January 9 is "Play God Day"

And Wednesday will also be Static Electricity Day. Kind of sets up a sense of scale, doesn't it?

A miffed Greek god was believed able to hurl a thunderbolt down from Olympus and incinerate some mortal miscreant. A play god, like you might try to be on Play God Day, could shuffle your shoes on the carpet and then try and touch someone... making a teeny-tiny, itty-bitty thunderbolt between your pointing finger and your victim's neck.

Unless you're the boss at work, you don't know beans about playing God. And if you are the boss at work, stop playing God and try being a better manager.

Wednesday is also the 220th anniversary of the first manned balloon flight in America. On January 9, 1793, French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard ascended in a hydrogen balloon from a Philadelphia prison yard. George Washington was among the notables in attendance to see Blanchard off. The President even gave Blanchard a note, a 'passport,' which proved quite handy to Blanchard as he tried to explain (in French) to confused New Jersey farmers who he was and how he had dropped out of the sky. With Washington's letter in hand, once someone literate was found, Blanchard was even able to secure passage for himself and his balloon back to Philadelphia in time to pay a call on the President that same evening.