June 10 is Yo-Yo Day

Classical music enthusiasts should not be misled: Today has nothing to do with the celebrated cellist Mr. Ma.

No, today honors the humble yo-yo or, rather, the humbling child's toy if you've ever tried -- and failed -- to master it.

A post on the TLC website tells us that today was selected as Yo-Yo Day because it may have been the birthday of Donald Duncan, Sr., the patriarch of the Duncan Yo-Yo clan. There is apparently some dispute, even within his own family, as to the actual date of Mr. Duncan's birth.

Duncan Senior didn't invent the yo-yo. According to the TLC article, Duncan got involved with the product by buying out one Pedro Flores, a Filipino who had been trying to sell the toy he'd played with as a boy in the Philippines. While the modern yo-yo can therefore trace its origins to that country, toys similar to yo-yo's have been frustrating kids all around the globe for at least 2,000 years.

If you were too badly traumatized by just trying to make that #$%@! thing come back up, you can always celebrate National Iced Tea Day. On the other hand, it's already National Iced Tea Month. Some of the staff here think that iced tea is rather pushy trying to have both a day and a month.