I’ve always had the image of Rodrigo de Triana screaming “Land, land!”, in the middle of some turquoise sea (after all, the first thing they saw was the Bahamas), and, considering that he had a tough life back in Europe, it must have been a nice surprise to find this new and exotic place.

Although things didn’t go that smoothly after this great discovery and it took around 300 years for things to calm down, October 12th was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Enjoy your BBQ this holiday.

Coming from a family of just girls, my dad made it clear that he had never wished for a boys and that having three princesses was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. And still, whenever we need advice, we go to him, because, as we say to each other “he’s the best”. And it’s the best therapy: for him, I have Audrey Hepburn’s looks and Albert Einstein’s brain. And if things don’t work out for me, it’s just “because I’m too good”. Call it distorted reality, I call it love.

But when it comes to special occasions, I find myself in trouble. Despite having so many things in common and being able to talk about everything with my dad (from the origins of the Universe until the food in Buenos Aires), when it comes to presents, we never seem to choose the right present for him. The only time when I was sure that he would like what I was getting, was when I bought a copy of the Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. But I can’t go on buying Bergman’s masterpieces and giving them to my dad for any occasion. After all, an occasion is only special if you make it special.

Like Father’s Day. For some, a commercial day, but for me, a great opportunity to tell my dad that I still think he’s the most handsome man in the world and that he will always be my hero. But words don’t make a present, so I better start thinking about another director he might like, and if I don’t find any, get my crafty side out:

Even if he doesn’t like it, he won’t have the heart to tell me so. After all, besides having Hepburn’s looks and Einstein’s brain, he thinks I’m as gifted as Van Gogh, so, how could this go wrong?

Ironically, it took an American movie to get me interested in Queen Victoria.  Being a Jane Austen junkie I could not resist the elaborate costumes, British accents and countryside and was immediately drawn into the 19th century. But even if corsets are not your thing, you have to admit that the queen’s life has everything it takes to tell a great story: Ruling the

British Empire at 18, falling in love and marring a first cousin, giving birth to 9 children, surviving several assassination attempts and being the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Today, when Warhol’s 15 minutes turned into 15 seconds, everyone wants to be in the public eye, yet no one seems to leave a lasting impression, it’s quite incredible to think that we’re still celebrating the birthday of a woman who was born almost 200 years ago. Learn more about celebrating Victoria day with this insightful video, courtesy of WatchMojo.

Happy Victoria Day from 5min!

And the truth is, she deserves it. After dealing with three existentialist daughters that still insist on asking her “why” about everything we see, no gift seems good enough for her.

Unless your name is Christina Crawford, I’m sure that you love your mother too, so get up and go and get something for her. There are many gift ideas, just think what she likes the most. And if you feel crafty, you can even make something yourself; I’m sure she’ll like it even more!

That’s why I enjoy spending Passover back home, where my dad reads a very short version of the Haggadah and where the gefilte fish doesn’t taste like cat food. And  yes, I leave the post-traumatic  Chippewa Camp syndrome behind and  even enjoy asking the four questions:

Spending Passover far from home is like hanging out with the Wicked Witch of the West: in the end, there’s no place like home, where the ceremony is short and painless.

After all,  more important than how many songs we sing, and how long we take telling the story, is to remember why we celebrate Passover. And there’s where  I get  my dad’s Martin Luther King inspired speeches:  Passover is about freedom, so why would we spend it doing things that we dislike?

Disappointingly for Julius Caesar, fortune was not up his alley on that fateful day which led up to his death at the Theatre of Pompey on this date, by the hands of the Liberatores. At the very least, we have both Julius and Shakespeare to thank for some very famous last words left to linger in history and popular culture – “You too, Brutus?”

Learn more about the Roman empire with this history tidbit from WatchMojo.

With the (very real) annual Groundhog Day coming up, we thought we’d bring you some background on this quirky climate-happy holiday, noted mostly in North America.

So, what’s all this fuss over a marmot, you ask? According to legend, the timid groundhog is a creature so easily frightened, that it may be scared off by the sight of its own shadow. Hence, when the groundhog peeks out of its burrow on February 2nd – what is traditionally marked as Candlemas Day – and fails to see its shadow due to cloudy weather, winter will soon be gone. If it is sunny and the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, signaling that winter will continue to linger for six more weeks.

Whether or not you care for marmot predictions or Punxsutawney Phil’s statistics, with global warming already taking its toll, we should all pay a little more attention not just to the weather, but to how our collective behavior may affect it in the long run.

It’s the time for latkes, fried okra, and gingerbread cookies . For stockings, kawadi and dreidels!

So, put a smile on your face, and enjoy the lights of your Christmas Tree, Hanukiah or Kinara!

Happy holidays!

The 5min Team