Today is Dr. Seuss Day.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

An educator challenged Seuss to write a book using only 250 words that every first grader should know. He came back with a book using 238 of them – The Cat in the Hat. That started his career in ‘simplified vocabulary’.

-We think he wrote three books just using the other twelve.

Interestingly, Dr. Seuss never had any children. He told friends, ‘You have’em…I’ll entertain’em’.

It is also Read Across America Day.

Do you read with your Kindle or iPad?  Or the old fashioned way?

History 101: March 2, 1836: Texas declared its independence from Mexico on the 43rd birthday of Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas.  Look at the map below.  The Republic of Texas was even bigger than the state of Texas and guess what – New Mexico was a part of it.  We never knew that.  Did you?

Music History 101: March 2, 1999 - Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien passed away at the age of fifty nine. Most people knew her by her childhood nickname: Dusty. She was known to her fans as Dusty Springfield.

The 101 number one song of the day was a breakthrough for a woman who had tried, and failed, 15 times to have a hit record despite having a very famous name. And she owed her eventual success to garbage.  Despite years of training in voice, dance, and piano her songs about love and romance went nowhere. And despite an incredible vocal pedigree – in fact, perhaps, because of it, she spent years of professional disappointment. Until she teamed up with the writer and producer of today’s featured song. He told her, quote: “You’re not a sweet young thing. You’re not the virgin next store. You’ve been married and divorced. You’re a grown woman. I know there’s garbage in their somewhere.” By garbage he meant pain, heartbreak and worldliness. The realization of that “garbage” made all the difference. With the success of today’s song, for the first time in her life she felt she was her own woman – not someone’s daughter, not someone’s wife or sister. The producer/writer was Lee Hazelwood. And this song was number one in America on March 2nd, 1966 and it became a huge hit all over the world for Nancy Sinatra – These Boots are Made for Walking.

Other Stuff:

The secret of long life:

Researchers did a 90-year study on over 1,500 people to find out the secret to a long life. They say the keys are…work hard and don’t retire early. Plus, boost your physical activity in middle age – the more active you are – the longer you’ll live. They found some theories are wrong – like having a positive attitude and being married. Neither one of those factors seemed to do much good.

Hippies just got a lot happier. Volkswagen just introduced a new version of their microbus. But it’s a concept vehicle and not scheduled for production yet. The new microbus seats six and has an electric engine that can go 186 miles on a single charge.

is that enough to get us to Woodstock and back???

A couple in Portland, Oregon were arrested and charged with shoplifting from area Safeway stores. And they’re not your run-of-the-mill criminals – police believe they stole over $5-million dollars of goods over several years. The 52-year old man was caught on security cameras stealing on 103 separate occasions. The 32-year old woman was caught on tape 75 times. The stores eventually hired a security expert that put a homing device on the couple’s van to track them. Police believe they stole an average of $400,000 from Safeway a year.

-Man – how big were their pants???