September 21, 2015

International Peace Day
"Violence cost the world nearly 10 billion last year. Seems like we should wage more peace than war." Stephan Bauman

Many people look at John Lennon's "Imagine" as a song that defines International Peace Day.
Peace One Day

Miniature Golf Day
The Zany History of Mini Golf
America’s Wackiest Mini-Golf Courses
10 of the Coolest Mini Golf Courses Ever Made
The 15 Best Miniature Golf Courses

World Gratitude Day

The official beginning of World Gratitude Day was in 1965 at the East-West Center in Hawaii at a Thanksgiving dinner honoring grantees hosted by Sri Chinmoy, a meditation guru. As director of the United Nations Meditation Group, he suggested the idea as a globally unifying holiday. Each person pledged to hold a gratitude gathering each September 21 in their own country. The United Nations Meditation Group formally celebrated World Gratitude Day on September 21, 1977 at the New York Headquarters where Sri Chinmoy was honored for his work. Since its beginnings World Gratitude Day has been observed in many countries around the world. (source)
5 ways to celebrate World Gratitude Day with kids

Comments

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

A dime a dozen

"It's said that in the year 1796, the first U.S. dimes were produced for circulation. Hence, it would make sense for this phrase to originate sometime after." Read more here . Today the phrase carries the meaning that something is cheap or without value if it can be lumped in with other similar or exactly-like things. It's more of an insult than anything.

Life according to van Gogh...sort of

There are two ways of thinking about painting, how not to do it and how to do it; how to do it -- with much drawing and little color; how not to do it -- with much color and little drawing. Vincent van Gogh in a l etter to Theo van Gogh, April 1882 Life is a little bit like today's quote from van Gogh. Some of us live life focusing on the drawing - the details - and have very little color. Others of us go for the color and forsake, to a degree, the drawing - the details. Unlike painting, according to van Gogh, one is not wrong over the other but somewhere in between the two would be the best I would think. If you look at some of van Gogh's paintings I feel like you can see where he might have struggled between the "how to do it" and the " how not to do it" (as he admittedly loved color so much but knew he had to focus more on the drawing) and that seems to be reflected in his life as well. In the end he wasn't able to find the ...

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