Asian Straw Hats by Peter Griffin
International Skeptics Day - A skeptic is a doubter and will question just about everything. Are you a skeptic? Do you question everything and everyone? Are you a “Doubting Thomas”?
A skeptic must have been the one to create this holiday, because there seems to have been a lot of doubt about which day to celebrate it on. You have your choice of January 13, October 13, or the first Friday of the year. Or you could celebrate it on all three dates!
Your very skeptical character is about to have his skepticism put to the test. Never has anyone been able to change his mind about anything, but now irrefutable proof is put in front of him that blows his disbelief out of the water. What has he refused to believe in for all of his life? What proof is presented to him? How does he react?
Make Your Dreams Come True Day - January 13 is also the day to make your dreams come true. What dreams do you want to come true? Do you want to be a published author? Do you have a desire to write? This would be a great day to start making that dream come true in your life.
Your character has lived her entire life with her head in the clouds. Who needs reality? But one day reality slaps her in the face and she realizes that she must quit dreaming so much and face life as it is. She becomes a very sad person when she thinks that all of the things she has dreamed of doing will never happen. Then she meets someone who changes her outlook on life. What happens?
Rubber Ducky Day - January 13 is also the day to play with your rubber ducky. It is not known exactly when the first rubber ducky was created, but it is believed to have been sometime during the early 1800s. The very first ones were made of hard rubber and did not squeak. They became popular many years later when Ernie from Sesame Street sang Rubber Duckie. Most rubber ducks are yellow, but many different varieties have been made.
You could write a sweet children’s story about a rubber ducky. Or you could write something different. How about a tale of horror for adults where a rubber ducky comes to life and terrorizes a household?
Dress Up Your Pet Day - I’m not sure how fond animals are of playing dress up. There are probably some pet owners who will find that trying to dress up their pet is a dangerous thing to do. If you wish to try your luck at doing so, January 14 is the day to attempt this feat.
What if the pet doesn’t want to be dressed up? You could write a humorous tale about an owner who tries to dress up her pet against its will. I’m sure there would be a chase through the house, through the neighborhood, maybe even through a few grocery and department stores.
Or maybe when the pet is dressed up in human clothes, he begins to act like a human. Would he even gain the ability to speak and walk on only two legs?
National Hat Day - What type of hat do you wear? Is it a derby? Could it be a sombrero, a yarmulke, a beret, a derby, or a Stetson? Perhaps your hat of choice is a coolie. Whatever type of hat you wear, today, January 15, is the day to wear it and show it off. If you have several different types of hats, show them all off today.
Hats, hats, and more hats. There are all kinds of hats that exist. Have your character participate in a treasure hunt where the winner will be the first one to collect one of every type of hat in existence. This could be a humorous story with people doing all kinds of crazy things to obtain the hats. Or you could turn it into a murder/mystery when a mysterious clue is found in one of the hats. Or it could be a thriller – someone finds a hat that has some international political secret hidden inside. Or it could be a horror story – one of the hats found by one of the participants has a curse on it. What is the curse? How does it affect the one who finds it?
