The coolest calendar

In struggling to find something to write about today, I found my eyes roving around my desk looking for inspiration. Catching sight of my calendar I smiled, amazed that after so many years I still use the same calendar every year and have been doing so since I was a teenager. They are always Hanukkah gifts from my mother, and I always know I'm going to get one.

The calendar is called "Cat Lovers Against the Bomb" and is published by Nebraskans for Peace, a peace activist group in Nebraska. The group has been producing the calendar since 1984.
I love the calendar because it combines two things important to me -- peace and cats. And I believe, as do the people who created the calendar, that the two go perfectly together. The calendar is full of fun, adorable black and white photos of cats paired with thought-provoking quotes by famous people.

For instance for this month's page, the photo is of two cats, one laying atop the other with its head on the other's head. The accompanying quote is "My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together," by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. February's page featured two cats in silhouette seemingly kissing with this quote: "An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all." -- Dorothy Day.

Of course, the calendar does not take itself too seriously, but maintains a sense of humor (just like cats do!) and the March quote comes from Dennis the Menace and says "Meow is like Aloha... it can mean anything."

In addition to the photos and quotes, the calendar is full of facts about virtually every day of the year. Most of the facts are political or peace related, but several are about amazing cats.

Here's a smattering of September facts:
September 1: On this date in 1939, World War II began when Germany invaded Poland.
September 9: On this date in 1828, Leo Tolstoy was born and in 1993 the PLO and Israel agreed to recognize each other.
September 15: On this date in 1963 the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, was bombed.
September 18: On this date in 1838 the New England Nonviolent Resistance Society was founded and in 1998 the Basque separatist group, ETA, began an open-ended truce.
September 20: On this day in 1987, Bities, a 16-year old cat with cataracts, arrived back in Oregon after being lost and located 3 months later in Lincoln, NE.
Septebmer 25: On this date in 1992, California became the 7th state to bar job discrimination against homosexuals.

Do you want to know what significant event happened on your birthday? Leave me a comment with your birth month and date and I'll let you know.