PAM: That’s right! First off, today, we celebrate Purim, a Jewish holiday celebrated each year on the 14th day of the month of Adar, and commemorates the saving of Jewish people in ancient Persia, as told in the Book of Esther.

RYAN: Wait wait wait, I know this one, the book of Esther is a cool story where Esther, the Queen of Persia, saved her people from the evil Haman. Haman was the King’s chief minister who got so angry when Esther’s uncle would not bow down to him that he plotted to have all of the Jewish people killed. Anyone who went to the King without permission was put to death, but Esther took a stand for her people. She let the King know she was Jewish herself; she was forgiven, Haman was punished, and the Jewish people were saved.

PAM: To celebrate the holiday, the whole story of Esther is read aloud at the synagogue, a house of prayer for Jewish people. And, it’s mentioned that anytime children hear Haman’s name, they stomp their feet, boo, and shake rattles to drown out his name. The most well-known food eaten during Purim, is called Hamantaschen, and a triangle-shaped treat filled with fruit jam or chocolate, or Kap’s favorite, nutella.

RYAN: Wait, isn’t Ramadan coming up or around this time too!?

PAM: Yup! We are in the middle of Ramadan, which began on the evening of Friday, February 28th, and goes through Saturday, March 29th. Ramadan is always the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, but the exact dates change each year because Islam uses a calendar based on the cycles of the moon. The sacred month marks when the Muslim Holy Book's Quran was first revealed to the prophet Muhammad. During this time, Muslims participate in fasting, prayer, reflection, and focus on community, which allows them to devote themselves to their faith. At the end of Ramadan, there’s a big celebration known as the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast, called ‘Eid ul-Fitr.’ We did a great episode last year with some teens about Ramadan. Ten’ers, look in our show notes for the link!

PAM: It’s a busy but joyful season for religious holidays because, in addition to Ramadan and Purim, it’s also Lent!

RYAN: WAIT! I know Lent, I know this one! I’m not talking about the fuzzy stuff that ends up in your belly button I’m talking about the 40-day journey that leads up to Easter. During Lent, Catholics and many Christians, including Protestants and Orthodox, practiced prayer, fasting, and acts of service. It always begins on Ash Wednesday, a day when Christians and Catholics have the shape of the cross drawn on their forehead with ashes. Common practices during Lent include giving something up, like your favorite candy or social media or video games… but people also add things to their day-to-day lives, like more prayer or being more intentional with friends and family. One of the most common practices is no meat on Fridays. The Lenten season always ends on Holy Thursday, commemorating Jesus’ Last Supper.

PAM: At some point, each of these religious observances involves indulging in yummy food, taking us to a non-religious, but loved day… Pi Day!

RYAN: I’ve been waiting for a day to just eat pie all day. Apple pie, blueberry pie, mud pie, grasshopper pie, coconut cream pie—

PAM: Not quite, Ry… March 14th, or in numerical terms, 3.14, is a day celebrated by mathematicians around the world. It’s also Albert Einstein’s birthday! Pi is a constant value used in math that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is roughly 3.141592653589… and so on. It’s an irrational number, meaning it’s not equal to the ratio of any two whole numbers, and its digits don’t repeat, making it go on forever and ever. Pi was first calculated sometime between 287 and 212 BC by an ancient mathematician and has since become symbolized by a Greek letter and recognized as a national holiday!

RYAN: The first celebration of Pi Day was organized by physicist Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium on March 14, 1988, when he linked the day and the first 3 digits of the number, bringing together his staff for fruit pies and tea starting at 1:59 pm, which are the next three digits after 3.14. It wasn’t until March 12, 2009, that Congress declared it a national holiday.

RYAN: You might celebrate Pi Day in the classroom, or by eating a slice of pizza or any of the pies I mentioned earlier…

But last week, there was a different food day over in London.

PAM: Yes, London celebrated Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as “Pancake Day,” at their annual Inter-Livery Pancake Race. Spectators gathered in Guildhall Yard to watch racers dressed in funny costumes run around the square, tossing pancakes in their frying pans. Winners of the race receive a well-earned trophy and a frying pan. These races take place across the U.K., marking the day before the start of Lent, and have been around since 1445 when the oldest and most famous race took place in Olney, England. Shrove Tuesday is another way of celebrating Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, like in other parts of the world!

RYAN: Pi Day and Pancake Day have called for a SNACK ATTACK.

PAM: That means we need to take a quick break!

RYAN: Yo Ten’ers, I gotta tell you, I’ve been DELIGHTFULLY overwhelmed by all your help naming my 13 week old, male, orange kitten. I’ve gotten even more suggestions in and I gotta shout them out before I decide…

•Big Toca Boca Fan said I should definitely name the kitten Pepper.

• An unnamed Ten’er said we should name him Pumpkin. Bofam77 suggested Garfield, Lexy suggested Lasagna, Richard & Grant said, ‘name da cat Strawberry’ and Andie suggested Cheeto.

•A Ten’er named Sawyer said Butterfly, which I OBVIOUSLY will not name him.

•Sunny-Taylor said I should call the kitten Monarch like the butterfly, NO, or Charmander or Daisy from Super Mario.

•A Ten’er named Hannah said, I like that name you mentioned last episode, Rigby, because I’ve never heard that name!

•Cinnamon Roll - Benny, Matpat Jr,

Cinnamon or Caliente, Elliot,

Cinny - Olivia. - Cinnamon and variations of it have been a VERY popular suggestion.

Okay, I’ve got SO many suggestions to consider. Thank you so so so much for all the great ideas. I’m gonna tally these all up and announce the kitten’s name next week! And now, back to the show!

PAM: Last week, President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress and appointed a very special guest as an honorary Secret Service agent of the United States. 13-year-old, Devarjaye ‘D.J.’ Daniel is a brain cancer survivor after being diagnosed in 2018 and given only 5 months to live. But, he’s defied all odds and pursued his dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. He’s been sworn in as an honorary officer by more than 800 agencies across the nation, most recently by the Secret Service. D.J. was wearing a Houston police uniform when he was officially sworn in by Secret Service Director, Sean Curran and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

RYAN: From one proud American moment to another, Big Bear’s most-watched eagles are new proud parents! Friends of Big Bear Valley is a non-profit organization overseeing the Big Bear bald eagle nest in San Bernardino National Forest, where parents Jackie and Shadow welcomed 3 eaglets this week.

The first chick arrived on Monday, March 2nd, and the second chick hatched by Tuesday morning. But, it wasn’t until last Thursday that the third and final egg hatched, making them a family of five. The eaglets don’t have names yet, but Big Bear Valley will begin welcoming suggestions and, at a later date, draw 30 of the suggested names for local third graders to cast their votes on their favorites.

PAM: Up next, Barbie celebrates Women’s History Month! Mattel announced that Barbie is releasing a line dedicated to four famous friendship duos who empower and uplift each other for International Women’s Day. Among the release are Olympic gold medalists Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey, Evonne Goolagong and Ash Barty, a tennis duo from Australia, Paola Antonini and Kelen Ferreira, body positivity advocates and influencers from Brazil, and Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple, actresses from the United Kingdom. Just last month, Barbie released dolls for pop star Alicia Keys and recording and mix engineer Ann Mincieli that were auctioned off for proceeds toward their nonprofit, ‘She Is The Music’ which advocates for equality, inclusivity, and opportunity for women in music.

RYAN: From a pop star Barbie doll to a pop star astronaut, Katy Perry is headed to outer space on the next Blue Origin flight. The all-female crew includes Perry, co-host of CBS Morning Gayle King, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sanchez, the fiance of Blue Origin Founder himself, Jeff Bezos.

You might be wondering how a crew of just famous women and scientists are making the trip, but Blue Origin’s spacecraft is fully automated and doesn’t require a pilot, so the crew can consist of civilians who don’t necessarily need knowledge of space travel.

And, while there have already been 10 other Blue Origin flights, this one is pretty special. This launch will mark the first time in 62 years that women have traveled to space without a man on board! The last time was in 1963, when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

PAM: Wow, that’s awesome! And for the last thing you need to know, let’s go to our Trivia Master, Owen.

OWEN: Thanks, Pam! The NBA has a lot of young talent, but also some players that have been a part of the game for quite some time. Who is the oldest active NBA player today? Is it:

LeBron James
Kyle Lowery
P.J. Tucker
Or Chris Paul?

The answer is… A! As of the start of this NBA season, James is the oldest active player in the league at age 40.

RYAN: Lebron James is so old that his son, Bronny, is now playing on his team!

OWEN: Lebron James has been in the NBA for 22 seasons as of this month, bringing us to his recent and very impressive accomplishment of becoming the first player to score 50,000 combined points in the NBA regular season and playoffs! He surpassed the recent record last Tuesday when he made a 3-point shot early in the first quarter of the LA Lakers’ win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

He’s currently tied with Vince Carter for the most seasons played in NBA history, stay tuned if he’ll snag that record, too!

PAM: And that was Ten Things You Need to Know.

RYAN: All of these holidays have inspired me to celebrate something every day, when the holidays aren’t happening. So far I’ve got Taco Tuesday, Waffle Wednesday and Throw a Pizza in my Mouth Thursday.

PAM: Those are all just foods to eat on different days of the week.

RYAN: Obviously. I know you’ve got an idea Pam. Give it to me.

PAM: French…Fry-Day. We can start celebrating…right after we give some Ten News Snaps.

RYAN: And before that, here’s a quick note for the grownups

RYAN: Time for Ten News Snaps!

PAM: A Ten’er named Amir said, “Hi Ryan! Name your cat Ginger because of the orange fur. Also, my birthday is March 15th! Close to yours! Please shout out.” Happy Birthday Amir, we hope you have an incredibly special day! And since your birthday falls on a French Fry-Day this year, I hope you celebrate that too.

RYAN: Thank you for that name suggestion! I love that we have ANOTHER thing to celebrate today. Happy Birthday Amir, I hope your birthday is filled with all of the cake, pizza, ice cream and video games that you can handle. At least, that’s what I will be doing on my day of birth.

PAM: And two extra notes for the grown-ups, you can now get ad-free versions of our episodes when you join the Ten’ers Club on our website.

RYAN: And if you want to help support the Ten News, you can make a tax-deductible donation at the link in our show notes. The whole team thanks you for your support!

PAM: “The Ten News” is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts, and part of the Airwave Podcast Network.

RYAN: The Ten News creative team is celebrating ALL of the holidays and eating ALL of the foods nom nom nom and includes Tracey Not a Crooks, Adam the Great Bambino Bernard, Brian Not Ryan Douglas and Carson Not So Harry Potter. Big thanks to Owen, Not Slowin Down for Anybody.

PAM: Our Production Director is Jeremiah “On Fyaah” Tittle, and our Executive Producers are Donald “Albright Albright Albright” and show creator Tracy Takes the Leeds Kaplan. I’m Pamela Kirkland.

RYAN: And I’m Ryan Willard, thanks for listening to the Ten News.

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