June 2: Dinosaurs or dentists?

Our crack research staff here at The Blog of Days is torn on this one: One faction insists that Dinosaur Day should be featured today, while others are urging the celebration of I Love My Dentist Day.

I can't decide.

I'd flip a coin, but Flip a Coin Day was yesterday.

Dinosaur Day is certainly a pretty good excuse for a celebration.

Dinosaurs get cooler with each passing year. When I was a boy, dinosaurs were thought to be big, lumbering, cold-blooded beasts. They're still big, but science has shown many were warm-blooded and agile. Some even had colorful feathers (this T-Rex drawing, for example, may be a bit dated -- the real T-Rex may have sported feathers as well as attitude).

The feathers are just one clue: The birds in your backyard are the true heirs of the dinosaurs, not alligators or gila monsters or even komodo dragons.

Of course, if you've seen as many cheesy movies as I have in my time, you'll have as hard a time as I do getting the komodo-dragon-as-dinosaur image out of your head. That's a komodo dragon on the right, by the way.

The problem with celebrating Dinosaur Day today is that some dissidents want to observe the occasion on August 2. Troublemakers and radicals, I say, but there's the problem.

Meanwhile, I Love My Dentist Day is perfect for you if you are (a) a dentist, (b) married to a dentist, (c) working for a dentist and trying to cadge a raise out of your boss.

A modest suggestion for anyone in category (c): Don't take the theme of the day too literally, no matter how much you want that raise, if there is anybody in category (b).