Get Smart!

Read this and be the sharpest person in the room--or the Zoom--for the month of February

By J.C. Bruce

Mark These Important Events on Your February Calendar

February may be the shortest month of the year at 28 days, but it's still packed with holidays and other events worth remembering.

Topping the holiday list is Valentine's Day (Feb. 14).

Other notable events include a flyby of a rare green comet (Feb. 1), Groundhog Day (Feb. 2), Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 12), President's Day (Feb. 20), Mardi Gras (Feb. 21), and February is also Black History Month.

Just like every other month, there are seemingly countless "special days" including, but certainly not limited to:

Spunky Old Broads Day (Feb. 1)

Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (Feb. 4)

National Shower With a Friend Day (Feb. 5)

Pizza Day (Feb. 9)

International Day of Women and Girls in Science (Feb. 11)

White Tee Shirt Day (Feb. 11)

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (Feb. 12)

Random Acts of Kindness Day (Feb. 17)

George Washington's Birthday and National Margarita Day (Feb. 22)

National Tooth Fairy Day (Feb. 28)

One of the more odd juxtapositions among the "special days" in February occurs on Feb. 6, which is both International Frozen Yogurt Day and National Chopsticks Day.

Which, naturally, conjures the image of trying to eat frozen yogurt with chopsticks. Impress your friends and host an Eat Frogurt with Chopsticks Party. Let me know how it goes.

Test Your Knowledge of Valentine's Day

(Then Try it Out on Your Significant Other)

1. Cupid's name in Greek mythology is what?
2. From where was the oldest known Valentine's Day message sent?
3. William Shakespeare mentions Valentine's Day in which of his plays?
4. What gangster was responsible for the Valentine's Day Massacre?
5. What percentage of men in a romantic relationship fail to make Valentine's Day plans?

Answers below

Super Bowl 57 Facts and Trivia

Teams: Kansas City Chiefs versus Philadelphia Eagles

Kickoff: Sunday, Feb. 12, at 6:30 p.m. (EST)

Halftime Performer: Rihanna

TV: FOX

Impress your friends and annoy your frenemies with this Super Knowledge:

The winningest Super Bowl teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots at six games each.

Teams that have never made the Super Bowl: Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions.

The Lombardi Trophy weighs 7 pounds.

1.7 billion chicken wings will be consumed on Super Bowl Sunday.

Americans will spend $1.3 billion on beer during the Super Bowl.

Miami and New Orleans have hosted the most Super Bowls

And speaking of Miami, the Dolphins remain the only team in NFL history to have a perfect season.

EXTRA POINTS: No matter which team wins, Donna Kelce will have a son with a Super Bowl ring. She's the first mom to have two sons face off in the big game, Jason Kelce with the Eagles and Travis Kelce with the Chiefs.

A rare green comet will make its closest approach to earth on Feb. 1. Look toward the north star to find it. You'll likely need a pair of binoculars or a telescope. For more information on how to see it or how to livestream it, click here. Why is the comet green? Because of carbon-based molecules in its coma, the gas that surrounds the comet. BTW, its official name is Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF).

President Joe Biden will deliver his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 9 p.m. (EST).

FUN FACTS: George Washington's first state of the union speech was the shortest at 1,089 words. Two presidents, William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, didn't live long enough to actually deliver a speech. Harry Truman was the first president to deliver the speech on TV. The wordiest speech (so far) was delivered by Bill Clinton at 9,190 words.

The NBA All-Star Game will be televised on Sunday, Feb. 19, at 8 p.m. (EST). The exhibition game features the best players from the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association. It will be aired on TNT.

Black History Month Fun Facts

Here are ten fascinating items about Black history you can share with your friends:

Which President officially recognized Black History Month? It was Gerald Ford.

Virginia was the first state to elect a Black governor. It happened in 1989.

Jackie Robinson was the first Black Major League Baseball player. He also famously said: "Life is not a spectator sport."

Hip Hop's birthplace was The Bronx, N.Y.

The first Black American to appear on a U.S. postage stamp was Booker T. Washington.

The first Black American Nobel Peace Prize winner was Ralph Bunche.

What was Muhammad Ali's original name? Cassius Clay.

Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Lauryn Hill was the first American Black woman to win five Grammy Awards in one year.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream" speech on Sept. 9, 1965

Top Ten Moments in February History

Freedom Day. On Feb. 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln approved the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery.

The Day the Music Died. Rock and roll legend Buddy Holly died in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959. His passing was immortalized in Don McLean's song "American Pie."

Rosa Parks was born on Feb. 4, 1913. She was a seamstress who in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 refused to move to the back of the bus, as was required by segregationist law at the time. Her arrest lit a fire under the civil rights movement.

Hank Aaron, the baseball legend who was the last player to compete in both the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball, was born on Feb. 5, 1934,

All the News That's Fit to Print, the longstanding motto of The New York Times, appeared for the first time on Feb. 10, 1897.

The first American magazine was published on Feb. 13, 1741. Titled eponymously The American Magazine, it beat the publication of Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine by just three days.

Frederick Douglas, one of the prominent social justice activists of the 19th century, was born into slavery on Feb. 14, 1818. He escaped slavery in 1838 after teaching himself how to read and write.

The traitor Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States of America on Feb. 18, 1861. Thanks to him and other slavers, 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War.

Don't Look Up. On Feb. 20, 1491, one year before Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas, an unnamed comet flew within 860,000 miles of our planet, the closest any comet has come near Earth that we know about.

Before the Twin Towers collapsed in 2001, the World Trade Center was bombed by terrorists on Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the attack.

Reading, Watching, Listening

This year's Grammy Awards will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. Recording artists up for Record of the Year include ABBA, Adele, Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Doja Cat, Steve Lacy, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, and Harry Styles. See the complete list of nominees here.

Author Louise Penny's chief inspector Armand Gamache is brought to life through the amazing actor Alfred Molina in Three Pines streaming on Amazon Prime. You may recall Molina as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 if you haven't otherwise kept up with his versatile career. In this eight-part series, he is a Canadian police detective who goes off the reservation (pun intended) to solve a series of murders and in so doing helps underscore Canada's shameful treatment of its First Nation population (a familiar legacy for Americans, too).

A slew of books will become movies and TV shows in 2023 including Dune: Part 2, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, All the Light We Cannot See, and The Three Body Problem (a huge event for scifi fans). See the complete list here.

They Said It ...

"If you come to my house, you will find Chick-Fil-A bags all over the floor, but you're not gonna find any classified information."

--Sen. Lindsey Graham

"This is a body where James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and Thaddeus Stevens once served. I don't buy the GOP's whole attack on science, but this week definitely casts doubt on the theory of evolution."

--Rep. Jamie Raskin

on Republicans' repeated failure

to elect a House Speaker

"Remember, this year I will probably go to federal prison for a while."

--Steve Bannon

when asked his plans for 2023

"If not us, then who? If not now, then when?"

--John Lewis

Stories From The Strange Files

Snakes on a plane--or not

TSA officers at Tampa International Airport spotted a snake coiled up in a woman's carry-on baggage as it went through the X-ray machine.

When questioned, the woman said the four-foot-long boa constrictor was her "emotional support pet."

TSA officers called the airline, which quickly nixed having a snake on the plane.

Shoot guns and watch college football, she said

Karma is real. The social media editor for Blaze, a right-wing media outfit, offers living proof.

In a string of tweets to her gun-toting followers, the woman offered this holiday greeting: "Happy 2023, ya'll. Trust God. Spend time with family. Don't give up your rights. Shoot guns and watch college football."

Ten days later, she was watching the college football championship game between the University of Georgia and Texas Christian University. After the game she tweeted from the emergency room:

"I shot my ankle."

Strange Science

How far can the human eye see? While the majority of us wouldn't consider our vision to be extraordinary, the human eye can see much farther than most of us realize. On a clear night most of us are able to make out the faint haze of the Andromeda Galaxy some 2.6 million light-years into space. Cool, right?

A huge study of half a million people has suggested that severe viral infections like encephalitis and pneumonia increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Read more here.

Human hearts have a big job: moving oxygen and nutrients throughout our bodies. But as much credit as the heart gets, it doesn’t work alone — the adult human circulatory system includes arteries, veins, and capillaries in a network that’s more than 60,000 miles long.  Read more here.

Does it make sense to describe asteroids as being equivalent in size to penguins? Um, probably not. But more and more science writers are comparing inanimate space objects to animals. Shouldn't happen. See essay here.

Can caffeine improve exercise performance? Well, coffee lovers, the good news is yes, according to the International Society of Sports Medicine. See report here.

Readers Write...

Dear J.C.

How did your talk go about your Strange Files series of mysteries at the annual Sunshine State Book Festival?

R. Parker

Thanks for asking. Got lots of laughs from my presentation on funny first sentences that I start some of my novels with.

Dear J.C.

So, don't keep us in suspense, tell us at least one of those funny first sentences?

J. MacDonald

Well, for instance, the opening line in Strange Currents is: "I knew my number was up when the flamingo stepped on my face."

Dear J.C.

That is funny! How was the overall book received?

R. Crais

It was named Best Mystery of the Year in the Royal Palm Literary Awards. And that sentence was named Best First Sentence by the International Thriller Writers.

Update: In January's newsletter, I mentioned some of the more odd New Year's Eve "drops" around the country in addition to the famous descent of the Times Square crystal ball. Alert reader Marian Peters wrote:

"Just a suggestion, you left out Key West where they drop Sushi, not the food, the drag queen ... from the second floor of the Crab Shack."

Thanks for the tip, Marian. You are now officially enlisted in the Army of the Strange, the band of contributors to The Strange Files.

Be like Marian. Send me your weird news tips and you, too, can be included in the Army of the Strange.

Here are the answers to the Valentine's Day Trivia Quiz:

1. Eros.
2. Prison.
3. Hamlet.
4. Al Capone.
5. 64 percent. You've been warned!

National Pie Day Poll Results:

In last month's newsletter, we marked the celebration of National Pie Day by offering a poll ranking the pies that newsletter readers would be LEAST LIKELY to try. Here are the results:

Pickle and Peanut Butter with Yogurt Pie -- 46.7 percent

Vinegar Pie -- 16.7 percent

Green Grape Pie -- 13.3 percent

Navy Bean Pie -- 13.3 percent

Twinkie Pie -- 10 percent

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Parting Shot

J.C. Bruce is the author of The Strange Files series of mystery and adventure novels (available on Amazon and other fine online booksellers). He also writes this free monthly newsletter. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida. And he wants you to know that no adverbs were killed in the production of this missive.