“National Earmuff Day is celebrated on March 13 every year. Earmuffs are categorized as clothing accessories or personal protection equipment (PPE), specially designed to cup and protect the ears from either cold weather or noise.”
Hattingdon just so happens to have something to wear for the “occasion”. And it is still plenty chilly enough here in Louisville to wear it too.
“Designed by Chester Greenwood in the 19th century, earmuffs are a regular part of winter fashion and a necessity for construction workers. Their comfy fit and practical yet stylish design make earmuffs a crowd favorite. It’s a day to celebrate earmuffs by putting them on or giving them out.”
We love National Day who say they love having “Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.”
So there you have it. Happy Monday and National Earmuff Day!
In honor of National Book Lovers Day August 9, we put away our smartphones, pull out a good book and simply read. (Audiobooks are okay too.)
Here’s Hattingdon to get us in the mood.
Dewey Hattingdon.
Books are the purest form of escapism. They can take you to any time, any place, or any culture.
From clay tablets to today’s eBooks, literature has played a crucial role in preserving cultures, educating the masses, and storytelling.
Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg’s 15th-century printing press, anyone, not just royalty, monks or landed gentry, could read and own books. But, alas, there was no overnight shipping.
Today, join a book club or re-read a favorite novel because National Book Lovers Day rocks! More »
Dewey
The Dewey Decimal Classification, colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. It was first published in the United States by Melvil Dewey in 1876.
“Dewey” Hattingdon (seen above) is named in honor of the Dewey Decimal System.
Wow. It’s Nat’l Blogger Day today, but what to blog about? How about Hattingdon’s beginning, and the first two Hattingdon cartoon horses Vivian ever created?
It was a dark and stormy night . . . . Ha, ha, ha! Just kidding.
It was late December, and Vivian was still in Washington DC lobbying on behalf of horses, waiting for Congress to adjourn for the Christmas holidays so she could go home. Everybody else in her organization had already gone, so she was on her own.
To pass the time, she got on her computer and started layering shapes, until she had what you see below — her very first ever cartoon horse. She named him Curtis.
Curtis Hattingdon.
She put Curtis on a t-shirt to raise money and help defray lobbying expenses, plus be able to rescue, rehabilitate and find good homes for horses in need. Curtis was a wonderful success.
The following Spring, Vivian made another cartoon horse — this time a lady. Her hat was inspired by the fashions of the Paris runway. Vivian named the new addition Harper.
Harper Hattingdon.
She wondered, what if her creations became a series — what in the world was she going to call them? The one thing Vivian knew for sure is that she wanted the word “hat” somewhere in the name. Nothing came to mind.
Then one day, lo and behold, when she was not even thinking about it, the name popped into her head . . . . Hattingdon. So she named her cartoon series Hattingdon Horses.
Not long after, she created Hattingdon’s first blog. And that, as they say, is history!
“Blogger Day is celebrated on August 5 every year. This day celebrates one of the most popular platforms in the world, Blogger. Anyone who has ever created a blog before has most likely used Blogger. This platform allows people to express themselves for either personal or commercial reasons.
“Some bloggers use blogs to disseminate information and it has been a very good way to consume news ranging from politics to sports, technology, lifestyle, and a host of other topics.
“This day should be well celebrated, especially by the blogging community as it celebrates one of the platforms that contribute to our freedom of speech.”
There’s nothing like beating the heat with summertime’s most refreshing fruit — watermelon. On August 3, we celebrate this ancient berry in a feast of juicy deliciousness—otherwise known as National Watermelon Day. Hattingdon has the perfect hat . . . . naturally. Here it is.
MelonieHattingdon.
People have been digging into this tasty, juicy fruit for millennia and it all started in Ancient Egypt. It’s said that watermelon cultivation began in the Nile Valley as early as the second millennium B.C. Watermelon seeds were even found in King Tut’s tomb!
According to “The Dictionary of American Food and Drink” by John Mariani, the word ‘watermelon’ first appeared in the English dictionary in 1615.
WWW (World Wide Web) Day is celebrated on the 1st of August every year. It is a global celebration dedicated to internet web browsing, the online activities that bring the world to our fingertips and a wealth of information at our feet.
Hattingdon just had to have something special to wear. After all, where would she be without the world wide web? So Vivian designed a Skylar scarf for the occasion.
SkylarWWW Day scarf.
Do you know how we got here on the world wide web? Who the father of it all is? Here is a bit of what we found.
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA DFBCS.Creator of the world wide web or WWW.
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA DFBCS (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Berners-Lee proposed an information management system on 12 March 1989, then implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet in mid-November.
Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the continued development of the Web. He co-founded (with his then wife-to-be Rosemary Leith) the World Wide Web Foundation.
He devised and implemented the first Web browser and Web server, and helped foster the Web’s subsequent explosive development.
In 2004, Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work. He was named in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century and has received a number of other accolades for his invention.
In “Well Dressed. Well Said. Well Read.”, its author Heather writes the following about Red Shoe Day:
“Red Shoe Day is actually a day of remembrance where those who suffer and/or pass away from invisible illnesses are recognized.”
“The day was created in remembrance of Theda Myint, who died of Lyme disease, but it has since been expanded to include all illnesses that don’t exhibit obvious physical symptoms.”
“For me, that includes mental illness. As a lifelong sufferer of depression, I can attest only too well to the stigma and struggle of battling an invisible illness. So on this day I will proudly wear my red shoes in solidarity with the countless others who struggle as well.”
How about a hat?
We were determined to support Red Shoe Day. But how could we besides wearing red shoes — which we, and our staff and families and friends, are doing.
Hattingdon is of course a hat wearing cartoon horse. So the challenge was to create a Hattingdon, in some way shape or form, wearing a red shoe to help draw attention to this issue. Vivian chose a red stiletto — not knowing how in the world she was going to make a hat out of it.
“My dear colleagues (ahem) reckoned thateven Icould not make a hat for Hattingdon from a red stiletto,” says Vivian. The challenge was accepted. And met. “They will be singing from that Beatles song — I shoulda known better with a girl like you. That I would love everything that you do. And I do. Hey hey hey. And I do.”
Vivian named the design . . . . Theda. Here is the hat.
Theda.
Is this, or is this not, crazy and wonderful? Now that should grab some attention! Which is what we want — to draw attention and raise awareness for Red Shoe Day / International Red Shoe Day. We have agreed that you can download the image and share it on social media using the hashtags listed below — in support of this important cause. Thank you!
Links and tags
Red Shoe Day and International Red Shoe Day, July 25th, since 2013.
Hattingdon 