Thursday 1/26/23
Celebrate:
Clashing Clothes Day
International Customs Day
Lotus 1-2-3 Day
National Green Juice Day
National Peanut Brittle Day
Spouse's Day
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Also Today is Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement - which began in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ralph C. Morrison, who taught at a local community college, had an elderly student named Eunice in his class. One day he was reading a story in a local paper which had profiled her. It mentioned the school she had attended while growing up: Toad Hollow Country School. The name of the 1834 schoolhouse, which once stood at the end of Knox Street in Kalamazoo, resonated with Morrison. Being that he was a storyteller, he began incorporating Toad Hollow into his fictional stories. He turned it into a town, and when people would ask him where it was, and he would tell them, "In your heart."
Eventually, Kalamazoo County said he could use a local park to tell his stories. In 1992, he formed a non-profit society to operate the park; it was made up of volunteers called "voluntoads." They built a nineteenth-century homestead and town, and refurbished the already-existing grist mill. They called their creation Toad Hollow. Classes in blacksmithing, quilting, and candle and soap making were held, as were events such as Renaissance Fairs and Civil War reenactments. This lasted just three years when apparently the county took back the land.
The voluntoads went on to teach in nearby schools until 2003, where they shared the arts, knowledge of trades, storytelling, writing, and even did some barbecuing. At some point, the voluntoads also came up with Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement. It stemmed from the idea that they liked sharing what they knew with others, and they thought having the day would help others act in a similar way. The day is for supporting, encouraging, and making heartfelt connections with others, and for sharing "a kind word with your fellow man." It is a day for volunteering, to show others the things you love, and to encourage them to share as well.
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We’re closer than ever to destroying ourselves, namely with nuclear weapons, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which has set its "Doomsday Clock" to 90 seconds before midnight. Russian President Vladimir Putin — who presides over the world's largest nuclear arsenal and whose war on Ukraine has not gone according to plan — is one of the top risks, the BAS said. Other threats include climate change and more pandemics caused by animal diseases spreading to humans.
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Oreo-stuffed Oreos. The newest Oreo variant is called The Most Oreo Oreo cookies, and they have a larger dollop of creme filling – and the filling has ground Oreo cookies mixed in. The limited edition cookies are available for pre-sale on Oreo.com and begin arriving in stores starting Jan. 30.
Timed to the arrival of The Most Oreo Oreos is a new online Oreo-themed virtual reality world called the Oreoverse. You can use your Meta Quest 2 or Meta Quest Pro VR headsets to explore the Oreoverse, or use your smartphone or computers and visit oreoverse.oreo.com. Once there, you can play Oreo-themed games and enter to win a $50,000 grand prize.
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Some guy has been trending on TikTok after he came up with a hack to make pasta stir ITSELF while it's being cooked.
If you don't stir it, it clumps together. But you don't want to stand over it. So here's the hack . .
Turn the burner up to high, but only put half of the pot on it. In other words, it's off to one side, not centered on the burner.
He does it in the video, and it makes that side of the pot boil a lot harder than the other side. So the macaroni he's cooking gets rolled around by the boiling water, and he doesn't have to stir at all.
Some people think it's great. Others pointed out that you can get away with only stirring pasta once, right after you put it in the water. So it might just take longer to cook and not be worth it.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - If Brooklyn were its own city and not just a borough of New York, it would be the fourth largest city in the country.
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Check out the web version of this briefing, along with The Anniversary Song of the Day and more content, on the web at https://bribriny.wixsite.com/brianbriefing
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