What Folks Care About Online Today - February 13th

Happy Galentine’s Day! The day to celebrate girlfriends and the sanctity of sisterhood. Fabulous holiday. Thank you, Amy Poehler!

That means tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Ash Wednesday also happens to fall on the love holiday, marking the start of Lent for thousands of Christians around the world. It’s the first time the dates have collided in 73 years!

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Canada now sits comfortably in third in the Medal Standings at the Winter Games! Congrats to Alex Gough who scored Canada’s first-ever medal in Luge, snagging the Bronze today!

Games  tomorrow include Biathlon, Alpine Skiing, Cross Country, Curling, and Figure Skating as well. Congrats to our Olympians!

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Former Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, as stirred up some controversy online. Our 19th PM tweeted her dismay some female broadcasters in television choose to bare their arms. She tweeted the following to much online backlash and criticism:

I am struck by how many women on television news wear sleeveless dresses- often when sitting with suited men. I have always felt it was demeaning to the women and this suggests that I am right. Bare arms undermine credibility and gravitas! https://t.co/plBRrrtqKV

— Kim Campbell (@AKimCampbell) February 13, 2018

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And today marks Mardi Gras! Here’s some facts you may not have known:

1. Mardi Gras—the French term for ‘Fat Tuesday’—lasts from January 6 until February 13. The annual Carnival always kicks off 12 days after Christmas (January 6th) and continues until Fat Tuesday (the evening before Ash Wednesday.) It’s a period filled with celebrations, parades, balls, and parties, all of which culminate on Tuesday, February 13.

2. The first North American Mardi Gras was celebrated in Alabama—not Louisiana. French-Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville arrived in what is now modern day Mobile, Alabama on Fat Tuesday, 1699. He named the location Point du Mardi Gras and threw a little party. In the years that followed, French travelers would come to the spot explicitly for Fat Tuesday celebrations. To this day, Mobile, Alabama claims to hold the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in the country.

3. Russian Royalty has attended the New Orleans festivities. Grand Duke Alexis Romanov Alexandrovich, brother of the heir apparent to the Russian throne, traveled to Louisiana in 1872 to partake in the celebrations!

4. The traditional colors are purple, green, and gold. It is rumored that when Grand Duke Alexis visited in 1872, his welcoming committee handed out purple, green, and gold beads to the party-goers that year, as they were the colors of his home. The trio of shades came to symbolize the festivities and were later given meanings: purple for justice, gold for power, and green for faith.

Read more HERE! 

~ Care :)