Titanic, British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 15, 1912, en route to New York from Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage.
The largest and most luxurious ship afloat, the Titanic had a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 watertight compartments. Because four of these could be flooded without endangering its buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable. Shortly before midnight on April 14, it collided with an iceberg southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland; five compartments ruptured and the ship sank. Some 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers died.
After the disaster, new rules were drawn up requiring that the number of places in lifeboats equal the number of passengers (the Titanic had only 1,178 lifeboat places for 2,224 passengers) and that all ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch for distress signals (a ship less than 20 mi [32 km] away had not heard the Titanic’s distress signal because no one had been on duty). The International Ice Patrol was established to monitor icebergs in shipping lanes. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Titanic
The percentage of Americans without religious affiliation, often labeled as “Nones”, is around 20-29% – with people who identify as “nothing in particular” accounting for the growing majority of this demographic … (See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_States)
Alain de Botton’s TED talk Atheism 2.0 (see text at docs.google.com/document/d/1usIBKFP9SMqH922EYsTkt9gABxVyT-SRR3mMub0wnio/)
“December 14 is Monkey Day! We may look just a bit different from our primate pals, but we shouldn’t forget that we share a common ancestor with them in chimpanzees! Warm up those vocal cords and get ready to unleash your wildest calls and cries in observance of this holiday, which celebrates not just monkeys, but everything simian.
Casey Sorrow and Erik Millikin, both studying art at Michigan State University, are responsible for the creation of this simian-centric celebratory day. Sorrow (fittingly) would admit to the Detroit Metro Times that he experienced a form of malaise around the holiday season and felt compelled to find a way to combat these December blues. After jokingly jotting down “Monkey Day” in a friend’s calendar, Sorrow took the idea and ran with it … What started out as a bit of fun has evolved into a full-blown operation. Monkey Day serves as an important anniversary each year for raising awareness of modern threats to monkeys, with entities such as National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, and Greenpeace promoting the day.” https://nationaltoday.com/monkey-day/
National Ding-A-Ling Day is one of those uniquely American inventions. It’s sort of a two-fer holiday where you touch base (preferably by phone — hence the playful reference to “ding-a-ling”) with friends or family you may have lost track of during the year. You also get a free pass to be just a little bit weird for the day.
(Initiated in 1971) the idea for National Ding-A-Ling Day evolved during a group conversation about people being friendlier and staying connected with loved ones. Somehow the term “ding-a-ling” came up — defined as “one who hears bells in his head.” Soon, millions of people were touching base on December 12 (or “ding-a-linging” because iPhones weren’t invented yet) with contacts they hadn’t spoken to throughout the year.” https://nationaltoday.com/national-ding-a-ling-day/
Here’s a fun variation of the Ding-a-Ling song by Sha Na Na
“Retail therapy is shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer’s mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or stress, … (the term) was first used in the 1980s, with the first reference being this sentence in the Chicago Tribune of Christmas Eve 1986: “We’ve become a nation measuring out our lives in shopping bags and nursing our psychic ills through retail therapy ….
Here’s an interesting book for your consideration:
“Often unknowingly the vast majority of us collude in a system that encourages addiction and co-dependence – and sees these states as normal. Many of us are addicted to chemicals, not only to alcohol or drugs but nicotine, caffeine, chocolate and overeating in general. Even more of us are involved in addictive processes: workaholism, gambling, compulsive shopping, sex, and so on. The realization of the extent of our addictions, both individually and as a society, is shocking but this book shows that these addictions can be identified and reversed.” https://annewilsonschaef.com/books/society-becomes-addict/
As Sarah A. Bowen, director of the Animal Chaplaincy program and author of Sacred Sendoffs (c) 2022, would say WTF? BTW: WTF is short for What the Fluff. https://www.sacredsendoffs.com/
So, today is National Absurdity Day – where did this come from?
“The real philosophy of absurdism began in the 19th century in the mind of a Danish philosopher called Kierkegaard. Its premise is that humans are all searching to find meaning in a meaningless universe. As the years passed, this philosophy gained popularity and became the touchstone for a movement in theatre and literature in Europe and North America.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the peak of such artistic movements as the Theater of the Absurd and Surrealism gave rise to an entire genre of literature based on nonsequitur behaviors and otherworldly plots. One of the works from this time, “Waiting for Godot”, is based entirely around a pair of characters waiting at a tree for their friend, Godot — whom we never meet — to arrive.
Established in 2011, National Redhead Day is celebrated to recognize this rarest of hair colors. Not always appreciated, redheads have been sometimes labeled as fiery, hot-tempered, nymphomaniacs and/or witches. Well, today they are labeled beautiful. https://nationaltoday.com/national-redhead-day/