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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | APRIL 2016 11 Did You Know? By Micki Rosen DID YOU KNOW THAT APRIL 27 IS WORLD STATIONERY DAY? With all of the emails and text messages all around us these days, it may seem that the art of writing letters and cards is slowly fading into oblivion. Humans have been writing for thousands of years, since prehistory. The Dispillo tablet is thought to be the oldest written record on earth, dating back to the sixth millennium BC. After that, writing seemed to spring up in different places, being especially prominent in the Near East. At the time, the main reason for writing becoming a necessity was that information needed to be transmitted for political expansion to be able to take place. Soon, financial transactions and historical events were being documented using writing as well. The Mesopotamian writing system is thought to be the oldest writing system. Dating back to 3600 BC, it was based on the simple concept of pressing a triangular-shaped stylus into soft clay. Writing slowly evolved into what it is today. World Stationery Day was created in 2012 to help make sure the art of writing would not go extinct, as some feared it would because of all the technological advancements of our times making actual writing much less practical than other methods of communication. DID YOU KNOW THAT APRIL 5 IS DEEP DISH PIZZA DAY? Let us thank Pizzeria Uno's Founder Ike Sewell, without whom this day wouldn't exist. He is credited with creating the Spectacular deep dish pizza in 1943 in Chicago. This wonderfully tasty pizza, also known as Chicago-style pizza, is characterized by a superb buttery crust that can be as high as three inches tall, along with generous amounts of flavorsome sauce, toppings and cheese. If you get a chance to visit Chicago, go to Pizzeria Uno — it's still there, and still delicious! DID YOU KNOW THAT APRIL 10 IS GOLFER'S DAY? Some people believe that the word golf is derived from the phrase "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden." However, very few words commonly used in English today gained their origins from acronyms. Other possibilities include the dutch word "kolf," a kind of stick or club, and "goulf," a scottish word meaning to strike or cuff. No matter what the origin of the word, the game we currently recognize as golf originated in Scotland somewhere in the 14th century. The earliest recorded use of the term in reference to the game was a ban enacted by King James II in 1457, who thought that young men spent too much time golfing and not enough time practicing archery. The ban was lifted in 1502, and the first golf clubhouse was built in 1552. If the full-sized golf game is not for you, try miniature golf, which was created in 1916 when the first course was built in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Miniature golf even has its own international regulatory body, the World Minigolf Sport Federation. DID YOU KNOW THAT APRIL 22 IS JELLY BEAN DAY? Who doesn't love a jelly bean? Once mainly associated with Easter and Halloween, jelly beans are now an everyday treat. No one knows for sure how, when or why Jelly Bean Day began and the origins of the beans themselves are equally mysterious. They are thought to have been developed from Turkish Delight and have certainly been popular since the mid-19th century or earlier. DID YOU KNOW THAT APRIL 26 IS PRETZEL DAY? It is generally believed that the pretzel is the oldest of all snack foods, with documented consumption of pretzels dating back as far as the seventh century, where French monks baked salted dough strips shaped like the arms of children in prayer.

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