Welcome to July. Yeah, it's toasty!
On tap: Independence Day, the Summer Olympics, Baseball's All-Star game, and, lest we forget, it's also time to celebrate Shark Awareness Day, Be a Dork Day, and Paperback Book Day
On average, the month of July is the hottest of the year, and 2024 is likely to set new records, according to the national Climate Prediction Center.
While the longest day of the year is the summer solstice in June, it takes time for the extra sunshine to warm up the Earth’s surface and the air above, which is why July always swelters.
And with global warming, this year will likely be hotter than ever, and with that comes increased risks of tornados and hurricanes. While you can’t control the weather, you can make yourself safer.
Some tips:
Wear a hat outdoors.
Wear sunscreen
Stay hydrated
Avoid being outdoors during mid-day
STRANGE QUOTE: The expression that only “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,” was popularized by playwright and songwriter Noel Coward who, according to his biographer, wrote the lyrics to the eponymous song in his head while on a car ride through Vietnam. You can read the full lyrics here.
Let the Games Begin
Opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics in Paris will be televised on July 26 and the games will continue through August 11. NBC will be broadcasting at least nine hours of coverage a day, while Peacock, the network’s streaming service, will have live coverage throughout. Here’s the complete schedule.
FUN FACTS: Impress your friends (and annoy your frenemies) with your superpower knowledge of Olympics trivia. Here are five to get you started:
The first Olympics games were in the 8th century B.C. and continued for a whopping 1,200 years before being banned by the Romans.
Instead of the few weeks our modern Olympics last, back then they went on for five or six months.
While the Olympics started as all-male competitions, women have been participating in the games since 1900 (twenty years before they finally won the right to vote in the United States).
Only four athletes have won medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Tarzan was a medal-winner. Johnny Weissmuller, the athlete-turned movie star who played Tarzan in a dozen films, won five gold medals in the 1920s. (And, yes, that’s why you see Tarzan swimming so much in those movies.)
Will They Lock Him Up?
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 after being found guilty in the Manhattan hush money/election interference case. Although this date and time could change, at this writing the court appearance is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. in New York.
Four days later, on July 15, the Republican National Convention will begin in Milwaukee where Trump is expected to be nominated as his party’s standard-bearer for the November presidential election.
Play Ball!
The Midsummer Classic, also known as baseball’s All-Star Game, will be played this year in Dallas on July 12. It pits the standout players of the National League against their counterparts in the American League. Fans have the opportunity to vote for who plays and who starts. While the teams have been selected, there’s still time to cast your ballot for who starts. Here’s the ballot.
July Daily Calendar:
July 1 — Big day for Tennis fans. The annual Wimbledon tennis championship games begin and run through July 14. Full schedule here.
July 2 — World UFO Day. (The actual first extraterrestrial visitor arrived on Earth in the 1960s. You can read the full account here.)
July 3 — Official beginning of the Dog Days of Summer, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. They last for 40 days, ending on August 11. Not about actual canines but Sirius, the Dog Star. Here’s the lowdown on how it got its name.
July 4 — Independence Day. Some cool Fourth of July trivia:
The first fireworks show took place in Philadelphia in 1777.
Americans eat around 150 million hot dogs each Independence Day. There are over 330 million people in the U.S. so, clearly, somebody's not eating their share.
The American Pyrotechnics Association estimates that more than 14,000 fireworks displays light up U.S. skies each 4th of July.
July 5 — International Bikini Day.
July 6 — National Fried Chicken Day.
July 7 — Chocolate Day.
July 8 — Body Painting Day.
July 9 — National Dimples Day.
July 10 — Teddy Bear Picnic Day.
July 11 — World Population Day. (Alarming trivia: Since 1800, the human population of our planet has grown from one billion to eight billion. As recounted in Episode 6 of Scribbles From Earth, that means that the Earth’s population doubles every 70 years.)
July 12 — Different Colored Eyes Day.
July 13 — Oxymoron Day. Some of our favorites include:
Pretty ugly.
Awfully good.
Living dead.
Open secret.
Almost exactly.
July 14 — Shark Awareness Day.
July 15 — Be a Dork Day. As noted in previous Strange Files Newsletters, a dork is defined as (1) a person who spouts trivia with few social skills or (2) a whale's penis. You get to decide what kind of dork you want to be.
July 16 — World Snake Day. It was also on this date in 1995 that Jeff Bezos founded Amazon where some of the very best books in the world can be found.
July 17 — Yellow Pig Day. There may or may not be yellow pigs in the world, but that’s not what this day is about. It’s a day only mathematicians could love. The short explanation: “The yellow pig was invented in the early 60’s by two Princeton math students while working on an assignment to identify unique properties of the number 17. After some intense mental gymnastics (and possibly a few pints at the local pub), when they finally ran out of ideas, they thought up the yellow pig, a mythical 17-eyelashed creature (that’s eight lashes on one eye and nine on the other, of course).” More on this here.
July 18 — British Open golf tournament begins today and runs through July 21 at the Royal Troon Golf Club.
July 19 — National Daiquiri Day.
July 20 — An historic flub. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step onto the Moon. Before a worldwide TV audience, he was supposed to announce: "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." But he left off the "a" changing the entire meaning. But, hey, he wasn't hired as an orator.
July 21 — National Ice Cream Day.
July 22 — Ratcatcher’s Day. Okay, I’ll confess, I never heard of this one before, so I did a little research and it is Grimm (pun intended). It derives from the fairly tale “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” There was a German town overrun by rats, so they hired a guy with a magic flute to rid the town of the pests. He began luring the rodents with his music, led them to the river, and drowned them. But when the townsfolk wouldn’t pay the promised 1,000 golden gilders, he repeated the process and lured all the village’s children away. So wrote the ever-cheerful and uplifting Brothers Grimm.
July 23 — Vanilla Ice Cream Day. (We avoid playing favorites here at The Strange Files Newsletter, and while we are huge fans of chocolate overall, it is our official policy that vanilla — especially French vanilla — is the very best ice cream. We realize many people may disagree with this assessment, but we understand that being right is sometimes a lonely business.)
July 24 — Tell an Old Joke Day. BONUS POINTS: Want to impress your friends with your incredible knowledge of history? This is one of the oldest known jokes in the world dating from Ancient Greece somewhere between 300 and 400 A.D.
"Asked by the court barber how he wanted his hair cut, the king replied: 'In silence.'"
July 25 — National Chili Dog Day.
July 26 — World Tofu Day.
July 27 — Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day.
July 28 — Buffalo Soldiers Day
July 29 — National Lipstick Day.
July 30 — Paperback Book Day. And as a discerning reader you should consider joining the thousands of like minded, high IQ individuals such as yourself who have made the award-winning Strange Files series such a best seller.
Who Is This Blue Dog?
Could he have been the inspiration for Star Trek? His real name is unpronounceable, but you can call him Scribbles. And you can read all about his adventures on the third rock from the Sun at ScribblesFromEarth.substack.com. It’s a novel in progress, being written in real time. And you’re invited to participate in its creation. Check it out.
They Said It About the Weather
A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
—Robert Frost
If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm.
—Frank Lane
Weather forecast for tonight: Dark.
—George Carlin
Readers Write …
Dear J.C.
This month’s newsletter has a slightly different appearance from earlier missives (I just love being able to use a word like missive). What’s that about?
T. Font
You are a very observant reader. I have switched my newsletter service to Substack, which is now home to all my archives including earlier newsletters, The Strange Files, blogs, etc. It is also home to my new writing project Scribbles From Space, mentioned earlier in the newsletter.
Dear J.C.
This new format you’re using. It has messages about subscribing. Is this newsletter going to cost us now?
P. Pincher
The monthly newsletter is free to read. But my goal is to build out a portfolio of online news features that I do hope to monetize on this new platform. And I am pleased to acknowledge the loyal readers who have already pledged paid subscriptions. Thank you so much.
Dear J.C.
About this Scribbles character you touted earlier in the newsletter. I went to the website, ScribblesFromEarth.substack.com, and it’s tons of fun, but I notice that it almost reads like a Young Adult novel. No foul language, for instance. Is that what this is?
G. Twoshoes
Funny thing. I’ve noticed that, too, and I have no idea why the characters in the story aren’t more potty-mouthed than they are. Maybe that will change, I don’t know. It is a work in progress, opening the door to the creative process. Not even sure it’s a good idea at this point, but it certainly puts the pressure on me to keep writing. Looking for feedback. Let me know what you think.
The Strange Files
Can you be drunk without drinking? Have you heard about the guy whose necklace saved his life? Why do kids trust robots more than people? All this and more can be found at The Strange Files.
Enjoy this Newsletter?
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the monthly Strange Files newsletter. Share all your newfound knowledge with your friends. They will think you are amazing. And feel free to forward this email to everyone on your contacts list -- friends, enemies, space dogs, whatever. If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe:
Parting Shots
J.C. Bruce is a journalist and author of The Strange Files series of mysterious novels (available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, other online booksellers, and at selected libraries). He also writes this monthly newsletter. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida, and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Lightgate Institute of Extranormal Studies, which he totally made up for his book Strange Timing.
Sponsored by TROPIC PRESS, publisher of The Strange Files Series of Mysterious Adventures.
