Happy National Rubber Ducky Day! If you — like me — are of a certain vintage, there are two things everybody knows: Rubber Ducky is THE ONE, and Rubber Ducky makes bath time fun!
Ernie knows that cleanliness is meaningless in the absence of a fun bathing experience.
Today is also National Gluten-Free Day, which is a culinary travesty, but I also don't want to minimize the plight of folks cursed with Celiac disease. The upside is that means there is more gluten for me!
The good news is that today is also National Korean American Day, in honor of January 13th being the day in 1903 when the first wave of Korean immigrants landed in Hawaii and settled there on a permanent basis. While Korean cuisine does include some gluten-y ingredients at times, most rice varieties are gluten-free. So break out the kimchi and gochujang and settle in for some bibimbap in celebration! Save some room for a nectarine, though — those were popularized in the US by Los Angeles-based Korean American fruit seller Leo C. Song in the 1930s!
Last, but not least, today is also National Sticker Day! Fun fact: every Boredwalk order ships out of our office with a free limited edition vinyl sticker featuring one of our designs!
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On the birthday front we have three that really stand out:
• First up, happy birthday to legendary jazz guitarist and composer Joe Pass, born this day in 1929! Despite a fairly crippling heroin addiction interrupting his career in the 1950s, he went on to work with greats Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald in the 1960s and 1970s and continued performing until shortly before his death from liver cancer in 1994.
• Next, a very playful (but surprisingly hard) birthday shove to the very funny Julia Scarlett E. Louis-Dreyfus Hall, born this day in 1961! While she is most well-known for her portrayal of the character Elaine Benes on world-conquering 1990s sitcom Seinfeld, it's important to remember her time as an SNL cast member, her bizarre appearance opposite IRL husband Brad Hall in 1986's horror-fantasy Troll, and her starring roles in more recent shows The New Adventures of Old Christine and Veep.
• Moving along, happy birthday to television screenwriter, producer, showrunner, and author Shonda Rhimes, born this day in 1970! Ms. Rhimes is most well-known as the creator, head writer, and producer of the popular Grey's Anatomy and its spin-off Private Practice, but she also brought us the political thriller Scandal and crime drama How To Get Away With Murder. What a dynamo! But let's not forget that she also wrote Britney Spears' critically-panned 2001 vehicle Crossroads...
A bunch of war stuff happened on this day across history, but the thing that really jumped out at me about today is that it was on this day in 1919 that California voted to ratify the constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale of alcohol. Boo!
OK, OK...you've waited long enough. It's link time!
1. This dude in China trained his pet goldfish to play soccer.
On the one hand, this is very impressive. On the other, they're never going to win a World Cup unless they work on their defense, too.
2. Man decides to build home gym, invites his dogs to become inaugural members.
That's a pretty sweet-looking spa and smoothie bar!
3. Want to watch praying mantises watch TV?
Of course you do! I'm conflicted about this, though — I don't know if this constitutes "enrichment" so much as "cruel torture." I'd be a pretty unhappy mantis if you kept showing me foods I could never actually eat.
4. Let's all ooh and aah at the finalists for the "Best Optical Illusion of 2020" contest!
...even if the true winner was "the belief that 2021 would be remotely better than 2020."
As a fan of both Rube Goldberg machines and the game Mouse Trap, I love this! That said, the two most unrealistic elements of this video are that 1.) someone found a functional purpose for a fidget spinner, and 2.) this little critter didn't leave a SINGLE PELLET OF POOP in its wake over the course of these five minutes. I know from experience: hamsters are sh!t machines.
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