February 16, 2023 - National Almond Day | National Do A Grouch A Favor Day

Welcome to February 16th, 2023 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate shaking the tree and rescuing a grouch. 80% of the world’s almonds come from California. As of 2020, the state was harvesting 3.1 billion pounds of the nuts annually. Unlike other nuts, almonds aren’t picked. Instead, the trees are shaken so that the almond fruit falls to the ground. Yes, almond fruit. What we call an almond is technically the pit of a fruit. As for shaking, there are special machines for this called—well, shakers. They clamp onto each almond tree and begin to shake until all the fruit are off. After harvesting, the pits are removed, and viola! Almonds. On National Almond Day, celebrate with a handful of this healthy and delicious snack and be glad you don’t have to shake the tree yourself. One of the world’s more loveable grouches is Oscar from Sesame Street. Everyone in the neighborhood does their best to bring Oscar around. Even though he stays in his stinky trash can mood, once in a while we see him have a heart. Jim Henson based this character on a grumpy waiter he encountered in a restaurant called Oscar’s Salt of The Sea. Caroll Spinney performed Oscar’s voice based on a cranky New York taxi driver. We all meet a grouch at some point in life and there’s one trick that works more often than not: doing something nice. On National Do A Grouch A Favor Day try this method with your favorite grouch. Just don’t let them know which day you are celebrating. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices