Tuesday 2/14/23
Celebrate:
Extraterrestiral Culture Day
International Book Giving Day
International Quirkyalone Day - official Valentine's Day alternative for singles
League of Women Voters Day
Library Lovers Day
National Call in Single Day
National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day
National Ferris Wheel Day
National Have a Heart Day
National Organ Donor Day
Pet Theft Awareness Day
Race Relations Day
Read to Your Child Day
Safer Internet Day
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Valentines Day!
Conversation hearts got their start as medical lozenges. A Boston pharmacist invented a machine to make medical lozenges . . . but then he switched to making circular candies with it. This was in 1847. In 1866, his brother came up with the idea to print messages on the candies. And in 1902, they became heart-shaped.
Hallmark's Valentine's Day greeting cards first appeared on store shelves in 1916. The company's founder, J.C. Hall, began selling Valentine's Day postcards earlier, in 1910.
People in the U.S. will spend about $26 billion on Valentine's Day, or about $2 billion more than last year, according to a National Retail Federation forecast. Just over half of people surveyed said they would celebrate, with the average spend totaling $193.
The report predicts that 57 percent of V-Day funds will be spent on candy, 40 percent on flowers, 21 percent on jewelry, 20 percent on gift cards, and clothing will likely account for 19 percent of spending.
The report also indicated that more than half of people planning to spend will take advantage of sales and promotions as they make purchases.
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Seniors at The Villages retirement community in Florida are supposedly tying LOOFAHS to the tops of their cars to let people know they're swingers.
Different colors are supposed to mean different things.
Not everyone's convinced it's really a thing though. Seniors ARE tying loofahs to their cars, but there's another explanation that's innocent.
Reddit had the rumors, and someone who claimed to work at The Villages weighed in.
They said it doesn't mean they're swingers . . . it's just to help find their car in parking lots. Having a loofah on top makes it easier.
(Don't they know about Pineapples??? But I guess you wouldn't want that on your car)
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The staff at BuzzFeed came up with 61 different online etiquette rules we should all be following. But not all of them are that good. Some are dumb, or oddly specific to things like Twitter's "Circle" feature, or the app BeReal.
But here are a few we found interesting . . .
1. If someone sends you a meme you've already seen, "haha" it anyway. Saying "yeah, I already saw that" just seems kind of rude.
2. When you put someone on speakerphone, give them a heads up if someone's with you. We've had speakerphones for a long time, but people still don't follow that rule.
3. No more than two food photos at the table. If you're someone who posts photos of meals, the limit is one photo, and one more if the first one was blurry.
4. "Deep likes" are creepy. That's when you go in and like a photo from six years ago. You've obviously been scrolling through their feed way too long.
5. Your main dating profile pic can't be a group photo. If it is, you're making people guess which person you are.
6. You should unfollow your friends' exes out of solidarity. The exception is when it's amicable, and they're still friends.
7. Never text just the word "hi" or "hey." It's a waste of time and creates an annoying extra "ding" for them to deal with. In general, you should combine more of your short texts into one longer text.
8. Never FaceTime someone out of the blue, ask first. It's rude to start a video chat without asking. Then they feel rude if they don't want to pick up.
9. People over 30 shouldn't use GIFs. Isn't that one just kinda ageist? (Boooooo)
10. If you "like" a comment on someone's post, like the post too. Otherwise it's like saying their post was fine, but their friend's comment was much better. Quote, "If you're going to be at the party, thank the host."
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Scientists from Penn State University have created a "smart diaper" . . . with a built-in sensor that's able to send parents a push notification on their phone when their child's diaper needs to be changed.
And not only that, but it can provide levels of dirtiness.
The smart diapers are made of paper, and include sodium chloride (salt) . . . graphite . . . a circuit board . . . and a tiny lithium battery.
Once it gets wet, the graphite reacts with the liquid and sodium chloride and . . . as it's absorbed by the paper, electrons will set off a sensor.
The diapers are still in the development stage so it's unclear when they'd be available and, more importantly, how much they'd cost. So for now, you'll have to stick to checking the diaper yourself like usual.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - The first heart-shaped box of chocolates debuted in 1861. It was created by Richard Cadbury, the son of Cadbury founder John Cadbury, and he started packaging chocolates in fancy boxes to increase sales.
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