Rocketboom

Holiday: Veterans Day - the United States’ annual federally recognized holiday honoring our military veterans. Since it’s federally recognized, you’d think everyone would have today day off, right? Not so. According to a Society for Human Resource Management poll conducted in 2010, only 21% of employers planned to observe the holiday in 2011… Oh well. WE ARE THE 79%!!!!

Whacky Fashion: National Corduroy Appreciation Day - The Corduroy Appreciation Club loves today’s date because of 11.11.11’s visual likeness to corduroy’s wales. Like occupy Wall Street, the corduroy movement is spreading, with sold-out celebrations scheduled in locales like Washingoton D.C., Chicago, and Fromberg, Montana. Currently posted on the Corduroy Club’s website, is a call to action seeking cord-party organizers in Boston, Portland, Seattle, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and elsewhere. To get into the party Friday night at New York City’s Desmond Tutu Center, you must wear at least three items made of corduroy. One can only imagine what the dance-floor will sound like.

Tech: Droid Razr Launch Day - tech-freaks likely already knew the Droid Razr was dropping today. The big surprise? Amazon Wireless is celebrating the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of this century by selling the new mobile for an introductory today-only price of $111.11, srsly undercutting Verizon’s $299.99 price-tag. Amazon marketers, give yourselves a pat on the back for this one. Verizon’s marketing team… doh!

Vertical Food: Pepero/Pocky Day (Japan, Korea) - these snacks - chocolate dipped sticks of bready cookie - are known the world ‘round, but are probably most popular in Korea (Pepero’s rule!) and Japan (home of the Pocky). Motivated by the same visual similarities as the aforementioned corduroy celebration (11.11.11 - look at all those Pepero’s/Pocky’s… aww), the observance in South Korea is similar to Valentine’s Day with young people and couples exchanging Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts throughout the day. Japan’s celebration, on the other hand, seems to be mostly about shoving handfulls of Pocky sticks in your hungry maw. Nom noms!!

China Celebrates: Singles Day (China) - Single’s Day, One’s Day or Guang Gun Jie is a Chinese pop-culture holiday popularized in the internet era for people who are still living the single life. In America, we call that Friday. Like our Fridays, Single’s day is now a special day for all fashionable youths. The main way to celebrate Singles Day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it’s important that each person pay their own way to show their independence. Sounds like Fridays to me. People also hold ‘blind date’ parties in an attempt to bid goodbye to their single lives. But, since breakfast is the “most important meal of the day,” for breakfast on Singles’ Day, singles often eat four Youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) representing the four “ones” in “11.11” and one Baozi (a steamed stuffed bun) representing the middle dot.

This Day in History: Armistice Day - first proclaimed on November 11, 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson, Armistice Day commemorates the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I and the soldiers that perished in the Great War. The major hostilities of World War I (*wink*wink - one-pun intended) were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice. Sort of like the “original” Veterans Day, November 11 was co-opted decades later by a Kansas man with the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those lost in World War I. 

Not the First Time, Not the last Time: 11.11.1911 - Last time we celebrated 11.11.11 (that would be a century ago), it turned out to be one of the hottest and coldest days in America. Ever. Cities across the U.S. recorded record highs and lows on the same day as a massive cold front moved through America. See y’all in a hundred years!