HI! hugs
There are seven (7) birfdays listed for this week on the Unofficial Birthday List:
- DarkSilver is forty-seven Today! (Sunday, April 7th) Happy Birfday!
- Bohor will be fifty-three tomorrow (Monday, April 8th.)
- Sky will be thirty-one on Tuesday (April 9th.)
- Silver Fang will be forty-one on Thursday (April 11th.)
- Heartscale will be twenty-six also on Thursday.
- Ether Ravner will be thirty-four on Friday (April 12th.) And
- Till (Rvbcaboose) will be thirty-five on Saturday, (April 13th.)
Many Happy Returns of your day!
On the Local Furry Events Desk, Furry Underground Toronto will host “Notice Me Sen-Paw” this Thursday (April 11th) from 9:00 PM until 2:00 AM. It’s at 739 Queen Street West, 2nd floor (near the corner of Queen W and Tecumseth, kitty-corners from the A&W.) This New Tokyo anime-themed dance is a collaboration featuring Basic Witch of Oni Girls, DarkSyn of Dream Arena and DJ Aurora and Azalea the Witch of Furry Underground. Admission is Pay What You Can. The dance is LGBTQ+ friendly. Please be 19 or older.
Jinx Lynx is hosting a High Park Spring Furwalk on Saturday (April 13th) starting at 2:30 PM. Obviously, it will be held at High Park, Toronto, hopefully in time for the cherry blossoms. Meet at the North Gate by the picnic tables on the right as you enter. The walk will start at 2:30 and continue until it ends. If the weather is bad, the walk is cancelled.
Golden State Fur Con and Motor City Furry Con are wrapping up today. Three Furry conventions will begin this weekend.
- Furcationland, April 12th to 14th, Portland, ME
- Woods Flock, April 12th to 14th, Spencer, TN
- Furry Tea Party, April 13th to 14th, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
On the Holidays and Occasions Desk, today (Sunday, April 7th) is Green Shirt Day, an event to encourage people to become organ donors. Today is World Health Day, sponsored by the World Health Organization (and related organizations), to bring attention to health in general. Today is International Beaver Day, in honour of Canada’s national animal. And today is the anniversary of Snowfox’s death in 2009.
Tomorrow (Monday, April 8th) will be The Big Eclipse. Please see the endnote. Tomorrow will be Hana Matsuri, a Japanese flower festival celebrating Buddha’s Birfday. Tomorrow will be Jashan of Farvardin, a Zoroastrian celebration of souls. And tomorrow will be Draw A Bird Day; please see the endnote.
On Tuesday (April 9th), Eid al-Fitr will begin at sunset, the feast at the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month. And Tuesday will be Vimy Ridge Day, the Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917.
Wednesday (April 10th) will be International Day of Pink, a day against bullying within and against the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Wednesday will also be International Siblings Day. This is like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day for your brothers and sisters; so far, it’s mostly an American thing, but it’s a good idea.
Thursday (April 11th) will be National Pet Day, a Canadian celebration of pets. And Thursday will be World Parkinson’s Day, which promotes understanding and research into this debilitating disease.
Friday (April 12th) will be Yuri’s Night, also known as International Day of Human Space Flight, the anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person to travel in space in 1961. And Friday will be International Street Children’s Day. This day was started to provide a voice for children who live on the street so that their rights cannot be ignored.
Saturday (April 13th) will be Vaisakhi, a spring harvest festival. For Sikhs, it is their New Year’s Day, but also the anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth and last human Guru), challenging his followers to show allegiance to their religion.
And a heads-up for next Monday (April 15th.) It will be World Art Day.
If you want to be on the Unofficial Birthday List, or if you’d prefer to be removed or have your entry changed, email me at dotter8@gmail.com, and I’ll fix it for you promptly. I WILL NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR REQUESTS SENT IN ANY OTHER WAY! (Requests should include the name you are or want to be entered under so that I know which “Jim Smith” to change to “Honking Camel. “) Please note that the UBL is NOT linked to the TorFur list; if you change or delete your TorFur entry, you must notify me separately. Also, it’s my policy never to add people to the UBL unless they ask to be added, changed or removed themselves. Please don’t ask for somebody else. However, you can have a Character of Significance on the list, provided you own it. (Ask me.)
Nips & cuddles,
— Dee
Eclipse Tips
Tomorrow (Monday, April 8th) is the big solar eclipse. *REMEMBER!* Looking directly at the sun can blind you unless you have special eclipse filter glasses to protect you. It’s only safe to look directly at the sun *during totality;* you must use protection immediately before and after! (…unless you actually want to damage your eyes, in which case I accept no responsibility.)
Please be sure your eclipse filters are genuine, there are fakes on the market that are unsafe. Genuine Eclipse glasses should have the name and address of the company that made them and the company that tested them printed right on them. They should also say they are *ISO #12312-2 certified.* If any of that is missing, especially if they imply that they’re ISO certified but don’t actually say so, that’s a sign that they’re fakes. Giving the sun a glance in advance through your eclipse glasses shouldn’t hurt; if it does, they’re fakes.
You can substitute a welding mask, but you need a shade 13 or 15 filter lens. Welding supply stores usually special order those, so if you don’t already have one, it’s too late.
If you wear prescription glasses, simply slip the eclipse glasses over them. Even with eclipse glasses, watching the show without breaks is not a good idea. If nothing else, you’ll get a sore neck! Two to four minutes at a time should do. And yes, looking directly at the sun during totality is safe. You *will* need protection immediately before and after.
You’ve probably heard that the GTA is almost but not quite in the path of totality; Toronto will get 99% at about 3:19 PM. Use Eclipse glasses for the whole thing. Hamilton is the nearest city on the path. Niagara Falls is deeper in the path, but it will be a zoo and not the good kind. Kingston is also on the path if you have the day off, and I hear of fewer people planning on going there.
In Hamilton, the eclipse will start at 2:03 PM, reach totality at about 3:19 PM and end at 4:31 PM. Totality will last for nearly two minutes.
In Kingston, the eclipse will start at 2:09 PM, reach totality between 3:22 PM and 3:25 PM and end at 4:34 PM. Totality will last for just over three minutes.
Burlington (3:26 PM for over 3.3 minutes) and Fort Erie or anywhere in Niagara-On-The-Lake (3:20 PM for 3.75 minutes) are also in the path of totality if you can get there.
At the time of writing, the weather forecast for April 8th is a mix of sun and clouds with a high near 11º.C
Draw A Bird Day, April 8th
In 1943, during World War II, Dorie Cooper was a seven-year-old living in England. Her mother took her to a hospital to visit her uncle, who was wounded in the war. While they were there, Dorie’s uncle was very distraught, having lost his right leg to a land mine. To cheer him up, she asked him, “Draw a bird for me, please.” Even though he was unwell, he decided to do as Dorie asked. He looked out his window, saw a robin and drew a picture of it.
After seeing her uncle’s bird picture, Dorie laughed aloud and proclaimed he was not a good artist. But she promised to hang the picture in her room nonetheless. Her complete honesty and acceptance lifted her uncle’s spirits. Several other wounded soldiers also had their day brightened by the event. Every time Dorie visited after that, they held drawing contests to see who could produce the best bird pictures. Within several months, bird drawings covered every wall in the ward.
Three years later, Dorie was struck by a car and died. At her funeral, her coffin was filled with bird images from soldiers, nurses and doctors who had known her uncle. On her birthday (April 8th), those men and women remembered the little girl who brought hope to the ward by drawing birds.
Draw a Bird Day was never declared an official holiday. It grew anyway through those soldiers and medical personnel and their families. Today, it is celebrated worldwide as a way to express joy in the very simplest of things in life and as a way to help soldiers everywhere forget about wars and suffering, even if only for a short time.
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