Today is Sunday, June 18 and there are only 92 days until the birthday of the US Air Force.  As an Air Force veteran, I thought you should be reminded of that day.  Today we remember the birthdays of Feofan Prokopovich, James Montgomery Flagg and Paul McCartney.  On this day in 1812 the War of 1812 began as US declared war against Britain, in 1873 Susan B Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for President and in 1991 President Zachary Taylor’s body was exhumed to test to see how he died.  In Egypt it is Evacuation Day and in the US it is Father’s Day, National Go Fishing Day and National Splurge Day.

As I am sure you all know, today is Father’s Day.  I am also sure you have seen all the ads advertising gifts for Dads and Grads.  Frankly, I feel like Dads are not getting their due because they have to share with Grads.  I think Grads should be mentioned, but separately.  Dads deserve their own recognition.

Anyway, I am going to give just a few Father’s Day info bits.  I may have told you some of this before, but just in case a couple pages got lost from your useless information file, I thought I would offer them again.  Father’s Day is celebrated to recognize the contribution that fathers and father figures make to the lives of their children.

In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day.  Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law.  I am sure you now have enough to talk about at your big neighborhood Father’s Day barbecue so we will stop here.

This past week, I decided it was time to go down the shore.  The weather was sunny and the temperature was in the 90’s.  So we put the beach chairs in the car and hit the road.  We got to the beach and found a good place to sit and enjoy the water and the show.  I will say that the water was on the frigid side.  I never feel that a trip to the shore is official if I do not get my feet wet.  I walked down to the water, let a small wave hit me, stepped back and waited for the feeling to come back into my feet and went back to my chair to sit.  My exact words at the time are not for publication, but as I said that water was *%&$#@$ cold!

One of the first things I noticed was that a number of people were not prepared to be out in the sun all day.  There was a lot very red skin out there.  Just because it is not officially summer, it doesn’t mean you cannot get sunburn.  I saw one bald guy wearing a red bathing suit.  He was so red it was hard to tell what was skin and what was bathing suit.  I understand that people want to get out and get started on their tan, but suffering from sun poisoning is not the smart way to go.

The next thing I noticed is that people are still not seeing themselves the way they actually look.  One example of this was two young ladies I saw.  They were wearing the same bathing suit.  On the one girl it looked very nice.  It was sexy and showed her off quite nicely.  On the other girl it was not sexy and showed way too much of her.  In fact she would have been better off buying a different style.  I saw one girl wearing a suit that looked like it belonged to her 6 year old sister.  When your back cleavage is bigger than your front cleavage, you need to rethink your swimwear choice.  There were a couple women there that I just wanted to say, “Put on a caftan and cover yourself.  No one wants to see that!”  Especially since they hadn’t gotten any color yet.  They were what I unkindly refer to as land whales.  Not nice, but sometimes I have to call them as I see them.

Later, we went to walk the boardwalk.  If you are a people watcher, like I am, the boardwalk is the place to be.  I saw one girl wearing an outfit that looked like she had put on underwear and pantyhose and forgot to put on her pants.  I saw a guy walking along wearing what looked like a red, white and blue wig that he had cut down to a buzz cut.  I saw a guy with a very loud plaid shirt and striped shorts with colors that did not even come close to going together.  I saw women walking along that really should have been wearing a bra.  There is no reason why you would want that much bouncing around going on.  Besides, it was not attractive on the women that I saw.  In one case it was sort of disturbing.

We went to this one stand where the guy will fry anything.  Barbara got what she wanted and I got what I wanted and then we sat and watched the show.  It was interesting to see how people reacted as they came by.  Their first comment was usually something about not wanting to eat anything fried.  Then they would glance at the menu, slow down and start looking at all the items that are available.  Before you knew it they were ordering and as they waited for their fried treat, one person would turn to the other and say, “I can’t believe I am getting this, but it just sounded so good.”  The friend responded, “I know.  I didn’t even know they could fry that.  I may have to come back to try some of the other things.”  Welcome to the club!

This week our fact tells us that on this planet there is a can of Spam opened every four seconds.  How many are opened on other planets?  What is it about Spam that so many people want to eat it? I would think that, with that many cans being opened, we would hear the noise, but I apparently would be wrong.  Until I read this fact I would not have guessed that there was that much being consumed.  I will have to look into this further.

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there.  Go splurge and get yourself a can of Spam.