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Curious Events Day

While the origins of this curious holiday are unknown, we suspect that the creators of this day wanted people to stop worrying about the small things in life and focus their attention on all the inexplicable, baffling and peculiar mysteries of the world.

No matter what kind of curious events interest you, Curious Events Day is a holiday to spend some time being inquisitive about the world around you.

• Read or watch documentaries about some of the more famous curious incidents and events that have happened in the history of humankind – disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, sightings of the Yeti and the Loch Ness monster, crop circles, UFO sightings in Roswell.
• Become a sleuth yourself and try to find explanations of curious events that intrigue you.

Did You Know…

…that the English language idiom curiosity killed the cat, means that getting curious and prying into other people’s affairs can get one into trouble?

 

National Chess Day

National Chess Day is recognized on the second Saturday in October, and serious, casual, young, and old players are encouraged to get together on this day and play this great game with an ancient and illustrious history! Former U.S. President Gerald Ford announced and designated National Chess Day on October 9, 1976.

 

National Costume Swap Day

On the second Saturday in October, National Costume Swap Day encourages the pirates, princesses, dragons, and wizards to trade costumes!

No matter whether your costumes are store-bought, homemade, or patched together, stretch your costume collections. Friends, neighbors, offices, and playgroups gather to swap costumes just in time for Halloween. But the day isn’t designed just for trick-or-treaters. Theater groups prepping for the fall drama season also benefit from swapping costumes.

Not only is a costume swap a great way to save money, but it’s also an excellent opportunity to explore ideas for children of all ages. Dress up provides children a chance to use their imagination. Playing a role and pretending explores personality and the imaginary worlds they’ve only read about or seen on TV. When colorful costumes that fit their dreams suddenly appear before them, children’s eyes light up. And parents’ pocketbooks feel relieved.

When it comes to a budding theater troupe, costuming can be an arduous task. Depending on the requirements of the play, dressing the cast can almost be as difficult as dressing the stage. Area theater groups support one another in numerous ways. Costuming is just another way they help out.

Also, both approaches to costume swapping help the environment. Not only is it recycling at its best by reusing costumes, but it also keeps costumes out of landfills.

 

The art of the con

Some artists work with oil and others work with watercolor. Artist Jens Haaning works with money, says the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. His past works were called An Average Danish Annual Income and An Average Austrian Annual Income and they featured the currencies used in Denmark and Austria, 328,000 kroner and 25,000 euros respectively. Those works were popular enough that Denmark’s Kunsten Museum of Modern Art asked him to do it again and so they commissioned him and loaned him $85,000 worth of Danish kroner banknotes. But on the day before his exhibit was to open the museum received two empty frames. As he explained in an email that he sent to gallery “he thought it was more interesting to do a new work, and it was called Take the Money and Run,” according to the museum director Lasse Andersson. Haaning was supposed to return the cash, says Andersson, but the artist [or is he a con artist?] says “Of course I will not pay it back. The work is that I took the money and I will not give it back.” The museum went ahead and displayed the two empty frames alongside his email.