October is a month for ribbons, pink and red to be specific, and to raise awareness of two major diseases.

Hot Pink Owl Screenprint & Breast Cancer Awareness Tote Bag

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I'm a pathologist and a great deal of my job involves looking at breast biopsies and determining whether or not the sampled tissue contains cancer or not. I'm also a woman and that means I have a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer myself.


With almost 6,000 Etsy items supporting breast cancer awareness it is difficult to chose favorites so I encourage you to browse through on your own. In the mean time here are some items to get you started.

Pink Crystal & Silver Ribbon Breast Cancer Awareness Necklace

Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Awareness Stretchy Bookmark

Pink Ribbon Campaign/ Breast Cancer Awareness Print Polar Fleece Socks

October is also AIDS awareness month. Here is a bit of Red Ribbon action from some of our friends at Etsy.

Red Ribbon HIV AIDS awareness ribbon dangle earrings

AIDS Awareness ASL Hand Sculptures

Tatted Awareness Ribbon Pendant Necklace

Read a Child a Book You Like Day

Do you read to your kids? Do you read to your sibling's kids? Do you read to your friends' or neighbors' kids? Do you read to kids???

My personal experience with reading to children is that there are about five books at any given point in time with which the child is in love and will insist that you read to them over...and over... and over... and OVER... again. Well tomorrow is your day to choose the bedtime story and it gets to be a book that YOU like! While it may be tempting to read some Poe to little Johnny or Susie let's at least try to remain professional and keep the title age appropriate. With that in mind, here is a list of child appropriate stories in no particular chronological order.

Read part of it for free HERE

All my friends are dead. When I first saw this book I thought - OMG that is AWESOME! Then I thought, Wow... *snicker* That might be kinda rough for a kids book. Then my 3 year old nephew read it to me and giggled uncontrollably as he told me "All my friends are bread!" As it turns out, this book is pretty hilarious. For both kids and adults. Available at Amazon this qualifies as a book I like.

     

Where the Red Fern Grows is the first book I read growing up where I identified with the characters enough that I cared about what happened to them. I'm not going to say that I cried like a baby, but I'm not going to say that I didn't either. This book is definitely for the more mature "child" and is more of a marathon than a bed time story, but it ranks highly on the "books I like" list.




Anything by Dr. Seuss is probably a good bet, and for the most part they have at least some educational value be it learning to rhyme (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish), understanding that being different doesn't make you better (The Sneeches), that the environment is something that should be protected (The Lorax), or that you should eat your greens (Green Eggs and Ham). It is hard to go wrong with "The Doctor"

For the adult children in your life a quick list of adult books that I like follows:

The Hobbit
The Dark Tower (series)
Lord of the Flies
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
1984
Dracula
World War Z

Don't Dream It... Be It!

At the late night, double feature, picture show! 

Folks September 26th is the birthday of the sweetest transvestitey-ist to ever hail from Transexual Transylvaniay-ist rock musical in the history of ever. On this day in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show film debuted. It was awesome then. And it's still awesome now. So grab your tap shoes, a wicked-badass pair of sunglasses and get ready to do the Time Warp again! Here is a list of party favors and merchandise to make your Rocky Horror Celebration the envy of everyone.

Rocky Horror Lips Necklace

Rocky Horror V-Neck

RHPS Survival Kit

One Hit Wonders

Tomorrow is one-hit-wonder day. For your viewing pleasure is a series of videos from some of my favorites from my one-hit-wonder playlist.

 

This is CLEARLY not an exhaustive list, but I tried to include a little something from each of the past four decades so hopefully there is something for everybody. Make sure to post some of your favorite songs from the elite class of musicians briefly great enough to be called one-hit-wonders!

Band-Aid

Women are inspirational - there's no question about it.  The Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Band-Aids.  Wait...  Band-Aids? 

You got it.  In 1921, a cotton purchaser for Johnson & Johnson noticed that his wife was getting a lot of cuts in the kitchen. Earle Dickinson watched as his better half worked around the bulky adhesive and gauze she used to cover her knicks, and noted her frustration as those active hands worked their way out of the ill-fitting bandage.

Let's assume that Earle was trying to do his wife a solid, and wasn't just paranoid about open wounds in his kitchen.  Using his cunning, some inspiration from his lovely counterpart, and the backing of Johnson & Johnson - on September 22, 1921 the modern-day Band-Aid was born! 

Dear Earle -

Thanks for Band-Aids, man.  On a daily basis, you help moms bandage boo-boos, give paper-cuts the proverbial finger, and offer protection against shoes that rub in all the wrong places.  Who would have thought that some sterile adhesive, a little gauze and your dream of covering your clumsy wife's bleeding hands in the kitchen would have amounted to so very much.  Your continued accomplishments with J&J were well warranted.  Salute!

Did you know?...  Band-Aids didn't take off until Johnson & Johnson started giving them out for free to Boyscout troops.  Then, and now, Band-Aids are great donation items!  Homeless and women's shelters are always in need.  In honor of Earle, pick up a few boxes of Band-Aids to donate this month! 

Holy Happy Birthday Batman!

Today is a day to remember something awesome. And something I find particularly revolting.

First - the awesome...

Long before the bat suit was made of hard rubber and had nipples, Adam West was wearing tights and fighting evil as arguably the most awesome super hero of all time. That's right, you remember - KA-POW! BLAM! BIFF!! Batman at his daytime TV finest.

Today we celebrate the birth of the original Batman. To commemorate this momentous occasion I recommend watching the original Batman: The Movie (available from Amazon). The film contains classic moments such as the infamous Shark Repellent Bat Spray scene.

While you enjoy watching this cinematic masterpiece, make sure you also have on hand a bowl of the particularly revolting: butterscotch pudding. Why? Because the former super hero turned New England mayor shares a birthday with National Butterscotch Pudding Day!

Personally I think that butterscotch pudding would work well as a shark repellent, as any kind of repellent really - but I hear that some people actually do enjoy the flavor of butterscotch and if anything goes down easily it's pudding. So today kick back, relax, and enjoy two of life's eye-of-the-beholder treasures.

Speaking of treasures, here is a brief representation of some of the relevant merchandise that can be found on Etsy:

Crazy Adam West Batman TShirt

Adam West Batman 16 x 20 Canvas

Adam West as Batman earrings

Be sure to check back frequently so that you'll be ready for the next random holiday. Same Bat-Place. Same Bat-Blog.

Pink Menagerie

September is well on it's way to October; but that doesn't mean that it's too late to celebrate monthly specific special events like PINK FLAMINGO MONTH! That' right, I said Pink Flamingo Month! Being from Salt Lake this of course reminds me of our very own wild Flamingo, Floyd, who escaped from the Salt Lake City Tracy Aviary in 1988 and has since been living on his own on the shores of the Great Salt Lake where he continues his diet of brine shrimp to keep his feathers nice and pink! In the event you don't live in Salt Lake, someplace in Florida, or any other location where the pink flamingo is part of the local scenery, here are some ideas for Etsy merchandise to help you celebrate the existence of Floyd and all the other pink flamingos of the world.

Scenery is important, and not everybody wants a flock of plastic flamingos on their front lawn. Here is a flock of photographed flamingos arranged in mosaic form to create one of their own.

Pink Flamingo Mosaic Montage 8 x 10 Art Print

Or gaze upon one of these carefully crafted pink flamingo inspired masterpieces:

1920s charleston flapper flamingo

Pink Flamingo - Bird Illustration Print

Or perhaps you like to sport your support in a more fashionable manner. Ladies don't let your belongings escape like Floyd! Consider purchasing this 50's style crochet pink flamingo purse!

50's Pink Flamingo Turquoise Crochet Purse Tropical Theme

I made the following item a "favorite" the moment I saw it. 

Pink Flamingo Necklace With Sea Glass And Silver Locket

Whatever your preference, there is plenty of pink flamingo merchandise available to cater to every personality and style! 

BUT DON'T FLY OFF JUST YET!

Flamingo's aren't the only exotic creature to be celebrated this month. Prepare yourself for ELEPHANT APPRECIATION DAY coming up this Thursday - September 22! 

Here are my top picks for "pink elephants"

Pink Elephant Czech Glass Good Luck Earrings in Brass

Mod Pink Elephant Personalized Nursery Wall Clock

 

True Love original painting pink elephant

 

In staying with the theme of pink, today's recommendations were all pink elephants, but rest assured there are there are over 28,000 Etsy items in every color for "elephants" so don't be shy!