May 23: Lucky Penny Day -- and two reasons why this pre-holiday week is moving so sloooowly

Mental Floss and Usual Suspects Gone-ta-pott.com and Holiday Insights are among those proclaiming Thursday, May 23 as Lucky Penny Day.

As the old rhyme goes:

See a penny, pick it up

All day long, you'll have good luck

Unless, of course, you put it in your mouth.

What's the matter with you, putting pennies in your mouth?

Meanwhile, the rest of you may be wondering when Memorial Day Weekend will get here already. Doesn't this week seem like it's taking forever?

We have found two good explanations.

It turns out that Thursday is also World Turtle Day. Oh, sure, the pretext here is that we should care for turtles and tortoises and support those who protect their fragile habitats -- and there's nothing wrong with that.

But turtles, you'll remember, are sloooow.

Meanwhile, Friday, May 24 will be Escargot Day. Some might argue that Escargot Day is really meant to encourage folks to eat snails, but we can't help but note that snails, too, move sloooowly.

Turtle Day... Escargot Day... on consecutive days in the week before Memorial Day? Coincidence? We think not. But the holiday weekend will arrive eventually.