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🌅 We hope your day is off to a good start...
Happy Summer Solstice! Today is the longest day of the year, a fact that Boredwalk co-founder Meredith firmly believes is proof that she is cursed and that the universe hates her, as it is also her birthday. I choose to believe that, if anything, the universe just wants to celebrate her for as long as possible — I know I do!
I don't like Mondays 😾
Happy Juneteenth! Today marks the anniversary of the end of slavery in the US. Technically this occurred in 1862 by congressional act and in 1863 by presidential proclamation, but travel and communication infrastructure being what it was back then, it took another two whole years for news of this liberation to reach far-flung outposts like Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1865.
Stuck for conversation topics? 🤔
Happy Bloomsday! Apparently this is a national observance in Dublin, Ireland commemorating novelist James Joyce's first seggsual encounter with his muse (and eventual wife) Nora Barnacle. Weird!
What will wake you up faster than 10 cups of coffee? ☕
Happy National New Mexico Day! The Land of Enchantment is presumably worth celebrating for an entire day. I'll find out for myself what all the hubbub is about a week from today when I'm passing through and stopping for the night in Santa Fe on my way east to visit my family IRL for the first time since late 2021. I expect the New Mexicans to greet me with open arms full of yucca flowers and biscochitos! No tarantula hawk wasps,* though, please.
Some days have a lot to offer! 😃
TODAY...IS NOT ONE OF THOSE DAYS 😒
Happy National Red Rose Day! Yes, I am aware that the roses in the It Will All Work Out In The End design featured above are more of a lavender hue, but this is what I'm reduced to when the random occasion powers-that-be are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I mean, come on — National Jerky Day? National Peanut Butter Cookie Day? International Falafel Day? Nothing against these foods, each of which I have enjoyed at various times in my life, but none of them would feature in my starting lineup of can't-miss snacks.
Jerky is fine when you're on a road trip and feeling peckish in a remote location. Falafel & tahini sauce has kept vegans visiting strange cities alive for decades. Peanut butter cookies are a confection that exists. But, speaking for myself only, none of these snacks are among those that I have ever had an out-of-the-blue hankering for. Get it together, June 12th!
Tomorrow is International Axe-Throwing Day, which is much more exciting than any of the foods listed above.
gif via ABC/Grey's Anatomy
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Thankfully there are at least some notable births and events to celebrate on June 12th — perhaps yours, but if not...
• Eat some cake in honor of the following birthday persons: Diarist/Holocaust victim Anne Frank (1929), singer-songwriter Meredith Brooks (1958), musician John Linnell of They Might Be Giants fame (1959), comedian, actor, and Kid in the Hall Scott Thompson (1959), actor Jason "Jay" Mewes of the Clerks film franchise (1974), and Swedish singer-songwriter Robyn (1979)
• The earliest form of bicycle, the laufsmaschine — derisively referred to as the "dandy horse" at the time — was driven by Karl von Drais on this day in 1817
• The Baseball Hall of Fame opened on this day in 1939
• Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday on this day in 1942
• NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was murdered in front of his home by a Ku Klux Klan member in retaliation to the Civil Rights Movement on this day in 1963
• Anti-apartheid activist and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison for "sabotage" in South Africa on this day in 1964
• The US Supreme Court declared all U.S. state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia case on this day in 1967
• 49 civilians were killed and 58 others were injured in the Pulse gay nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida on this day in 2016
• Pour one out for: actor and political activist Gregory Peck (2003), most notable for his portrayal of attorney Atticus Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and character actor Philip Baker Hall (2022), who is probably most famous for his single-episode appearance on the sitcom Seinfeld as Lieutenant Joe Bookman, the "library cop."
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Alright! No new community Q&A this week. However, if you're feeling even moderately outgoing and would like to be featured in an upcoming Monday email (and are a customer with some Boredwalk tees, tanks, hoodies, towels, bags, or books to show off), just reply to this and let us know and we'll send you some fun questions!
We'll be back here in your inbox on Wednesday with some more random holidays to observe, historical tidbits to acknowledge, and fun links to entertaining content! Until next time...
Peace, love, and adequate snacks,
Matt
Vilify me like one of your 🐍-haired girls
You know who probably didn't do much blushing? Gorgons. Medusa and her sisters Stheno and Euryale strike us as dynamic, empowered women who get after what they want, regardless of societal mores.
📼 We control the vertical...
Happy National VCR Day! Before you reflexively assume you were drugged and stuffed into the passenger seat of a tricked-out Delorean and sent to 1985 — which would make the sending AND receiving of this email VERY impressive — rest assured that it is (for better or worse) still 2023.
Everything happens for a reason 😒
As I sit here typing this missive to you it is June 1st and it is a chilly 67 degrees Fahrenheit with gray skies and intermittent rain. I am wearing a hoodie. This is day who-can-even-keep-track of gloomy weather in Los Angeles, a famously warm, dry, sunny place.
Nothing matters! 🎉
Finding yourself caught up in your daily drudgery of responsibilities and expectations? Our shiny new design up top is a reminder that in the grand scheme of things we're all destined to be worm food and the sun will eventually self destruct and take the planet down with it.
Colorful language! 🦜
IT'S WORLD PARROT DAY
World Parrot Day is every day in my neighborhood because we live amid a zillion squawking wild parrots whose deafening shrieks can be heard throughout the daylight hours. The pocket of the Los Angeles metro area I call home is actually heavily populated with wild exotic birds, but the peacocks and parrots are by far the most boisterous.
Wild parrots mate for life and some breeds can live over 60 years. They are also well-known for learning to use words and chumming around with pirates. One parrot got into the Guinness Book of World Records for having a vocabulary of over 1700 words! These chatterboxes are even joining the digital age and using phones to catch up with friends.
Although I do think parrots are pretty cool, I would definitely try to say on their good side. I wouldn't want to cross this little psychopath.
Don't you give me the side-eye, sir, we know what you're capable of.
GIF via TLC
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Want a few famous May 31st birthdays and historical facts before we get to this week's amusing links? Of course you do!
•Born on this day: model/actress Brooke Shields (1965), poet Walt Whitman (1819), actor Colin Farrell (1976), actress Lea Thompson (1989), and rapper Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run-DMC (1964)
• The first US Copyright Law was enacted on this day in 1790. (Not-so-fun-fact: current US copyright laws are nearly worthless — something for our ineffectual lawmakers to consider addressing.)
• Psy's "Gangnam Style" became the first video to reach 2 billion views on YouTube on this day in 2014
• The Great Clock housing Big Ben started keeping time in London on this day in 1859
Now on to the amusing links!
Josh, Grace, and Tess did a little heckling of their own in response to some rude comments we've collected on our various social media accounts. For more LOLs from our team be sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok and/or YouTube.
The answers confirm what we already know, but an entertaining watch nonetheless.
This stunning time lapse depicts flowers blooming in a way that's kind of reminiscent of fireworks! But, you know, without upsetting your house pets.
Amusing New Yorker comics that imagine what would happen if our animals were a lot less supportive. Did that parrot write these? I think he did!
5. 😸 Kitty goes kayaking
Watch this adventurous cat take in his first day on a lake
OK! We'll be back here in your inbox on Friday — possibly with new art — more nonsense holidays to dissect, more notable birthdays (and maybe even some notable deathdays!) to celebrate, and more witty content in general. Until next time...
Peace, love, and parrots,
Merdith
🤔 How do Dracula & Wolf Man celebrate long weekends?
But that is three whole days from now! Today is Friday May 26th. And you know what that means: the true reason for the season.
Happy World Dracula Day!
Eating our feelings 😋
Happy National Asparagus Day! While I will concede that the Stalk of Stinky Pee is something of an acquired taste for the uninitiated, it is one of my favorite vegetables — easily in my Top 10 when in season (which it currently is).