Author: Lisa Mungovan

The Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off, in California, is the Super Bowl of Pumpkins. The new Pumpkin King of Half Moon Bay, grown by Brandon Dawson, weighed 2,346 pounds, beating the competition by 300 pounds! Last year his entry weighed more, at 2,465 pounds, but the winner was just 6 pounds heavier.

Today is World Food Day, created by the United Nations. This year’s theme is, “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future.” Cooperation is key, to people getting enough to eat. Governments, farmers, communities and individuals must all work together. Food is essential, and everyone deserves to eat.

Today is Learn A Word Day. Luckily, it’s also Dictionary Day, which is the best way to learn the meaning of a word. If you can’t think of a word to look up, just flip through the pages for one that sounds interesting, or search for Q- or X-words for your next Scrabble game.

Today is known as both Global Cat Day, and Feral Cat Day. Maybe it’s because if one feral, or wild, cat has kittens, and their kittens have kittens, and so on, in 9 years there would be 11,000,000 cats! Cats are awesome, but they would rapidly take over the world. Meow-za!

The hagfish is amazingly disgusting. Sometimes called the slime eel, the hagfish has no skull or jaws. It escapes predators by releasing up to 5 gallons of slime, clogging the attacker’s gills with mucous. It eats dead animals by crawling in through their mouth and eating the carcass from the inside out. Happy Hagfish Day!

The US National Park Service is celebrating National Fossil Day today. Fossils are prehistoric plants or animals, petrified and preserved in stone. Paleontologists study fossils, like dinosaur bones! You can download a Junior Paleontologist Activity Booklet online ,at nps.gov/subjects/fossils, to help you celebrate. Have you ever found a fossil?

Today is Mushroom Day. There are over 10,000 kinds of mushrooms, but only around 600 are edible. That means, if you see a mushroom in your yard, don’t eat it. It might be poisonous! Instead, choose a variety of mushrooms at the store, for your fungi feast. Save the wild mushrooms, for your photo album.

Do you have a little flat-faced dog? There’s a good chance you can celebrate Pug Day! The dog breed has been around for more than 2,400 years. It’s also Lemon Bar Day and Cheese Curd Day. Whether you prefer a sweet treat with a sour kick, or squeaky chunks of cheese, today’ll be tasty!

Go wash your hands. It’s Global Handwashing Day! Washing your hands is an amazingly easy way to stay healthy. Your hands might look clean, but they could still be covered with germs that can make you sick! It’s also Grouch Day. If you’re in a bad mood today, just say you’re celebrating.

When a Pennsylvania family took a vacation to New York City, they thought they were leaving their cat at home. However, about 100 miles into their drive, they stopped for gas and found Ray Ray, clinging to the luggage strapped on the roof. They continued their trip with the kitty adventurer tucked safely inside.