Cesar Chavez Day

 

Chavez was founder of the United Farm Workers.   He was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona.  You can read more about his remarkable life here: http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Teachers/Lessons/Resources/Biographies/K-2_Bio.aspx

Less significantly, today is also Buy Some New Socks Day.  How about some socks with toes?

History 101: On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower was officially opened -- it was denounced as a monstrosity by local artists and writers.

Music History 101: Today is Hot Guitar Day, marking the British concert on this date in 1967 featuring Cat Stevens and Englebert Humperdinck when Jimi Hendrix first set fire to his guitar.

Of course, the most unusual thing that happened that day was NOT the guitar conflagration but that Englebert Humperdinck was on the same bill!

The 101 Number One Song of the Day was supposed to be a sad song but it didn’t turn out that way at all. The writer, who was born in Roswell, just couldn’t help himself.  Henry John Deutschendorf was feeling so down when he sat down to write the song you’re about to hear that he wanted to write a “feeling –blue” song. But what came out was the kind of thing he became famous for – chronicling the positive side of existence even though, as an Air Force brat, he constantly moved from place to place and was a pretty lonely kid. For a time, he studied architecture at Texas Tech but mostly he played the guitar, which was with him constantly from the time he was eight years old. He dropped out in the middle of his junior year and dedicated the rest of his life to music. And on March 31, 1974 he owned the number one song in America. By that time he dropped his first name – Henry – and renamed himself after his favorite city – Here’s John Denver (Sunshine On My Shoulders.)

Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day.

Here are a few cool sites:

www.april-fools.us – A wealth of silly pranks can be found on this site, which also features the best hoaxes of the recent past.

www.prankbot.com – Are you too lazy to go to the dollar store for prank-building materials? Let this site do it for you. There’s a form that will send a fake e-mail saying the degree the victim worked for is now invalid because he/she didn’t complete enough credits. They also offer to send love letters, as well as a fake e-mail from the local tax department informing the recipient of back taxes that must be paid due to an error.

www.mailfool.com – This site will send a note that appears to come from someone other than you, maybe a parent, boss, work colleague or a friend. The site even has suggestions for the creatively impaired.

www.thefreesite.com/Seasonal_Freebies/April_Fools – This site provides a ton of free options for the fun loving, including a program that generates customized fake error messages on the Microsoft Windows operating system and software that randomly changes the appearance of the cursor.  They also have links to freeware downloads, prank phone calls and more.

Conscientious people are reliable, meet deadlines and pay their bills on time, which can add up to $158,000 in savings over a lifetime, researchers say.

Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania and economist David Weir of the University of Michigan say people at the 85th percentile of conscientiousness earn about $1,500 more per year than the average American, which amounts to about $96,000 more in lifetime earnings and $158,000 more in lifetime savings. Their findings are based on almost 10,000 U.S. adults age 50 and older who participated in the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study in 2006 and 2008. Subjects rated themselves on a scale of 1 to 4 on 26 adjectives from conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, extraversion and openness to experience. The study found more emotionally stable adults earn more per year than the average American, but they don’t necessarily save more. Agreeable people or those who are open to experience earn less and save less over their lifetimes, while extraverts earn about the same as introverts but save more, the study says. Nonetheless, what makes some people more conscientious than others remains a mystery, the co-authors say.