Song of the day:
Top Ten Tuesday
Since songs from Encanto are dominating the airwaves and have also been stuck in my head for weeks, I thought I’d do a list of my Top Ten Favorite Disney Songs. To narrow things down, I decided to only use songs from animated movies, only Disney (no Pixar), only songs that are sung by characters (not background songs like Circle of Life, which is, of course, brilliant), and I decided there could only be one song from any given movie. Geez, I gave myself a lot of criteria! And yet, there are still a ton of songs to choose from! So here we go…
Top Ten Favorite Sung-by-an-Animated-Character Disney, not Pixar, Songs
Let It Go from Frozen
God Help the Outcasts from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Why Should I Worry from Oliver & Company
Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast
Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid
I’ll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan
We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Encanto
Friend Like Me from Aladdin
Hakuna Matata from The Lion King
I See the Light from Tangled
What are your favorites?
Black History Month and Lunar New Year
Today marks both the first day of Black History Month and the first day of the Lunar New Year. It seems important to me to try to learn a little more about Black history, as well as the history of the Chinese or Lunar New Year. So here we go…
Black History Month
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has selected Black Health and Wellness as its theme for this year’s Black History Month. "This theme acknowledges the legacy of not only Black scholars and medical practitioners in Western medicine, but also other ways of knowing (e.g., birthworkers, doulas, midwives, naturopaths, herbalists, etc.) throughout the African Diaspora. The 2022 theme considers activities, rituals and initiatives that Black communities have done to be well."
James McCune Smith was born into slavery in 1813 and set his sights on being a doctor. Because he was denied admission to schools in the United States of America, he got his education in Scotland. He returned to New York in 1837 and became the first Black doctor with his own practice in this country. He devoted much of his life to working with abolitionists to end the enslavement of Black people in the South and died about three weeks before the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery. (Source: Everyday Health)
Lunar New Year
In case you haven’t been paying attention, 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. I am not a believer in zodiac or astrological signs, but I am fascinated by the traditions. I also know that I was born in a Year of the Monkey. What I recently learned is that every year is a different kind of monkey. My mom and grandmother were also born in a Year of the Monkey, but the monkeys are all different. I had no idea.
Did you know that showering isn’t permitted on New Year’s Day of the Lunar New Year? You should also not sweep or throw out garbage until the 5th day of the New Year. This is all to make sure you don’t wash away the good luck. The day before the New Year, or Spring Festival, begins is dedicated to cleaning so you can sweep away the bad luck to make room for the good. (Source: Chinese New Year)
Videos of the day: