HOLD THE PRESSES!!! Today is World Press Freedom Day. This May 3 holiday promotes and celebrates all forms of freedom of speech, including freedom of the press. In democracies enjoy it is enjoyed as a basic human right. However, people in communist countries and those living under dictators do not have this freedom. Rather, the media is suppressed and can report only news favorable to those in power.  

This holiday recognizes the value of freedom of expression, and the sacrifices journalist have made to attain this freedom. It was created and is sponsored, by the United Nations. While we enjoy this freedom in the United States, freedom of the press, and freedom of expression, is not a given right in many countries.  

Each year, UNESCO awards the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to someone who has made a major contribution towards journalistic freedom.

World Turtle Day is an international holiday that was created for two reasons. First, this May 23 holiday is to celebrate and enjoy both turtles and tortoises. Secondly, this day is to educate people about turtles, how to protect them, and how to save their disappearing natural habitat. There is a difference between a turtle versus a tortoise. We will distinguish this difference for you. Read on.

Turtles and tortoises have a long life span. Many species live 35 to 50 years. Some species have been known to live 150-200 years. Some species are carnivores, while others are herbivores. Their populations are decreasing rapidly. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 129 of 300 species of turtles and tortoises are on the endangered species list.   

Turtle Trivia: You can tell the gender of a turtle by the noise it makes. Male turtles grunt while females hiss.

Did You Know? There actually are Turtle Festivals! We hope you plan on attending them.

Famous Turtles

The most famous turtles are:

• The four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello
• Squirt and Crush from Finding Nemo

As the old saying goes….. “Give a man some vegetables, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to grow a vegetable garden, and you feed his whole family for life!” On World Plant a Vegetable Garden Day, a May 19 holiday, you can begin a hobby that feeds your whole family for a lifetime.

It’s a hungry world. Famine affects millions upon millions of people. If everyone had even a small garden, there would be far fewer people suffering from starvation. For the average person, having a vegetable garden helps to ease the family’s food budget, too. In addition, people who grow some or all of their own vegetables often do so organically, or at least with less of those harmful chemical insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Hmmm? Healthier food for my children? Now, this alone is a great reason to start a vegetable garden today.

It’s a fact! Gardening is rewarding and good for your health. Just plant a garden and see. It is calming, relaxing, and therapeutic. Growing plants is peaceful, too. It is rewarding in many ways. First, it provides food for your table. And, that food is usually done, with less or no harmful chemicals. Ask any gardener and they will tell you the great feeling of accomplishment when the crop ripens, or the flower blooms. Successfully growing something you never tried to grow before, brings another sense of accomplishment.

World Otter Day celebrates cute and playful aquatic mammals. This day is intended to raise awareness of the importance of otters to the environment and to make people aware of their declining populations and the reasons why. There are thirteen species of otters. All thirteen species are on the Red List of Endangered species. It is important to know why their numbers are declining, and do what you can to help to stabilize and increase their populations.

Otters are aquatic mammals with webbed feet, making them excellent swimmers. If you’ve ever seen them live in the wild, at a zoo, or on an animal nature show, I’m sure you’ll agree that otters are cute and lovable creatures. Otters are members of the weasel family, and dwell on every continent, except Antarctica and Australia. They can be found in a wide variety of waters, including lakes, ponds, rivers streams, estuaries, as well as marshlands, and wetlands.

Otters spend most of their time in the water. Otters live up to 16 years. They are carnivores. Their diet consists of fish, crawfish, mollusks, frogs, small reptiles, and mammals. A hungry otter will also eat birds, small beavers, and even muskrats. Otters are smart animals. For example, they use small rocks as “tools”, to break open hard shells of clams and other mollusks. Otters make their home by digging holes along riverbanks. They have also been known to make their den under porches and decks, making themselves a nuisance to homeowners.  

Did You Know? An otter’s den is called a “Holt” or a “Couch”.

Have a Happy World Otter Day! 

This is a great day! It’s World Goth Day, A May 22 holiday. Perhaps black isn’t your color!? Well, you will be happy to know that being “Goth” isn’t just about wearing only black clothing. It’s a whole sub-culture. So, if black isn’t your color, perhaps you shud look for another lifestyle.

As it should be, everyone who is into the Goth sub-culture now has a day to celebrate who they are. Go out and embrace your inner and your outer Goth today. Today, you should celebrate who you are and your uniqueness. Find a Goth band and enjoy the music.

It’s not just wearing black that makes you Goth. The Goth culture is expressed in fashion, music art, and to some degree, behaviors.

Song of the Day: Paint it Black, by the Rolling Stones

Did You Know? The original Goths were a Germanic tribe. Between the 3rd and 5th centuries, these tribes invaded the Roman Empire from the east. There were two main tribes. The Ostrogoths established a kingdom in Italy. The Visigoths settled in Spain and formed a kingdom. The current Goth culture is in no way related to these earl Goths.

It’s Wear Purple for Peace Day. You’d think that this May 16 holiday originated from a protest of a particular war or conflict. Or, perhaps it was conceived by the UN, or another peacemaking or peacekeeping group. Our extensive research found no evidence supporting the origin of this holiday stemming from these sources. What we found, was that this day was created to promote a peaceful world in the hopes aliens from other worlds would visit us. Doesn’t that sound grand!? Then, with a little luck, aliens will begin to visit us.

Wear Purple for Peace Day is a stellar event. It seems some of you out there fear that aliens from outer space consider earthlings to be too hostile (you’ve got that right). As a result, they have yet to visit or make contact with us. So, some of you (originators unknown) decided to promote world peace by establishing Wear Purple for Peace Day.

The goal of Wear Purple for Peace Day is to make the world a peaceful place and, of course, encourage alien species to make contact with us.   

Do you want to meet aliens from another planet? Me, too! So, let’s all wear purple for peace today.

Song of the Day: It’s a tie!

• Purple Rain (1985), sung by Prince.
• One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eaters (1958), sung by Sheb Wooley.

Favorite Science Fiction Movies: ET (1982), War of the Worlds (2005)

Don’t you just love May? The weather has turned ideal for growing just about anything outdoors. Flowers are blooming everywhere you look. The month is filled with garden-related holidays. Today is another great one. It’s Water a Flower Day, a May 30 holiday. This special day exists to remind you to water your flowers…all of them.

Sure, we know that this day reads Water “a” Flower (singular) Day. It clearly indicates that a flower should be watered. But, in today’s world of equal rights and non-discrimination rules and regulations, how can you single out one particular flower to water and ignore the rest? Even if you can decide upon a certain flower, wouldn’t the rest of your flowers get upset and file a class action lawsuit? 

So please, for your own sake, water all of your flowers today. It will make them all equally happy. As a gardener, this author suggests you make your flowers very happy with you, by adding liquid fertilizer to the water. They will reward you with faster growth, and bigger blooms! I’m all for that!

Have a Happy Water a Flower Day! 

Learn about your favorite flower: How to Grow flowers

National Waiters and Waitresses Day, a May 21 holiday, recognizes the value and importance of a good waiter or waitress. It is sometimes called National Waitstaff Day. We speculate that this was done by some to shorten the title and make it gender-neutral. When you go out to eat, the waitstaff is the face of the restaurant. They are all the difference, between a good or a bad experience.

You already recognize your waiters and waitresses every time you go to a restaurant. That recognition comes in the form of a tip. The tip should be commensurate with the quality of the service. In addition to a tip, an appropriate compliment is well-received.

The original National Waiters and Waitresses Day was started to bring attention to and improve pay for the waitstaff. The total pay consists of the tips you give them, and a minimum wage. The minimum wage is lower than the general minimum wage, as it is intended to recognize tips as a portion of the overall compensation.