Things Take A Serious Tone While Cast Away With Robinson Crusoe, Abraham Lincoln, And An Ass Load Of Snakes

It's Robinson Crusoe Day! Yay? Should we all get lost at sea for 28 years? Should I erect that shrine for Daniel Defoe I've been planning for nearly a decade? Should we memorize the full title of Robinson Crusoe? (This is actually the most ridiculous option.) Here are a few little known facts about Robinson Crusoe. First off, this was a book so popular that in less than a year its first volume ran through four editions. So popular it coined the term "Robinsonade" to describe a genre of similar tales. There are over 700 versions of Crusoe including: children's books, toilet paper, welcome mats, socks, and cat sweaters. But to be honest this day really isn't about Robinson Crusoe but commemorating the true story of lost Scot Alexander Selkirk, cast away for four years on Mas a Tierra, who influenced Defoe to write RC. Today is also a day to be self-reliant, adventurous, and make clothing out of goat skin sewn together with a nail and urinated on for tanning. Live your own adventure today but please don't get lost at sea on a "3 hour tour.."

Sssssss....SSSSsssss....SSssss...That's snake for Happy National Serpent Day! (and a recipe for a lovely buckwheat pancake) Our slithery little friend, our icky, evil, chill inducing little friend, the snake is an amazing creature. Having no need to evolve in 65 million years, probably a main reason for dinosaur extinction, the snake can smell blood two miles away, has an average land speed of 23.25mph, and can keep the rat/small pet population of any village to a minimum. Said to have tempted a couple of people in a garden with some candy apples, the snake is true evil. Snakes would sliver in and kill all of our children if Taft hadn't passed the Mongoose Act of 1913. Mandating that all homes with one child must own a mongoose and homes with two or more children must also own a Tailor Bird in addition to the fury, Mangus, kill machine. Today join your local herpetological society, go out and find a snake, hug a snake, or make it a birthday cake...of mice. (Please don't.) Whatever you do take today to appreciate these horrible little bastards with their lack of arms and shifty eyes. 

Happy National Freedom Day! This is a day to celebrate Lincoln's Feb. 1, 1865 signing of a resolution which would become the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery. This has been a National holiday since 1948 and paved the way for February to become Black History Month, even though it has now been overshadowed by the month long observance. It's a day to thank Lincoln by dressing your children up, mostly as trees, cats, and a lucky (beautiful) few as people, to reenact the signing of the Amendment and portray the struggles of those who fought against slavery. (Sidenote: I've played both a tree and cat.) I'm not trying to make light or down-play such an important day in the fight for equality, just trying to bring a smile to Lincoln's extremely stern and beared face. Grab a book, or the internets, and learn more about toppling slavery because knowledge is power! 

Curveball! We have a fourth, that's a big 0-4, observance today and that's American Heart Month Observance Day. Having watched my stepfather Bob fight Congestive Heart Failure for several years before passing away, this day and whole month for that fact mean a lot to me. A lot of times you  never really think about these diseases until they directly affect you but like cancer, heart disease has reared its ugly head in far too many of our lives. (Serious and honesty alert.) It renders me speechless and nearly to tears thinking about losing Bob to this day and how you always wish more could have been done. There wasn't more to do. It was all tried and in the end all failed. Heart disease can get any of us. Any. Big, small, healthy, or unhealthy. There is no discrimination. (This is getting hard to write.) You want to be aware of of your heart's health and of those you love because you never know. You don't want to wake up one morning questioning God and your own efforts. If you can avoid that pain, that doubt, do it. Bob never really got to enjoy his extremely deserved retirment after 40+ years in a steel mill because of CHF. His birthday would have been this Sunday and he would have turned 75. I'm sorry this got so personal and serious but it had to. Cheers.