Friday Fun

MMM, DONUTS: If you were on the Internet or watched the news today, you probably already know that it's National Doughnut Day.

The kids have enjoyed Doughnut Day for several years running now. 

However, it wasn't until today that we learned there's actually a pretty neat story behind the 'holiday.'

Turns out it started in 1938, with very noble intents. According to an article on TIME magazine's Web site, during World War I, women volunteers for the Salvation Army made doughnuts to send to soldiers serving overseas as a way to help boost morale.

The Chicago branch of the Salvation Army launched the first Doughnut Day as a fundraiser for their organization, and as a way to raise awareness of the women volunteers doing what they could to help with the war effort.

During World War II, the American Red Cross picked up the doughnut campaign.

You can watch TIME's short video about Doughnut Day here: http://ti.me/1RQ6r3v 

LAST NIGHT:  With the days getting shorter this time of year, it seems like the International Space Station is only visible in the dead of the night lately. Fortunately, last night was not one of those nights. It was the bottom of the ninth, and as we watched the Mariners lose their sixth (or is it seventh?) game in a row, there was a lovely, six-minute fly over of the ISS.

Next Thursday (June 11), three of the people who zipped cross the sky over our house will be coming home. NASA's Terry Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) and Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos will have been in space 199 days and traveled more than 84 million miles since their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 24. 

photo: NASA

LAFF O' THE DAY:  Did you know you can't run through a campground?  You can only RAN, because it's past tents.