Happy Earth Day, Travelers!

And whichever other holiday(ze)s you may be celebrating this weekend … ;o)

As the eco-conscious (and totally responsible) humans as I am sure you all are, I wanted to make sure that you are enjoying your respective celebrations as we dedicate the weekend to rejoicing in the presence of the various flora that which our Mother Gaia provides us.  May your patchouli burgers be especially earthy and your acai and goji berries particularly antioxidizing on this holiest of high holy days…

Ok, ok … I’ll bite (but only because I got some mad munchies, yo!) – we all know that there is a certain plant that is especially revered this time of year, and it isn’t patchouli.  It is on the twentieth day of every April that we choxose not to celebrate the birth of the celebrity fuckface/genocidal-savant responsible for the Third Reich and one of the bloodiest global conflicts our species has ever faced.  If you are one of the people scratching your head in confusion and/or disbelief, it’s time you know the truth: it is Hitler’s birthday today.  Scary, huh?  That the 20^th century’s biggest asshole was born on 4/20? I know, totally fucked up.  Hope that doesn’t put a damper on your festivities.  Best just to put that in your pipe and–well, you’re probably way ahead of me there anyway…

Though many believe that the correlation between the number 420 and marijuana use stems from a police code of the same number referencing illegal drug use, it actually has to do with the time of day.  Legend has it that 4:20 was the chosen time amongst adolescent pot smokers to meet up after school to blaze, watching their once vivid and endlessly important teenage worries being obscured by plumes of thick, pungent smoke.  I have a hunch that there are many who still observe this daily tradition, and what better way to double your fun than by stretching out an afternoon ritual to last an entire day?

California is perhaps the only place I have lived that fully embraced the 4/20 holiday.  San Francisco’s Dolores Park, as well as their Hippie Hill (located in Golden Gate Park) are notoriously mobbed all day with a diverse horde of stoney-baloneys, and sinde the passing of the proposition legalizing recreational use (and thus taxation) of marijuana – which went into effect on January 1^st – I can only imagine that it has only gotten nuttier.

Here’s some fun facts about April 20^th to make you feel super smart today.  Don't forget to tell everyone how smart you are.

• In the spring of 1611, William Shakespeare’s classic play Macbeth makes it premiere at London’s Globe Theatre, which begins with three witches cooking with mysterious herbs and talking gibberish about some Scottish guy, who would later on totally lose his shit at a feast and bug out thinking he sees the ghost of some friend of his he killed, a situation he would never have found himself in if he hadn’t bout that bogus K@ shit from those bitches in the beginning.
• Famed psychological complex namesake (and Emperor of France) defeats Austria at the Battle of Abensberg in Bavaria, exactly one year after his nephew – future emperor Napoleon III – was born which IS SO FUCKIN TRIPPY WHOA EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED MAN
• In 1862, Claude Bernard and Louis Pasteur completed the first test of the vital food safety process that would come to be known as ‘pasteurization.’ Marijuana was ceremoniously smoked amongst the two men in celebration of their achievement, and afterward Pasteur – who was a seasoned veteran when it came to the devil’s lettuce – took complete advantage of Bernard’s inebriation, convincing him to agree that the name of their discovery be based on a coin toss where “heads I win, tails you lose” (but in French, of course).
• 40 years later (two score!), in 1902, Marie Curie and (her husband..? brother…?) Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium chloride, which gave them the ability to theoretically power their new Volcano vaporizer effortless, until the day they succumbed to the agony of radiation poisoning.
• British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on this date in 2010, causing one of the most devastating natural disasters in recorded history. The resulting plume of black smoke rising from the wreckage was witnessed by several people aboard a plane headed for New Orleans from Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson Airport, one of which would become a mostly-ignored but hardly-discouraged music & travel blogger, known as…shit, now I can’t remember his name.  Something…Trotter?  I wanna say Set Trotter.  Yeah, that’s probably right.
• Several colorful and well-known personalities – such as sculptor Joan Miró (1893), future Bond baddie Bruce Cabot (1904), the incontrovertibly fabulous George Takei (1937), factory girl Edie Sedgwick (1943), American Horror Story veteran and impeccable Joan Crawford impersonator Jessica Lange (1949), Hollywood eccentric and American institution Crispin Glover (1964), former Playboy model and Sharonville, Ohio native Carmen Electra (1972), and 1980s child actor-turned-Melissa Joan Hart co-star Joey Lawrence (1976) – are welcomed to this world as infants, where they are immediately issued D.A.R.E. onesies and must sign a pledge to stay off drugs at least until they reach double digits.
• Oh and in 1974, Paul McCartney & Wings release “Band on the Run.”  Yay.

Well I hope this (mostly true) tidbits are keeping your curiosities alive this Earth Weekend.  Maybe you have some interesting facts to share?  Maybe you don’t?  Maybe…this is all just one giant crazy FUCKED-UP DREAM AND PERCEPTION ISN’T WHAT IT REALLY PRESENTS ITSELF TO BE.

Whoa.  I think I’m done for today.

Do yourselves a favor and go listen to some Boards of Canada with a pint of butter pecan and nice Pinot Noir to round out your evening.  You’ll thank me later.

Namaste, Travelers.