Dance Like a Chicken Day
One of the best movie versions of the chicken dance takes place in an often-overlooked flick, "He Said, She Said" (1991) with Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins. The accordion song that inspires even the most stoic and sober among us to dance like poultry is called "The Duck Dance" or "Der Ententanz." You can thank composer and accordionist Werner Thomas. Celebrate by watching a video of the World's Largest Chicken Dance. Don't forget to cluck along.
Underground America Day
Architect Malcolm Wells considered building underground a gentle, promising and overlooked way to build without destroying the land. Underground America Day honors "the 6,000 or so North Americans who make their homes not only on the Earth but in it," according to Underground America Day. Wells started the holiday in 1974.
Wells said, "I woke up one day to the fact that the Earth's surface was made for living plants, not industrial plants. ... On May 14th each year hundreds of millions of people all across this great land will do absolutely nothing about the national holiday I declared in 1974, and that's just the way it should be." (Malcolm Wells)
Buttermilk Biscuit Day
There was a time when enjoying homemade biscuits with at least one meal per day was the norm. But that was the 1840s. Today not many people take the time to make homemade biscuits without the help of the Pillsbury Dough Boy or a Bisquick mix. Buttermilk used to be one of the staple ingredients in both biscuits and pancakes. We consume a lot less buttermilk than ever before. By the early 2000s, the average American consumed less than 1 gallon of buttermilk annually, compared to more than 7 gallons of milk (per person) in 1909, according to "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink."
WAAC 70th Anniversary
"The Honorable Edith Nourse Rogers, congresswoman from Massachusetts, introduced a bill for the creation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps," according to the U.S. Army. Congress approved the creation of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) on May 14, 1942. Women ages 21 to 45 could enlist and the first women arrived at the WAAC Training Center opened at Fort Des Moines, Iowa on July 20, 1942.
Oveta Culp Hobby, known for her work in the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations was sworn in as the first WAAC Director. The group "adopted Pallas Athene, Greek goddess of victory and womanly virtue - wise in peace and in the arts of war - as its symbol" according to the U.S. Army.
