1/13/26 - #, VMS, Mullets, and Rubber Duckies!
- bribriny
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Tuesday 1/13/26
Celebrate:
Make Your Dream Come True Day
National Peach Melba Day
National Poetry at Work Day
National Rubber Ducky Day
National Shop for Travel Day
National Sticker Day
Printing Ink Day
Public Radio Broadcasting Day
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We've all seen Variable Messaging Signs, or VMS. You know, like wear your seatbelt, or even traffic issues ahead.
In Denver, Colorado, you sometimes get dad jokes.
“Feast your eyes on the road for Thanksgiving.”
“‘Tis the season to buckle up.”
“Texting and driving? Oh cell no!”
Along E-470 people are actually looking forward to reading the signs. It's a family affair!
They’re actually made the old-fashioned way by a small group sitting around a table inside the E-470 headquarters in Aurora, brainstorming ideas that are fun and will fit on the sign.
It all comes down to federal funding, according to E-470 executive director Joe Donahue. Since E-470 is not a state or federal highway. It’s funded by tolls and fees. So it’s not really bound as tightly to sign regulations created by the Federal Highway Administration.
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A packed crowd celebrated the much-maligned but enduring mullet hairstyle Monday in a contest at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.
The short-in-the-front, long-in-the-back coiffure, once the province of Canadian hockey players and hair metal bands, attracted about 150 competitors and more than a thousand spectators for the day’s “mane” attraction.
The top award, in the form of the rear bumper of a Corvette, went to 10-year-old Drew Fleschut of Dallas, Pennsylvania — who wore a red-and-black shirt in an homage to movie character Joe Dirt and carried Joe’s trademark mop.
There were magic tricks, customized T-shirts and even a “skullet” — a mullet sported by a balding man. One kid didn’t want to leave the stage. Another took the occasion to pick his nose. Some danced the worm, some dabbed and a few ripped off their shirts, pro-wrestling style.
One T-Shirt even read “MULLET LIFE 6-7.”
The contest, in its third year, is one of the few at the Pennsylvania Farm Show open to people who live outside the state.
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The Ozempic era is changing the economy! A Cornell study shows how GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are fundamentally changing it. Households using these drugs have cut their grocery spending by over 5% in just six months, marking a massive shift in how America shops for food.
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Scientists revealed today why some people (roughly 5% of the population) feel no joy from music. It’s called "musical anhedonia," and brain imaging shows it's caused by a failure of communication between the brain's auditory and reward systems.
(thank heavens I have mine!!)
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The "Glowcation" Boom Forget simple vacations; the 2026 travel data shows a rise in "Glowcations." These are high-end "health sabbaticals" where the goal isn't to sightsee, but to return as a "transformed" version of yourself through longevity treatments and forest immersion. Travel is no longer about where you go, but who you become when you're there.
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The first viral decluttering trend of 2026 is the "Reverse Hanger" technique. People are filming themselves turning all their closet hangers backward; if a hanger is still backward in six months, the item gets tossed. It’s a simple, visual way to face the reality of your "I might wear this one day" wardrobe.
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Instagram has officially limited hashtags to just 5 per post, down from the old 30-tag limit, and the creator community is in a tailspin. This shift means keywords in your captions and what you actually say in your videos are now the only way to be found. The era of the "comment section hashtag cloud" is officially dead.
(What are they thinking..I use...um...zero hashtags in all my posts!)
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LinkedIn is seeing a massive drop in engagement as users revolt against "LLM-generated hustle culture." People are tired of reading the same AI-written "5 things I learned about leadership" posts. Authenticity is becoming so rare on the platform that simply writing a post with a typo might actually make you more popular.
(Typos huh?? Move over..I'm king then!!)
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - National Rubber Ducky Day: Why today? This date was chosen because it's the "birthday" of the rubber ducky as established by Sesame Street. In a 1970 episode, Ernie first sang his iconic "Rubber Duckie" song.
Plus
In 1992, a shipping container lost 28,000 rubber ducks and other toys at sea. These "Friendly Floatees" ended up helping oceanographers track ocean currents for over 20 years, with some ducks traveling as far as Scotland and the Arctic.
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