January is here!

Is it just me or does the Christmas season blow by like the Enterprise at Warp Factor 7? One minute you’re wrapping presents and the next you’re looking up the nearest Weight Watchers location to satisfy that New Year’s resolution! Wow!

As you well know, my learned friends, the holiday train never slows down around here. January is no red-headed stepchild to December’s seasonal splendor. Think of new beginnings. Think of fresh starts. Think of hopeful tomorrows. And while you’re doing that, watch the Citrus Bowl, the Rose Bowl, make a New Year’s resolution, celebrate Haiti’s independence, mentor a skater while feeding them oatmeal, be creative, appreciate a dragon, ask a DJ to play “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis, make an inane answering machine message, inspire your heart, celebrate life, pay someone a compliment, pop some bubble wrap and think freely. 2009 is here, y’all - get busy!

Remember: the comments in italics are mine and mine alone and do not represent the thoughts, musings, or opinions of any person, group or entity other than myself. I just report this stuff…I don’t make it up.

Flower: Carnation or Snowdrop
Birthstone: Garnet
Full Moon: January 10 *         New Moon: January 26

  *Called the “Wolf Moon” by New England/Great Lakes Native Americans because at this time of year the wolves howl in hunger (brownielocks.com)

Monthly celebrations
Book Blitz Month
Birth Defects Month
California Dried Plum Digestive Month umm, they’re called prunes
Celebration of Life Month
Cervical Cancer Screening Month
Family Fit Lifestyle Month turn off the TV and go for a walk!
Financial Wellness Month
Get Organized Month
International Change Your Stars Month how do you change your stars?
International Creativity Month
International New Year’s Resolutions Month for Businesses
International Quality of Life Month
International Wayfinding Month what are we looking for?
International Wealth Mentality Month
National Be On-Purpose Month do I have to be on time, too?
National Clean Up Your Computer Month get the crumbs out of the keyboard!
National Get Organized Month
National Glaucoma Awareness Month
National Hobby Month dieting is not a hobby…
National Hot Tea Month
National Lose Weight, Feel Great Month
National Mail Order Gardening Monthget out the Burpee catalog!
National Mentoring Month
National Personal Self-Defense Awareness Month
National Poverty in America Awareness Month
National Radon Action Month
National Skating Month wear a helmet!
National Volunteer Blood Donor Month
Oatmeal Month try it with peanut butter!
Thyroid Awareness Month

Special January Weeks
1/1-7    Celebration of Life Week
            Diet Resolution Week I resolve not to diet…
            Silent Record Week
1/2-5     Someday We’ll Laugh About This Week yeah, sure…
1/3-18   Dakar Rally 2009
1/4-10   New Year’s Resolutions Week I see procrastination is already a problem here…
1/5-9      Home Office Safety and Security Week
1/5-11    Women’s Self-Empowerment Week
1/7-11    National Thank Your Customers Week
1/8-11    Elvis Presley Week have a butter-fried peanut butter sandwich!
             International Consumer Electronics Show
1/8-14    Universal Letter Writing Week email doesn’t count!
1/11-17  International Printing Week
             Cuckoo Dancing Week birds or people?
1/12-25  Kid Film Week they need 14 days to watch movies?
1/14-18  National Soccer Coaches Week
1/14-17  National No Tillage Week
1/15-28  Slam Dance Week do it with a cuckoo…
1/15-25  Sundance Film Festival
1/18-23  National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
1/18-24  Healthy Weight Week
             Hunt for Happiness Week it’s not wrapped up in your weight…
1/19-23  National Medical Group Practice Week
1/20-25  National Activity Professional Week
1/21-25   No Name Calling Week this might be hard…
1/24-31   National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week yee-haw! let’s rhyme, boys!
1/24-30  World Leprosy Week
1/25-31   National Nurse Anesthetists Week
             Catholic Schools Week
1/26-30  National Take Back Your Time Week where do I get it from?

January Days to Celebrate
1/1      New Year’s Day welcome 2009!
           New Year’s Dishonor List Day
           Mummer’s Parade
           Saint Basil’s Day is St. Basil a mummer?
           Tournament of Roses Parade Day
           Z Day cars or snoozing?
           Citrus Bowl, Rose Bowl, Outback Bowl
           Sudan: Independence Day
           Haiti: Independence Day
           Cuba: Liberation Day
1/2     Haiti: Ancestor’s Day
         National Geographic Bee where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
         Japan: Kakizome
         Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl
         Happy Mew Year for Cats Day wonder how they’ll celebrate…
          55-MPH Speed Limit Day
1/3     Fruitcake Toss Day toss it from the car while going 55 mph!
          Momento Mori “Remember You Die” Day
          National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
1/4     Dimpled Chad Day they’re so cute when they have dimples!
          Earth at Perihelion
          Pop Music Chart Day
          Trivia Day what was Joe Friday’s badge number?
          World Braille Day
          World Hypnotism Day you are getting veerrry sleepy…
1/5     Fiesta Bowl
          Bird Day that would be avian, not hand gestures…
          Thank God It’s Monday Day
          Congress Assembles okay, now we’re talking hand gestures…
          Twelfth Night
1/6     Epiphany or Twelfth Day
          Asarah B’Tevet
          Three Kings Day aren’t they a little late?
          Armenian Christmas
          Italy: La Befana
1/7    Japan: Usokae
        Japan: Nanakusa hey! one holiday per day per nation, please…
        Ashura
        Harlem Globetrotter’s Day can’t you just hear their theme song?
1/8   Greece: Midwife’s or Women’s Day
        St. Gudala’s Feast Day
        National English Toffee Day love the stuff…
        National Joy Germ Day spread it!
        Show and Tell at Work Day don’t bring the holiday movies…
1/9    Panama: Martyrs Day
        Philippines: Feast of the Black Nazarene
1/10  National Cut Your Energy Costs Day wear a sweater in the house!
        Positively Penguins Day
        United Nations Day invite a positive penguin to the UN!
1/11   Perigean Spring Tides
         Stephen Foster Day oh, Susannah!
1/12   England: Plough Day
         National Clean Off Your Desk Day wait! I can’t find it!
         Organize Your Home Day desk or home, people – one or the other!
         Japan: Coming of Age Day
         Tanzania/Zanzibar: Revolution Day
1/13   Norway: Tyvendedagen
         Stephen Foster Memorial Day play the banjo!
         Switzerland: Meitlisunntig
         Togo: Liberation Day
1/14   Uzbekistan: Army Day
         Ratification Day
1/15   Humanitarian Day
         Get To Know Your Customers Day customers? what customers?
        Women in Blue Jeans Day (also 1/16)
1/16  Japan: Haru-No-Yabuiri
        Malawi: John Chilembwe Day
        Religious Freedom Day
        Appreciate a Dragon Day “for we are crunchy & taste good with ketchup!”
        Nothing Day
        Bald Eagle Appreciation Days (through 1/18)
1/17  Customer Service Day
        Hot Heads Chili Day (and 1/18)
        Kid Inventors’ Day
        Judgment Day watch out, chili hot heads!
1/18  Do Dah Parade Day
        Pooh (Winnie the) Day how about a Pooh Do Dah parade?
         World Religion Day
1/19   Confederate Heroes Day frankly, my dear…
         Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday
1/20   Azerbijan: Martyrs’ Day
         Camcorder Day post a movie on YouTube!
         Inauguration Day
         National Disc Jockey Day will there be a DJ at the inauguration?
          Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day
          Guinea-Bissau: National Heroes Day
          Brazil: San Sebastian’s Day
          Brazil: Noosso Senhor do Bonfim Festival
1/21   National Hugging Day well, now, isn’t that sweet?
1/22   St. Vincent’s Feast Day
         Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day all of them?
         Celebration of Life Day
         Roe v. Wade Day
         Women’s Healthy Weight Day
1/23   Bulgaria: Babin Den
         National Handwriting Day
         National Pie Day hand write a pie recipe!
         Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day
1/24   Belly Laugh Day
         National Compliment Day make it a funny one!
1/25   Macintosh Computer Day
         A Room of One’s Own Day how about a room for my Mac?
1/26   Australia: Australia Day
         Better Business Communication Day
         Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day stomp the yard!
         Dominican Republic: National Day
         Chinese New Year (Year of the Ox)
         Lotus 1-2-3 Day a little outdated…
         National Peanut Brittle Day
         Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement with a name like Toad Hollow i guess a little encouragement is necessary…
         Solar Eclipse (visible in southern Africa, SE Asia, & Australia)
1/27   National Speak Up and Succeed Day
         Holocaust Memorial Day
         Thomas Crapper Day now there’s an unfortunate coincidence…
         Viet Nam Peace Day
1/28   India: Republic Day
1/29   Free Thinker’s Day don’t pay! (when is free balloon day?)
         Thomas Paine Day
1/30   Inane Answering Machine Message Day
         Fun At Work Day put an inane message on your voicemail!
         Pakistan: Independence Day
1/31   Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
         National Seed Swap Day got any Cherokee Purple tomatoes?

Selected Author Birthdays
1/1   J.D. Salinger, 1919; Jean Ure, 1943
1/2   Isaac Asimov, 1920; Crosby Bonsall, 1921
1/3   J.R.R. Tolkien, 1892; Carolyn Haywood, 1898; Alma Flor Ada, 1938
1/4   Jacob Grimm, 1785; Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, 1933
1/5   Lynne Cherry, 1952
1/6   Carl Sandburg, 1878; E.L. Doctorow, 1931; Wendelin Van Draanen, 1965
1/7   Zora Neale Hurston, 1891; Eleanor Clymer, 1906; Minfong Ho, 1951
1/8   Lee Ames, 1921; Stephen Manes, 1949
1/9   Clyde Robert Bulla, 1914
1/10 Sook Nyul Choi, 1937; Christopher G. Knight, 1943
1/11 Robert C. O’Brien, 1918; Alice Mead, 1952
1/12 Charles Perrault, 1628; Jack London, 1876
1/13 David Wiseman, 1916; Kathleen Elgin, 1923
1/14 Hugh Lofting, 1886; Doris Lund, 1919
1/15 Robert Silverberg, 1935; Bijou Le Tord, 1945
1/16 Andrew Glass, 1935; Robert Lipsyte, 1938
1/17 Robert Cormier, 1925; Shari Lewis, 1934; Janet Stevens, 1953
1/18 A.A. Milne, 1882; Raymond Briggs, 1934
1/19 Edgar Allen Poe, 1809; Nina Bawden, 1925; Pat Mora, 1942
1/20 Tedd Arnold, 1949
1/21 Huck Scarry, 1953
1/22 Brian Wildsmith, 1930; Rafe Martin, 1946
1/23 Katharine Holabird, 1948
1/24 John Beatty, 1922
1/25 James Flora, 1914; Nicki Weiss, 1954
1/26 Mary Mapes Dodge, 1831; Maria von Trapp, 1905
1/27 Lewis Carroll, 1832; Julius Lester, 1939
1/28 Vera B. Williams, 1927
1/29 Bill Peet, 1915; Christopher Collier, 1930; Rosemary Wells, 1943
1/30 Lloyd Alexander, 1924; Tony Johnston, 1942
1/31 Gerald McDermott, 1941; Denise Fleming, 1950; Bryan Collier, 1967

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