Depending on your genre, another fella who hangs out in the dark and slips around in shadows would be the ranger that the hobbits run into in Bree.  That ranger, Aragorn, was played by actor Viggo Mortensen in the movies, and it's his birthday today.  

63 years old... wouldn't have guessed it.

October 19th - A Modest Proposal for a Blueberry Muffin

 Today the 2 items I had picked out are unfortunately the deaths of 2 individuals.

First up is the death of Jonathan Swift.  He passed on this day in 1745 at the age of 77.

I loved his works.  A Modest Proposal is just hilarious satire that apparently is written so well that most people don't get that it's satire.  And I did love Gulliver's Travels, and thinking of the immortals of Luggnagg still gives me shivers.

Next is Ernest Rutherford, who passed this day in 1937 at the age of 66.

His work helped us to come to a better understanding of the structure of the atom.  Refuting the Thomson 'blueberry muffin' model, he showed that an atom is mostly space instead.

October 14 - Scottish Standards

 Scots have invented a lot of things.. go check it out.

And, on this day in 1322 Robert the Bruce defeated the English in an area around Yorkshire (ooh, my favourite pudding) at the Battle of Old Byland.

This defeat helped cement Scottish independence.  (Ironically, this is also the day that the English lost the battle of Hastings)

Woot woot.

That independence led to the nation that is/was Scotland to further thrive (sure, still had its ups and downs) but it allowed generations of inventors.

And if you're going to invent something, it's going to lead to needing to define its use or measurement... something scientists call standards.

You've heard of Wifi?  There are different standards required for the types of wifi connections.  Same with USB connections or myriads of others.  You may have even seen operations/business options with ISO (international organization for standardization).

World Standards Day was set up in in 1946, yet wasn't celebrated until 1970.

Just goes to show, if you're going to have a special day, let's not wait too long to celebrate it.

October 13 - British dough balls

 I'm really sad that this day is only observed in the US... one of my favourite meals out there is a Yorkshire Pudding.  But Canada doesn't have a national day - yet Americans do, for today.

In Britain, they celebrate it on the 1st Sunday in February.

A traditional English dish.  Someone who probably had a few in her day was a very (in)famous Briton: Margaret Thatcher. 

She was born today in 1925.

She served as Britain's first female Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.

Now, I doubt that Margaret would have celebrated the other National Day (not just because it was an American day) for today: National No Bra Day.

It's not just a day for comfort, it's to raise awareness for breast cancer.  Initially held back in 2011.

Happy Wednesday!

October 12 - Cajun Freethinkers of Denver

Apparently in 1692 the Salem Witch Trials had officially come to an end.

What an odd thing to think actually ever happened.

To celebrate that opportunity to have free thought, in 2002 a festival started in Sacremento called "Freethought Day".

A bunch of freethinkers are those Acadians who settled in the southern part of the United States, also known as Cajuns, who have a delicious recipe for Gumbo.

Celebrate with them the National Gumbo Day today.

Another free thinker comes from John Denver.  For me it recalls my youth when my father would play his records and just that feeling of wide open country... "rocky mountain high", "take me home, country roads", etc...

Unfortunately his list of songs came to a definitive end on this day in 1997 in a plane crash.

It's Thanksgiving!

 I'm thankful for a lot of things.  Here's hoping we'll b thankful for a good weather day on the day we host the family dinner - we're aiming to have it outside.

I'm thankful that I'm taking the following week off work.  It's been a bit crazy busy, so taking some time relax will be good.

Now, will there be my What Day Is It next week?  Debating...

I started it as a fun way to determine what my background for my virtual meetings should be.  Beats having the blurry background or same ol' work logo or boring office backgrounds.  Why not celebrate donut day with a background of donuts, or the birthday of Robbie Burns with his photo?

Seeing as I won't be having virtual meetings for a week, maybe I'll hold off for a week... but it's also fun.

...and shhh, I do still have a few meetings that week that I need to keep, so will probably will need a background for those few meetings.

October 8 - Will's Ukrainian Aquarium

 In our little corner of the world, there are a fairly large proportion of folks with Ukrainian heritage, so you tend to get to know which places make the best perogies... pierogies... pierohis... pedaheh...

Whatever you call it, you can celebrate today as National Pierogi Day

Making pierogis is quite the skill, and helps to have a lot of hands.  I wonder if we could train an octopus to do that... they're quite smart.  Maybe that's how we'll celebrate World Octopus Day, by having babas training them in babushkas.

All overseen by actor cum producer, Matt Damon of course.  

He's now 51 today.