Author: Lisa Mungovan

Time Magazine, has named Gitanjali Rao, their Kid of the Year. The 15-year-old is a scientist and inventor. She created a tool to detect led in water when she was only 10. She’s also created apps to diagnose early-stage opioid addiction, and to spot and prevent cyber-bullying. In her spare time, she’s a student pilot!

London Christmas Tree Rental, has a fantastic solution, for people who want a living Christmas tree. They deliver a potted tree, to your house. At the end of the season, they return it to the farm. You can rent the same tree every year! When they reach 7-feet-tall, the trees get planted and retire.

Pearls form when a parasite or grain of sand, gets into an oyster or clam. The animal surrounds the irritant in a coating, called nacre, to protect itself. Many layers of nacre, form a pearl. Today is Wear Your Pearls Day, reminding us that we can create beauty, from the bad stuff in life.

Have you ever tried to get a bunch of cats to obey you? They tend to ignore you, do what they want, and make a mess. So when someone’s having a hard time getting a group of people to do something, they say, “it’s like herding cats.” Happy Cat Herders Day!

A traveling businessman, left his painting at a German airport. He asked the airport to hold it for him, but it had disappeared. Police stepped in to help find the painting, which was worth $340,000. It was finally located, still packed in its cardboard box, in the bottom of a large recycling container. Yikes!

A family in Hampshire England, found a buried treasure, while digging in their garden. It was a stash of 63 gold coins! The 15th century coins, are just one of the 6,251 valuable discoveries made in the UK, while people were on pandemic lockdown. If you’re bored, go dig a hole. Who knows what you’ll find!

Today in the United States, the Electoral College meets to officially cast their votes, to elect the next President, Joe Biden, and Vice-President, Kamala Harris. Each state has a certain number of electors, based on its population. The electors cast their votes for the winner of the popular vote in their state.

You’ve heard the song that begins, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but have you ever eaten one? Today is Roast Chestnuts Day, so buy some chestnuts if you don’t happen to have a chestnut tree. Roast them on a campfire, grill, or in the oven, until the skin splits, then peel and eat!

Today is Monkey Day! It started as a joke when a college student wrote “Monkey Day” on his friend’s calendar, but it’s now celebrated around the world. Did you know, almost all monkeys have tails? The smallest monkeys are Pygmy marmosets, at only 4.6 inches long! Jump around like a monkey today, and eat bananas!

At a Dairy Queen restaurant in Minnesota, a chain of kindness grew 900 cars long. A man started the chain, by paying for the order of the car behind him. That customer decided to pay it forward, by paying for the next car. People kept the generosity chain going for 3 days!