Grilled Cheese and Cosmonauts for April 12

Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to enter outer space, on April 12, 1961, completing an orbit of the Earth in a 108 minute flight aboard Vostok 1. Thus, Friday April 12 will be Russian Cosmonaut Day. (Usual Suspect Brownielocks.com calls it International Day of Human Space Flight, but it's the same thing.)

Inasmuch as we're still begging rides to and from the International Space Station from the Russians, we'd better make it a point to celebrate this one, don't you think?

But Friday will also be Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day, in honor of the least fancy entree in the history of eating.

And the fastest surface wind velocity ever recorded on Planet Earth was recorded on April 12, 1934 on Mount Washington, New Hampshire: The breeze was clocked at an astounding 231 miles per hour. (Hold onto your hat... and your head!) Some of the Usual Suspects proclaim Friday Big Wind Day in commemoration of that far-from-gentle zephyr.

There are a couple of literary birthdays to celebrate on Friday, too: Tom Clancy (born in Maryland April 12, 1947) turns 66, while Chicago lawyer and author Scott Turow turns 64 (born in Chicago on April 12, 1949).