Earth Day

 Thanks again to my wandering west coast brother, I know that today is "April Showers Day" and "National Jellybean Day."  

I already knew that it is also "Earth Day."  I did not know, until I looked it up, that the theme for "Earth Day 2026" is "Our Power, Our Planet" with an emphasis on collective action as well as individual everyday actions.  At this point in our lives my wonder spouse and I are mainly focused on our individual actions.  The only collective action we take part in is putting out our recycling bin every other week just like everyone else in the subdivision.  We recycle, reuse, repurpose whenever we can.  I'm also happy to report, as a bit of Earth Day trivia, that Fort Wayne has some of the cleanest, best tasting  city water in the country.  

"April Showers Day" fits right in with "Earth Day" except it should be days not day.  We have had an abundance of April showers this month, which means that locally the earth was looking really good for "Earth Day" with lush green grass and blossoms and tiny green leaves on the trees.  This morning the sky was a beautiful clear blue dotted with little puffy white clouds.  This evening we had a thunder storm.  I guess that was inevitable since we were celebrating "April Showers Day."

What I don't understand is why this is also "National Jellybean Day."  While jellybeans are admittedly tasty, they can't be planted, grown or harvested.  Perhaps they should have a separate day of their own or maybe they could share a day with marshmallows.

a day for book lovers...

 Even though my west coast brother is on vacation, he did provide me with an excellent special day for today.  Today is "Thank You for Libraries Day."  Since I have a long and happy history with libraries, I feel I can add my thanks to the chorus of thanks resounding around the world.  

Thank you to Miss Tremp, the librarian in our small home town library who had been the librarian since my father was a little boy.  I used to watch in fascination as she would turn the little wheels to get the correct date on her stamp, press it on the ink pad, then very carefully stamp it on the lined card.  The card, with that due date stamp, would then be slid into the pocket on the inside cover of the book, and the book was mine for two weeks.  Of course I could, and usually did, get more than one book at a time, but the process for each book was the same.  

Thank you to my seventh and eight grade teacher who made sure the classroom library (all three shelves) was well supplied with fascinating books.  That's where I discovered the "Little House" series. 

Thank you to the librarian/driver of the book mobile that parked one block from our house every second Tuesday.  One baby, one toddler and all of our books fitted very nicely into the large British style baby buggy I had at that time.  We would trundle down the street, and spend a blissful half hour in that library on wheels. 

Thank you to the librarians, always cheerful and ready to help, at the local library less than a mile from my current home. There I can place special requests and check out my own books, scanning first the bar code on my library card, then the barcodes on the fronts of the library books.  Then the books are mine for three weeks and multiple renewals, which can be done on line.  So quick and easy.  Miss Tremp would be amazed.

What a day...

 My west coast brother is traveling this week so it was up to me to find out if today, May 20th, has any special significance.  Here's what I found. Today is, among other things, "World Bee Day" to raise awarwness of the importance of bees and other polinators, "World Metrology Day" (yes that is the correct spelling) commemorating the science of measurement, and "National Rescue Dog Day" to encourage animal adoption. 

All of these are important days to be sure but I am most intrigued by Metrology, mainly because I don't remember every hearing that word before.  This surprises me because I took a lot of math classes in high school and college and I would have bet that dear Mrs. Davis, my teacher for four years of high school math, would have taught us every math term worth knowing.  Perhaps I was daydreaming the day it was mentioned. 

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, "World Metrology Day" recognizes the signing of the Metre Convention.  Just in case that leaves you wanting to know a little more, the Metre Convention was signed on May 20, 1875 by 17 nations (you can Google the whole list) in Paris. It is an international treaty establishing a unified global system of measurements (the metric system).  It also created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).  

As it happens, the United States of America was one of the signers of this treaty.  I find this interesting because the metric system (while in use here in the USA to a certain extent) has certainly not replaced gallons, quarts, pints, cups, yards, feet, miles, etc. in our everyday lives.  Maybe it will catch on in another 151 years or so.

adding a little spice...

 Or is it? A spice that is.  My west coast brother informed me that today is "National Garlic Day."  I do like garlic, a quick and easy add on to supper at our house is often bread toasted, buttered and sprinkled with garlic salt.

As I write this, my wonder spouse is on his way to do some quick hardware shopping and then bring home supper from our favorite pizza place.  We won't have garlic toast with soft crust pizza.  That seems a little redundant.  But I'm guessing that there will be garlic in the pizza sauce and possibly in the salad dressing.

All this thinking about food got me wondering what exactly is garlic? Oh, I know it can be purchased as a bulb which can be broken apart into cloves, which, by the way can be planted to grow more garlic.  Or the cloves can be chopped up and use to season all kinds of sauces.  Or you can buy garlic powder and save yourself a lot of chopping.  

Garlic is botanically classified as a vegetable.  It's a member of the onion family.  Now there's a family reunion that could be a little overwhelming.  That answered my question about what garlic is, it's a vegetable.  However, garlic is commonly treated as an herb or spice.  So there you are.  Call it an herb, spice or vegetable.  It doesn't matter. Just be sure to remember to add it to your next homemade spaghetti sauce. 

so much fun...

 My spouse and I went to a different kind of movie this evening.  It was a showing of the Buster Keaton movie "Our Hospitality."  Mark Sherman, a renowned theater organist, did an amazing job of providing the music that made this 'silent movie' come alive.  

The movie was filmed in 1923 (one hundred and three years ago) and I was awed by the cinematography.  Buster Keaton did all of his own stunts.  You need to see the movie to appreciate what that meant.  He must have been absolutely fearless.  His leading lady, whose name wasn't mentioned in the credits, also deserves some accolades.  Her waterfall scene and the boat scene could not have been easy, especially in a long 1800s style dress.  

From the waterfall scenes to the rediculous train ride to the dressed up horse and on and on the movie was a joy to watch.  No Disney type animation or AI here.  It was all done with real live people with very expressive faces and eyes.  You need to see the prayer scene at the dinner table, so much eye rolling!  The story line was about a feud between two families (loosely based on the Hatfields and McCoys with the names changed just a little to protect the not so innocent) and of course there was the inevitable love complication.

The show was presented on the stage at First Presbyterian Theater with a theater organ brought in for the event.  There is one more showing tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm.  Tickets are $11 each.  I highly recommend it.

Ouch...

 According to my west coast brother today is "Bat Appreciation Day." I'm pretty sure this refers to the bats that fly around at nightfall eating their body weight in insects.  Three bat related incidents in my past come to mind, so of course I feel compelled to share them. 

First, when I was about eight years old, my other brother (not the west coast one) smacked me on the knee with his little, but still wooden and very hard, baseball bat.  He said there had been a bee on my knee that he was trying to kill.  There was no bee remnent on my knee so I've always been a little sceptical about that story.

My second bat experience involved a trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, near the city of Truth or Consequences.  Carlsbad Caverns are absolutely amazing and I highly recommend a visit if you've never been there.  In addition to the amazing, naturally colored stalactites and stalagmites that dazzle in the massive caverns there is the nightly bat show.  Every evening at sundown a large swarm of bats comes flying out of the main entrance to the caves.  It is quite a sight to behold. 

Finally my Australian bat experience.  Sydney, Australia is home to large fruit eating mega bats called Grey Headed Flying Foxes.  Picture a bat the size of a falcon.  That may be an exaggeration but not by much. One night during our stay in Sydney my girlfriend and I were awakened at 3:00am by horrible loud screeching sounds.  We looked out our third floor hotel room window to see huge bats hanging upside down from every branch of the tree right beside our window.  

I know that bats are very useful creatures who eat lots and lots of insects and I do appreciate them for that, but after the Sydney incident I find that I appreciate them much more from a distance.

the meeting will come to order

 My wonder spouse and I went to our Neighborhood Association meeting this evening.  He went because he is on the board and had financial information to share.  I went because it was held at the local library and I had time, before the meeting started, to check out some library books. 

I had attended another such meeting about six months ago and, based on that experience, wasn't expecting anything very exciting.  At the last meeting one other person and I were the only non-board members present and the whole meeting lasted about twenty-five minutes.

This evening was a very different story.  The president of the association had done a good job of getting the word out and there were 25 people there, which meant there were lots of good questions.  

They ranged from people running businesses from their homes (against the covenants), barking dogs, campers and boats parked for long periods of time in peoples driveways, ice and snow removal last winter (or the lack thereof) drainage problems with all the recent rain, and more.  The president did a nice job of explaining what she could, promising to research some questions and asking people to email her with more details.  My spouse did a fine job of presenting budget info and answering finance related questions.  I think people came away with some appreciation of how their $52 a year dues are being used. 

There were also some good suggestions from the attendees.  I particularly liked the idea of painting the curbs yellow along some of the streets allowing parking only on one side and keeping people from parking too close to intersections.  My spouse has lived here for most of the last 50 years, but this has been my neighborhood for only two years.  I came away very impressed with the things that are going on.  I hope others there felt the same way.

PS I did not volunteer to participate on the board in a position.  I am still an appreciator, not a participator.

stay afloat,,,

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "Titanic Rememberance Day" and, of course, it's also Tax Day.  My brother suspects that this isn't a coincidence and I think I must agree.  Many people do get that sinking feeling around tax time.  Lucky for me my wonder spouse got ours filed months ago and we have already received out rebates.  And also lucky for me, I think, is the fact that I have never watched the movie "Titanic."

But thinking about the Titanic reminded me of a conversation I had last week with a member of my granddaughter-in-law's family.  We're still in the 'getting to know you' stage with the other side of my grandson's family which is being fun because they are very nice people.  During our lunch together last Sunday (after the baptism) my spouse and I were asked about our upcoming cruise.  We happily explained the stops we will be making and the route the ship will sail, only to be told by one person that she could never take an ocean cruise because there's just too much water out there.  She's right of course, there is a lot of water out there, but I think that's what makes it exciting.  On our last trip we saw whales, penguins and icebergs out in that vast expanse of ocean.  Don't worry, the icebergs were not large enough to sink our ship.  

I suggested to the person that she might like to start with a river cruise where you can see the riverbanks on both sides of the ship but she thought that would still be too much water.  Interestingly I realized, as she talked more about her fears, that I have never been afraid that the ship might sink.  I always do pay close attention to the drills and safety talks and I know where my life jacket is, but mostly my spouse and I just happily drift along in our elegant floating hotel, eating great food and enjoying every shore excursion along the way.  Can you tell I'm anxious for our next trip?  We leave in 37 days.

Please pass the seaweed...

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "International Laverbread Day."  Now you may know what laverbread is, especially if you are from Wales or  have travelled there.  I did not, so I had to look it up.

I have been to Wales. The tour group that I was with stayed in a very interesting old castle there but we were not offered laverbread.  I'm sure I would have tried it and I'm sure I would remember it.  I think I would have liked it but I will probably never know. Since I don't have access to laver seaweed I will not be cooking this delicacy.  Although now that I think about it, I can probably order it from Amazon.  If that's the case I will have to think of another reason not to cook it.  The fact that it takes more than ten hours to cook is actually reason enough because I know that if I suggested to my wonder spouse, who does almost all our cooking, that we spend ten hours whipping up something made from seaweed he would certainly wonder about me.

Laverbread is a traditional Welsh delicacy made from boiled (for more than ten hours) and mashed laver seaweed (which grows off the coast of Wales) creating a dark blackish green savory paste often called "Welsh Caviar." It's a nutrition rich super-food, historically eaten by miners for its health benefits.  It's commonly served as part of a traditional Welsh breakfast, rolled in oatmeal and fried into patties (laverbread cakes) with bacon and cockles or simply spread on toast.

As it happens, my spouse is very fond of oatmeal and crispy bacon and he likes toast.  Maybe, if I tell him that all these elements can be found in a traditiona laverbread breakfast he would give it a try. Although, since the man won't even eat fish, I am not too hopeful. On the other hand it is believed that it was first introduced as a survival food by the Vikings.  We will be going on a Viking cruise next month.  Will they serve laverbread? It's doubtful.  If they do will my wonder spouse give it a try?  What do you think?

Nooo, not again...

 At last my husband and I have finished our most recent jigsaw puzzle project and this one really was a project - 2000 pieces.  Never to be dissassembled.  We have put a backing on it and will frame it and hang it on the wall in our puzzle corner in the basement rec room.  I have named this one Never Again! although my wonder spouse (sometimes I do wonder about him) has said he would be happy to tackle another two thousand piecer.  

Here's what the puzzle looks like.  It's detritus on the ocean floor.  If you look closely you will see that there is a message rolled up inside the bottle which is firmly corked.  So pretty when it was finally finished.  It's lucky we both really like to do jigsaw puzzles. It keeps us off the streets during retirement, between trips.  

presenting MJ

 Today was a big day in our family.  The newest addition to our family, little MJ, was baptized.  He was baptized in the church where his mother's family has gone for five generations.  His other great-grandma was in attendance as well as several family members from both sides of the family.  Obviously Wonder Great Grandpa and I were there.  MJ is about five weeks old now.  

He was very well behaved during the baptism until a strange man dripped some water on his head, but he didn't fuss too much. 

We all went to Olive Garden for lunch.  That's when he finally opened his eyes and smiled at me.  

This is right after the church service.  It was an exhausting experience.  Having to look adorable at all times is tough work but, obviously, he was up to the task.

simply amazing....

 This evening was another night at the Philharmonic; another great concert (at least half of it was). 

The first piece this evening was Schwantner's Concerto for Percussion.  Lisa Pegher was the percussionist soloist and she was amazing, awesome, unbelievable, a joy to hear and to watch.  One review described her as "more than just a drummer - an alchemist of time, sound, and space, crafting viseral landscapes that penetrate the ears and mind."  This is so true.  If you ever have the opportunity to see her you must do so.  Listening to her music would be ok but this is a performance that really must be seen and heard to be truly appreciated.  

On the other hand, the second half of the evening was a performance of Edward Elgar's Symphony No, 2 in E-flat Major, Op.63.  Flat pretty well describes it (at least that was my untrained reaction). It consisted of three tedious movements followed by the fourth movement "Moderato e maestoso" which was moderately good.  

Next month Beethoven.  I can't wait!

Splash down!!!

Nine days ago I watched Artemis blast off.  This evening I watched it's capsule Intregrity safely splash down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.  All four astronauts returned safely and all is well.

While I appreciate that this flight did go out and around the moon at a greater distance than any prior space flights, I can't help feeling a bit of deja vu.  I think that many people of my generation may feel the same. In 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  From 1981 to 2011the Space Shuttle orbited and landed on dry land; the first reusable space craft.  

I remember being so pleased with the Space Shuttle, knowing that astronauts would no longer have to bob around in the water in their capsules wating to be picked up. There were some close calls with that system.  Yet here I am this evening watching as the Artemis crew is picked up out of Integrity, as it bobs in the water, by helicopter then transferred to a Navy ship.  

I am glad that everything went well and they are safely home, but that water landing felt like a giant step backwards.

ASMR???

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "International Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response Day" also known as ASMR Day.  Naturally I had to look that one up. 

ASMR is a relaxing tingling sensation triggered by soft sounds, whispering or gentle, repetative movements.  It relieves stress, anxity and insomnia.  If you massage your scalp until it tingles that is evidently a good thing. So I am going to get into bed right now and gently massage my scalp until it tingles.  Doesn't that sound nice?  Feel free to try it. I think that maybe this is a day we all should celebrate. Sweet dreams.

more about the birds...

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "Draw a Picture of a Bird Day."  That sounds like fun and I would draw a picture or several pictures of birds if they would just hold still. 

As I've said before, my spouse and I spend time every morning watching birds while we have our breakfast and linger over coffee.  Being retired, we have lingering down to a science. Ocassionally I will take a picture of an interesting bird with my phone but mostly I'm satisfied to just watch them. 

But thinking about drawing birds makes me think of John James Audubon (1785-1851), the ultimate drawer of birds.  I knew that he drew lots of pictures of birds, but I did not know, until I looked him up, that his bird drawings were contained in "a monumental four-volume collection of life size prints of North American birds."  The volumes contain 435 handcolored plates plus a separate five-volume biographical text.  Wow, that is a lot of big heavy books.  I'm sure they are fascinating and I will spend some time looking as his drawings on line. 

But meanwhile my wonder spouse and I will content ourselves with referring to our little one-volume paperback guide to the birds of Indiana whenever a mystery bird shows up at our feeders. 

just a check up...

Today I had my annual checkup with my cardiologist, or, actually, one of his NPs.  It had actually been about a year and a half since my last heart check up so it was time.  Also I had had a couple of brief dizzy spells recently so I decided it wouldn't hurt to just get an exam, especially since my wonder spouse and I are going on a long vacation in about six weeks. 

The exam today included an EKG and on Saturday I am scheduled for an Echocardiogram.  Meanwhile I am wearing a heart monitor stuck to my chest.  It's very small, not obvious at all under clothes.  This wouldn't be bad except the heart monitor comes with its own cell phone which I must keep with me at all times so I can record any events like a rapid heart beat or breathlessness.  I walked two rooms away from this pesky little phone for about 15 minutes earlier this evening and it sent out an audible message that I was too far away from it. 

I must admit, I'm a little surprised, but really very pleased, with how seriously they are dealing with my concerns.  I sort of expected someone to listen to my heart, tell me it sounded ok, tell me to keep taking my one a day heart pills, pat me on the head and send me on my way.  

I feel quite sure that nothing new and serious will be discovered but I will feel much more confident going on our three week cruise knowing that "all systems are go."

Easter Monday

 Today is Easter Monday according to my calendar.  My daughter-in-law, who teaches at a Catholic school had the day off, and, interestingly, the students who go to the public school where my spouse and I tutor on Monday afternoons also had today off.  We were told that it was an in-service day for teachers.  

I wanted to know more about Easter Monday so I googled it, of course.  It seems that Easter Monday is celebrated globally as a public holiday (not a religious holiday) representing a day of rest, continued feasting, family outings, and in some regions, unique water based traditions to mark the joy of the resurrection.  It is widely observed in Europe, Canada, and Australia, while in the US it is marked by the White House Easter Egg Roll. This US tradition is not a federal holiday but has been held on the South Lawn every Easter Monday since 1878.  

I saw some coverage of the White House Easter Egg Roll on the news this morning.  Evidently it involved 40,000 eggs. and thousands of children and their families selected via lottery.  President and Mrs. Trump were there to host the party and the Easter Bunny was also in attendance.  

And I thought all the fun was on Easter Sunday.  I will have to think of something special to do on Easter Monday, 2027.  By then our great grandson will be a year old, maybe he will want to join in the fun. 

Happy Easter indeed...

 With most of our family members busy with other extended family members, my wonder spouse and I anticipated a quiet Easter.  We decided to take his older brother to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner after church (lovely music, favorite hymns), and made reservations for that a week ago. That was it, our big plan for the day, and it went very well.

But yesterday I received a text from my niece who lives in Tennessee saying that she and her husband were unexpectedly in town just for the weekend and could they come see us for a while about 4:00 this afternoon.  This niece is especially dear to me because she is the first born of that generation.  She was born a few months after my mother died and I have always felt some of my mother's spirit in her.  She has grown up to have the same confidence and ability to tackle tough jobs that my mother had.  She also has the same love of life. 

So of course we said by all means come on over.  We had a delightful visit which included sitting around talking and sipping wine (which they provided) and culminated in taking them to our favorite pizza place for supper.  There are not a lot of restaurants open on Easter but B'Antonios was and, happily, we all like pizza.  

As it happened my spouse and my nephew-in-law decided to share a Hawaiian pizza, made with ham and pineapple so they had an almost traditional Easter dinner.  My niece had a taco pizza and I had a meatsa pizza.  Maybe they will become a new Easter tradition.  All in all it has been a delightful Easter day and I thank God for all the joys in my life.  

aticipation....

 Happy Easter Eve.  I know it's not actually called that but I'm not sure why.  If the day before Christmas is Christmas Eve why shouldn't the day before Easter be Easter Eve?

It has been a low keyed day for my wonder spouse and myself.  We will be eating out tomorrow so no hustle of food prep, and most of our grandchildren are too old to expect Easter baskets full of eggs and candy so no coloring eggs.  Our day was pretty normal.  Except for this poem I came across while sorting through old letters and cards. I felt that I really must share it:

WOULD HAVE SENT YOU AN EASTER EGG, BUT ...

by Ogden Nash

I asked a rabbit that I knew to lay and Easter egg for you.

The air was filled with chilly frost.  The rabbit said to me,

"GET LOST!

That egg routine is for the funnies, us rabbits just have little bunnies."

This information spoiled my day, but Happy Easter, anyway.

            

                Seriously, I hope you all have a blessed, joyous Easter.

prelude...

 Today is Good Friday.  As I write this I am listening to thunder and heavy rain outside.  It seems like a fitting end to a somber Good Friday.

I went to the Good Friday noon time service at our church.  First as a greeter, then as an attendee at a very moving service of "prayer, song and silence at the foot of the cross." 

I managed to embarass myself as a greeter by telling a rather distinguished looking gentleman that we would be worshiping in the chapel and pointing him in that direction, only to be told that he knew that because he is our director of music/organist.  In my defense he is fairly new on the the job.

The service was very well done.  One of the things I found most interesting was the reading of Psalm 22.  I had often heard the opening line "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" or in the Common English Bible "My God, my God, why have you left me all alone?"  I had learned long ago that it was what Jesus cried out when he was dying on the cross, and I knew it was from an Old Testament source, but I had never heard the entire Psalm.  One phrase that stood out to me was verse 11, "Please don't be far from me because trouble is near and there's no one to help."  What a sad desperate prayer.  

But, happily, we all know how this story ends, and Sunday we will glory in the resurrection.

Challenge accepted...

 Yesterday evening, while we were working on our 2000 piece puzzle on the big table in the basement, my spouse pointed out to me a medium size plastic bin on a shelf across the room that he said was full of my stuff.  He asked me, nicely, if I would like to clear it out.  

Since he had boxed up lots of my stuff when we married and I moved here from my apartment, it seemed reasonable to me that the contents of the bin could be mine.  So this morning after breakfast we went down to the basement and he lifted the bin in question off the shelf (it was very heavy) and carried it over to a table.  I opened the bin and found that it was filled to the brim with family pictures from back in the day when pictures were taken with a camera, not a phone, and developed at a photo shop.  Yes we are that old.

The surprise to both of us was that they were his pictures, not mine, so it was up to him to sort through them and decide which ones to keep.

While he was sorting through those pictures, I decided that it would be a good time for me to sort through a large box of "precious" things that I had taped shut and moved with me every time I moved as an adult. 

I was delighted to discover, among little albums of high school friends and other nick nacks that I knew would be there, my original baptism certificate that I had never seen before and a fat file of letters that my mother and, after she died, my father had written to me while I was in college and during my first three years of teaching.  There was also a file of letters and cards that my first husband had mailed to me before we were married.  I have not yet taken the time to reread these letters but I will. 

But thinking about all these surviving letters, I realized that I don't write very many letters these days.  Occasionally I will write to a grandchild in college or one friend who doesn't use a computer but more often (daily in many cases) I text.  I text to my brother and my daughter and my son daily and my grandchildren often but not quite so frequently.  

After my discoveries today, it saddens me to think that they will not have a huge stack of letters to rediscover someday.  On the other hand they will not have to meet the challenge of deciding what to keep and what to throw away.  

I found these two letters from my west coast brother among the other treasures.  I am ten years older than him.  These were mailed to me when I was in college.  He would have been eight or nine years old.

Even way back then he was providing me with things to blog about.

April foolishness...

 Today is April 1, often referred to as April Fools' Day.  Mother Nature seemed to be doling out a heavy dose of foolishness today.  Or perhaps she had her months wrong.  March is the month that is supposed to come in like a lion, but last night March made its exit with lion like roars of thunder and a heavy downpour.  So heavy that we now have a damp spot in our basement where we never had one before. 

But now it is April and,while it continued raining steadily all day, I consoled myself with the thought that April showers do bring May flowers.  I pondered this happy thought during a visit to the dentist (always so much fun) and a lengthy stay in the waiting room at my car dealership while they changed the oil in my faithful Fiat.  It would be, they had assured me when I brought my car in, about a 45 minute job.  Two hours later I realized that they had estimated the time using football minutes.

While I texted with my west coast brother to pass the time (and because I enjoy texting with him) he shared this joke with me "Chemists aren't good at April Fools jokes because they lack the element of surprise."

That reminded me of my favorite April joke "If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring??"  "Pilgrims!!"

My brother passed along one more bit of April lore.  It seems that April 1 is "Edible Books Day."  Of course I had to look that up and it's true.  There are books for toddlers that are safe to chew on and even ingest, but I couldn't find any claims that they make a child smarter. 

But thinking about books that are almost good enough to eat, I just finished a yummy book that I highly recommend. It's "The Crime Brulee Bake Off" by Rebecca Connolly.  If you've ever watched British or American baking competitions, I assure you that you will enjoy this book.  And that's no April Fool joke.