Apr 21st: People, Places & Things

Celebrating a birthday on April 21st makes you rather special.  The people, places and things all born on this day are quite remarkable - you should make time to check them out: 

• Places:  One of the oldest cities in the world was founded today
• Things:  Mobile gaming was catapulted into existence on this day
• People:  The longest reigning female monarch of all-time was born today   

If it's a special day for you or for someone you care about, why not learn a little more about today by listening to some fun, engaging stories.  If you need some great gift ideas, we have those too (along with links to where you can find them on Amazon).

Today’s guest, Valerie Probstfeld, is a blogger, podcaster and soon-to-be-author.  The link to her site and show can be found here (these links worked in early 2024 - not sure how long the links will be available):

• To Mom Is To Love main page on Apple Podcasts link
• To Mom Is To Love Website link

Gift ideas for folks who celebrate April 21st for any reason:

• Remus & Romulus and Rome:  You can get a Remus & Romulus statue or necklace charm.  There’s a great 3D model of the Pantheon, and for your readers:  books about Rome including the complete works of Livy!  
• If flashbacks of the Gameboy inspired you, there are retro gameboy devices, t-shirts and other Gameboy and Nintendo decor.
• Queen Elizabeth loved her tea time, and her fancy hats.  Your readers can learn more about her and your collectors can enjoy uncirculated money. 
• To celebrate Iggy Pop’s birthday, there’s books and CD’s.
• To celebrate Chocolate Covered Cashews Day, there are many options.

Full disclosure:  If you use these gift idea links and make a purchase, I will make a small commission.

~~~ DayStrider Fun ~~~

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If you feel adventurous, how 'bout writing a great review? :-)

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro & Podcast Trailer
• 1:29 Remus & Romulus and Founding of Rome
• 8:24 Nintendo Gameboy
• 16:22 Queen Elizabeth II w/ Valerie Probstfeld
• 30:22 Famous Birthdays & Gift Ideas

Transcript

Truman: 0:01

Welcome, seeker! Your portal is all warmed up and ready to stride through history with me. Together, we'll discover why April 21st is truly a great day. We haven't been to BCE times in quite a while, so we'll head there first to check out an unbelievable story about how a wolf rescued a demigod. After that, we'll stride to the 1980s to hear how a simple calculator inspired the birth of mobile gaming. And to top off our journey, a special guest is going to join us to talk about the most famous person ever born on this day. Time's a-tickin', so let's get to it. Welcome, seekers, to the enchanting world of Daystrider, the podcast where we embark on a daily journey through history. I'm your travel guide, Truman Pastworthy, and together we'll explore some fascinating stories that happened on this exact day, but from some time in the past. From groundbreaking inventions to remarkable birthdays and extraordinary events to quirky national holidays, we've got it all. So kick back, relax, and open your mind for some lighthearted stories that'll leave you saying, huh, I never knew that happened on this day. Alrighty then, let's get to it. Would you believe that the city of Rome was founded by a man who was cast off to die as an infant and whose life was saved by a wolf? I know. I know it sounds like the plot of a movie. But this story is much older than movies and even older than books. So I'd like to take you back to April 21st, 753 BCE. So almost 2,800 years ago. This feels like a very exact date for the founding of a city as old as Rome, but I'll explain that in a minute. First, I want to share the story of the twins Remus and Romulus and their she-wolf savior, Lupa. So the story goes, there was a small city about 12 miles upriver from where Rome is today, whose king killed his older brother out of jealousy. He didn't want any dispute about his right to rule and he forced his older brother's wife into chastity, because if she couldn't have kids, there would be no one around to dispute his position as king. Well, a good while later, somehow, she gave birth to twin boys named Remus and Romulus. And once the king found out, he was furious. To protect her sons, of course, she claimed that Mars, the god of war, fathered the twins, and that she was a vestal virgin mother. That's basically meant... She wasn't sleeping around with anybody. The king ordered that the boys must die, but he didn't want to personally slay them for fear of upsetting the god of war, so he had them placed in a raft and set adrift on the Tiber River, where they would die of exposure. So the twins' raft drifted along the river, and twelve-ish miles later their basket came ashore, and there they lay. When along came Lupa, a she-wolf, and she rescued them and suckled them and gave them nourishment. and kept them alive. A little while later, a shepherd came along and found the twins and brought them home to raise them as sheepherders. But of course, they were the sons of Mars, a god, and they wanted more out of life than herding. They were charismatic and persuasive and bold young men, and they convinced a number of friends to join them in the founding of a new city, and it would be a great city. So, they returned to the place where Lupa rescued them along the Tiber River. And from there, they debated about where they should start building. Which hill would be the right hill to start? And of course, after they had their city built, they would have to decide who's going to be the ruler of the city. And since neither of them knew who was the first one born, they had to come up with another way. Because neither of them wanted to say, oh, you go ahead, you be the king. So... They settled things the way any pair of young, strong, tough guy men would. They got into a fight. And unfortunately for Remus, Romulus won that fight. And thus, he was able to found the city on his favorite hill. And he named it, of course, after himself, Rome. And they started building on this exact day in history. Come on, Truman. Please tell me how people figured out the exact day Romulus started building Rome. Well, about 700 years after Rome was built and thriving, a historian named Titus Livius, we'll call him Livy for short, wrote a 142-volume set of works, and that's a lot of books, about the city of Rome and its glorious achievements. And he was able to determine somehow that April 21st was the day they started building Rome. Really? Well, that's what we're going with. The guy did write a lot of volumes, right? He had to have had something to go off of. Well, check this out. In 2007, some archaeologists were digging up a site in central Rome, trying to learn more about its history. And when they did their carbon dating thing, they determined that that site was dated around 750 BCE. Bam! That matches up with Livy's date. Works. Lock it in, folks. Hey, we had to have a day anyway, and April 21st is as good as any, right? And it's been reinforced as the founding day of Rome for longer than Christianity has been around. So let's stick with it. Now, I'll be honest with you. When I visited Rome several years ago, the tour guide showed my wife and I the statue of Lupa and the infant twins suckling from her. And I guess when he explained the story, I wasn't listening well enough because I don't remember all the features that I just shared with you. So hopefully you paid closer attention to me today than I did to that tour guide. Oh, yes. One more cool fact about April 21st. So if you listened to the Meaning Behind We Celebrate Groundhog Day back on February 2nd, you'll recall that I talked about the people's worship of the sun and how it was the biggest thing for literally thousands of years. Well, the Romans were no different in this regard. And if you've heard of the Roman Pantheon, then proof of this shines bright. So the Pantheon is a marvelous structure with a huge concrete dome that's over 142 feet wide. This is about 50% wider than the U.S. Capitol's dome, which is pretty impressive since it was built 1,800 years earlier, although it's not quite as high as the Capitol's dome. Anyway, at the top of this dome in the Pantheon is a hole. Now, of course, when I walked in, my first thought was, who puts a hole in the roof of a perfectly good building? Well, this hole had a purpose. It allowed the sun to shine in and light the building, but it also acted as a sundial. So the hole has an actual name. It's called an oculus. And the oculus was situated so as the sun came in throughout the day, the ray of light would flow across in the interior of the building. And on certain days of the year, at high noon, the sun would be at a certain spot. And so they decorated those spots with statues or other adornments to show the meaning of that day. So you might ask, well, what happens on April 21st of each year at high noon? What happens is the sun shines through the oculus, or hole, and perfectly lights up the entire entryway door of the building, joyously celebrating the birth of the ancient city. So yeah, the engineers were able to design the building just the right height and just the right width and situate it in just the right way for this to happen at exactly noon on this day each year. That's pretty impressive, isn't it? Roses are red and Romans are great. Quick, write a review. Don't hesitate. Your mind went blank? Well, here's a good plan. Type insightful and fun. I'm a huge fan. Okay, time for a pop quiz. When was the last time you played the game Tetris? Uh-huh. It's probably been a while, right? How about this one? When was the first time you played the game Tetris? If you can think back that far, you might even recall what device you were using to play Tetris on. If you're old enough, then you probably remember playing Tetris on the Nintendo Game Boy. That's because the Game Boy, which was first released on April 21, 1989, featured the Tetris game as the cartridge when you ripped it out of the package and quickly jammed those batteries in and started playing. Yeah, the good old days of mobile gaming when batteries were not included. Yep, so the Game Boy had its directional pad or D-pad for the left thumb, and just the A and the B buttons for the right made things so simple. No triggers, no bump pads, no emote buttons. Even the least coordinated grandparents could use the Game Boy with moderate success. Ah yes, and remember the screen? It was a green background, and then the pixels were only four shades of gray. But of course, with the proper shading of gray combined with that background made that device really fun to play and effective in low levels of room lighting, and it can serve batteries, remember that? All those competitor devices burn through batteries. So for folks who were born in the 2000s, you likely never got to play games on one of these devices. So let me help you think about what that might have been like. So the original Game Boy had 160 by 144 pixels, which translates to about 83 pixels per inch. And today's iPhones have about 1200 by 2500 pixels or 460 pixels per inch. So it's a big difference in the quality of the screen resolution. And then of course, when I talk about colors, Today's iPhone users think about the actual color of the phone itself, or the color of the phone case that you protect your phone in, and definitely not thinking about how many colors can be displayed on the screen at once because all colors are now available on our devices. Well, young people, we had to start the mobile gaming revolution somewhere, right? And that start was the Nintendo Game Boy. And actually, there's a couple fun, quick stories about the Game Boy's inventor that you should hear. So I'd like to introduce you to Gunpei Yukoi. He was a quirky man with an electronics degree, and he worked at one of Nintendo's toy factories in Japan, maintaining the assembly lines. Yes, you heard that right. In the 1960s, Nintendo made toys, not video games. So if you want to picture Yukoi, he looks a little like the guy who plays Sulu from Star Trek. And yes, he was just a regular maintenance man, but he also played around, inventing gadgets and functioning little toys for co-workers and family members. And one day, the Nintendo president was touring the particular factory he worked in, and he noticed a gadget Yukoi had made, which was an extending grabbing arm. So this is the toy where you squeeze together the scissor-like handles, and then the criss-crossing pieces stretch out and cause the grabbing end to extend out, and then you can pick things up with it. The president of Nintendo was so impressed that he relocated Yukoi and had him create the Ultra Hand toy. And that was put out in advance of that year's Christmas rush, and it was a huge success. So that was 1966, and for the next eight years, Yukoi did make various other very popular toys for Nintendo. Until he and the company decided it was time to get into making video games. So behind every great invention is a burst of inspiration. And this part of the story has become somewhat of a legend. One day, Yukoi was traveling on the bullet train, and he observed a bored businessman playing with his calculator, pressing the buttons a bunch of times and then clearing out a screen and pressing the buttons again. And that got Yukoi to think about handheld devices with buttons on them, but actually using them to play a game. So he and Nintendo got to work trying to convert the popular Donkey Kong arcade game, so the big game that you see in arcades, into a handheld version that they called the Game & Watch. So these were handheld devices that were quite a bit smaller and a lot more primitive than today's Nintendo Switch, where the very tiny screen was in the middle and then those buttons were out on the side. But the problem with these was when you wanted to play Donkey Kong, you had to buy the Donkey Kong game and watch. And then if you wanted to play Super Mario Brothers, you had to go buy a different game and watch to play that game. Not ideal for customers. So they lost their appeal pretty quickly. And of course, the Segas and the Ataris of the world were now racing to get their own portable game devices out onto the market as well. Well, on this day in 1989, the Game Boy was born and it was released in Japan. it got to america in july of that year and the europeans had to wait a whole extra year longer and the game boy was insanely successful now as i mentioned it featured this green background screen and shades of monochrome gray coloring which were definitely not as cool as what the competition was making theirs were full color big screens backlit everything like that but The Game Boy was more compact, it was built to last, and it was much cheaper at $90 per device. Sega's was $150 at the time, and Atari was twice as much at $180. But the big winner wasn't the price point, it was the battery life. So those other bigger, full-color, backlit screens burned through batteries like crazy, sometimes lasting only five hours, and then you had to replace them. while the Game Boy's batteries lasted 25 hours, so five times longer. Much more impressive. Oh yes, one more thing. The Game Boy was sold with Tetris, which as you know is a very addicting puzzle game, and it's fun for people of all ages. That was a key. So the debate behind the scenes at Nintendo was, should we release the Game Boy with a Mario game cartridge or a Tetris game cartridge? And the theory that won was... A Mario game would sell to young boys, but a Tetris game would sell to everyone. And bam, off the shelves the game flew. Now I couldn't verify this stat, but there were reports that when the Game Boy was released, its demographics included 46% female ownership. That's pretty crazy. So when I was researching the all-time list of game consoles that were sold... The Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color, were lumped together, and their total units was over 118 million. And it remained atop the list of handheld consoles for a couple of decades before the Nintendo DS came along in the early 2000s, and then when the Nintendo Switch came along in the late 20-teens. So I'll leave you with this. I remember playing the Game Boy, and it was a lot of fun. I remember passing the device around the room at Thanksgiving so the parents and even the grandparents could give it a go. I think we all got a laugh as Grandpa cussed it out while trying to learn that stupid Tetris game. Let's go do a real puzzle. Got a lot of laughs. A time traveler's delight, we stride through the years, uncovering glories, triumphs, and cheers. If these tales from the past made you smile today, please share with your friends and brighten their way. So if your mom is still alive, raise your hand. Very nice. Now, keep your hand up. If you think your mom loves you, every one of you better have your hand up because I know your mom loves you. I have a mom and a wife who's a mom, and they both furiously love their kids. My ex-wife is a mom, too, and she loves her kids. And I'm sure your mom has always wanted to be the best mom that she could be. All right, now, put your thinking cap on and tell me this. What would be the toughest job your mom, or you if you were a mom, could have while trying to raise small children? Okay, so this is not a trick question. It's not April Fool's Day. It's April 21st. But I'm just asking. And I know, listen, I know being a mom is a hard job in and of itself. I get it. But if your mom also had to work for someone else full-time, what would be the hardest job, do you think? Now, obviously, I can't hear your answers. But I'm betting that one of these came to mind. A doctor or a surgeon. A police officer. an airline pilot, an active duty military person, or a foreign exchange trader? Maybe. Maybe those would be tough, right? Well, our guest today, Valerie Probstfield, is a mom and a nurse and a blogger and a podcaster and soon to be a published author. And Valerie and I were talking about this exact question. Picture this, right? Picture this. You're a mom of a four-year-old and a two-year-old, and then suddenly you're now the queen of England.

Valerie: 18:09

Yeah. That would be so wild. Oh my gosh. I can't even imagine.

Truman: 18:14

Yeah, exactly. And our Queen Elizabeth too had to do

Valerie: 18:17

that. Yeah. I

Truman: 18:19

just can't imagine because you have all your monarch duties and then you have your mom duties.

Valerie: 18:25

Absolutely. I think that is so wild. It's like, I mean, gosh, like talking about like an identity shift, you know, of this queen.

Truman: 18:34

And then as queen, that was about eight years later, she had another baby and another baby. So she had four

Valerie: 18:41

kids.

Truman: 18:42

two when she was a princess and then two when she was a queen.

Valerie: 18:44

Yeah. It's wild. It's wild. And I mean, with the four kids, like when I read about it and all, and I was reading, you know, Charles, he had a relationship with his grandmother, which I thought was like really special to me. Cause I mean, I, I, I understand that, like that grandmother relationship, like with, you know, it's, it's, it's a special relationship sometimes when you have someone there for you in that way.

Truman: 19:11

Yes, that's right. So what exactly are we talking about today? Well, Queen Elizabeth II, may she rest in peace, was born on this day in 1926. And Valerie, who was also born on April 21st, has a quick story about that.

Valerie: 19:28

I believe she invited at one point in time a other April 21st birthdays to a party, but it was only 1926. So you had to be born in 1926. So like the year, I believe that was the year she was born. So at first I was very excited and was going to book my plane like that day. 1926.

Truman: 19:47

Yes.

Valerie: 19:48

Yes. Yes. I read it very quickly and I'm like, I am going to London. I am doing this. Let's go. I'm like, no, not born in 1926. Dang it. Me and

Truman: 20:00

the

Valerie: 20:01

queen. Yes. Right. When Wouldn't that be

Truman: 20:03

amazing? Yeah, so Queen Elizabeth, she was an impressive woman. Sincerely remarkable. She became queen at the age of 26 back in 1952 and her reign lasted 70 years. The longest reign of all British monarchs and the longest reign for any known or recorded female monarchy ever. So think about that. She was the queen during the same time as the U.S. had 14 different presidents. Her favorite was Ronald Reagan, by the way, and seven different popes. Now, what's interesting is she actually didn't become the heir apparent until she turned 10. The story behind that's not so interesting, but she gave her very first public address to the children of England during World War II as a princess at the age of 14. I was impressed with her speech, which included this little clip.

Queen Elizabeth: 21:02

We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well. For God will care for us and give us victory and peace. And when peace comes, remember, it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.

Truman: 21:25

Now, this also came up during my conversation with Valerie when we were talking about the many things that the queen had seen during her reign.

Valerie: 21:33

When I was reading this article before our episode, Truman, she turned 18 in 1944. And there was lockdown then. Yeah. And then COVID.

Truman: 21:44

Yeah.

Valerie: 21:44

And there was lockdown then. And like for her to experience all that. And I do remember her like addressing Britain. Like she had a video talking about it. And I kind of remember, I'd have to look at the video, but I think she did mention something about World War II. And isn't that incredible to witness all of that in history and to know,

Truman: 22:02

you

Valerie: 22:02

know, like, oh, this isn't my first time with this and leading a country through this. It's mind boggling. Yeah.

Truman: 22:09

Mind-boggling. That's a great word right there. And that's kind of how I felt when I was trying to think of a unique way to present the Queen and the many amazing things about her. Well, as you know, my friend Valerie shares the Queen's birthday, and so we put our heads together. Let's talk about the Queen as a mom. A monarch and a mom. And have Valerie be the guest and talk about her journey into becoming a mom, as well as becoming a podcaster to help moms everywhere. Yeah. So unfortunately for the queen, the media is always there watching her every move. And thank goodness for us, the media is not outside invading our privacy and reporting to the world every challenging situation we face at home. When I was researching about Queen Elizabeth, there was a lot of negativity in the news about how she was as a mom. And I think of people, they didn't give her enough credit. And when I was researching Anne and Andrew and Edward, so all the younger kids, were strongly in disagreement. They thought that she was a great mom and she was around as much as she could be, given that she was also the queen of the Commonwealth. Yes, yes. Did you have any thoughts on the difference between the media's point of view versus her actual children's point of view?

Valerie: 23:27

I don't know. And I'm not sure how she actually was with her children, but I can just think of it from really any of us moms and how we are so much... I just think that's such a... That is the question. Am I a good mom or am I not a good mom? And... What is good and what is not good? And that's what I think we struggle with so much of society's expectations of we have all, we should be this good mom. And a good mom, I think changes with, it's so subjective, right? I mean, like, and it depends on the time period you're in. Right, right. So it's, so I think that that would be something as to like, what do I want to instill in my kids for them to be successful? And what do I value as success for their adulthood? And I think that really does change with times. And so I wonder if like some of that came into play a bit and I could see how the media, you know, everyone does try to like from the outside and say, are you a good or bad mom? But what really is that? You know, like, and who are, what are you defining that as? And you're a queen. So like, that's like, there's so much to it that I think is just, um, Yes. Yes. Oh, absolutely.

Truman: 24:59

Absolutely.

Valerie: 25:16

And gosh, I wonder if there was a media around my house, what the heck they'd say. Because sometimes I'll have the windows open if I'm yelling. But I'm like, can the neighbors hear me? That means I'm yelling too much. But you know what I mean?

Truman: 25:31

Oh, boy. All right. So you have a podcast called To Mom Is To Love. And you talk about to mom and being a mother as a verb.

Valerie: 25:42

Yes, correct.

Truman: 25:43

And so I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you came up with to mom as your... podcast concept and I know you have you also have gear

Valerie: 25:51

your shirts you have shirts and other gear you can buy merch that's it that's my husband you got your two mom merch he wants me to have merch yeah merch yes yes that's what I'm supposed to call it so but yeah it's fun yeah thank you I've always really liked the etymology of words I think that they're super interesting and being like someone who really likes history as well I think it's just really cool to see how words have evolved and And I would just remember when I was in the NICU with my first, I noticed everyone would call me mom. Like it was almost like overnight, my name changed and I wasn't Valerie anymore. I was mom. And as a healthcare provider, I'm a nurse practitioner and that makes sense. Like we do that. Like we are like, oh mom, do you have a question? It was interesting because I'm asked to fill out the birth certificate of my daughter and we're so careful with writing out their names. But we always have our own birth certificate. that we are presented with as mom. And it's a beautiful name. I love the name mom, but it's also not my only name. There's more to me than just mom. And so it was like, I had all these expectations of my title mom and society has all these expectations of mom and what a mom should be or shouldn't be. So I was like, what is mom anyway? Let me look this up in the dictionary because I want to know. Nice. Speaking of, I have my... I'm sorry. Speaking of. Speaking of. Okay, in a second. In a second, I'm talking about being a mom. So what is this name? And I noticed... Say hi. Hello. Hello. You want me to hold you? So I... Okay, so I noticed when I looked up in the dictionary the noun, the title mom means... obviously what it is. It's a title. It's a noun. But the verb means to care for or protect or to give birth or allow one to rise. And I thought that was interesting, first of all, that it is a verb. But also, what allows all those things to happen is love. So I'm like, gosh, that's really interesting that to mom is to love. That's what it literally seems to mean as a verb, or at least how I took it as.

Truman: 28:13

Right. I think it's a fair connection. Yeah.

Valerie: 28:15

Yeah. And that's something I can control. It was something that like I kind of was able to attach on to because I can't control like how my, I guess, ideal mom is. Like that's like kind of a fantasy or an illusion. Society is view. But what I can control, though, is what I can act in this moment.

Truman: 28:34

Wow. That's some great stuff. Valerie's perspective is fascinating. And she really moved me with how she expresses herself and explained her motivations for her newfound passions. You can hear a lot more from her, from both of us really, in the bonus episode. There we have our full conversation, which does get a little deep at some points, and which includes a funny story about Valerie's recent trip to the Grand Canyon. You gotta hear that. But for now, I'd like to leave you with a few cool tidbits that I learned when I was researching the Queens. First, she never had a driver's license or a passport. Now, that's not just because she didn't have to drive herself. When she was younger, she did like to drive around. But in America, your driver's license is issued by the state that you live in, and your passport is issued by the U.S. government. In England, those things are issued in the name of the Queen. And so she isn't going to issue a driver's license to herself in the name of herself. She just goes out and drives and travels around the world as the queen. I thought that's interesting. Also, the queen loved Welsh corgi dogs. She had over 30 of them during her reign. And what was fascinating was, other than her first corgi named Dookie, she bred them all and all were Dookie's direct descendants. How about that? And then lastly, she has been featured on the currency in 33 different countries, on both bills and coins. So we've mentioned that she was a monarch for 70 years. So that's a lot of money all around the world that will be in circulation for who knows how long. You go, girl. And there you have it. Some great stories to share with your someone special to celebrate April 21st. Once again, those are the birth of Rome, one of the oldest cities ever, the birth of the Game Boy that catapulted us into mobile gaming, and the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, one of the longest reigning monarchs ever. Now, I'd like to reflect a moment on the Gunpei Yukoi story. He was just a regular guy doing a regular job. Okay, he was a quirky guy doing a regular job far from the main action at his company. But he was also feeding his passion, making those fun little gadgets, and basically being true to himself. And then once he got noticed, he was able to apply his passion towards some truly remarkable things. Perhaps you're a little quirky, and I know you have a passion, and maybe it just hasn't been noticed yet. Stick with it, my friend, and prepare for your turn at greatness. Today, we have a newsflash. If you listened to the November 27th episode, you'll remember the story about the San Jose shipwreck and that it was the holy grail of all shipwrecks. Well, in early 2024, the Colombian government finalized a plan to recover the billions of dollars of treasures lying there on the seafloor. So I'm very excited to see what's waiting down there with the fishes. Oh, yeah. And if you haven't listened to that episode, check it out. November 27th. All right. Back to our regularly scheduled segment here. After you share your special stories, you can also mention the following famous folks, other than Queen Elizabeth, who celebrate their birthdays today. If you're into punk rock, you might recognize the name Iggy Pop. He was a punk rocker who was popular in the 70s. and influenced the punk and grunge artists that came after him in the 80s and 90s. Now he didn't invent stage diving, but he certainly was famous for doing it often. And apparently he's also known for performing without a shirt. And he's also known for crazy stage antics like smashing glass on his chest. Tony Romo celebrates today. He was the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys for 14 years and is now one of the highest rated NFL analysts covering games each week. Maddie Filipowicz adds another candle to her birthday cake today. She characterizes herself as an influencer, actress, and entrepreneur. She was in the movie How Claws Ruined Christmas, and she also has her own clothing brand called Second Choice Clothing. And she's apparently pretty popular on TikTok. Of course, I've never heard of her, but hey, on FamousBirthdays.com, she's second most popular birthday today right after Queen Elizabeth. So there you go. And also, according to FamousBirthdays.com, the 50th most famous person born on April 21st is Nikki Cross. She's a WWE wrestler and one-time Raw Women's Champion. Nikki's from Glasgow, Scotland and has been wrestling in the WWE since 2016. And she's married to Irish wrestler Killian Dain. And who wants to bet that when those two have kids, they'll give them normal names that can be translated into cool pro wrestler personas. All right. Need a gift idea for your loved one? Well, after you share those awesome stories, you can have them open up a gift that is customized to their birthday. And I have several great ideas for you, and as always, links to those in the show notes. Today is National Tea Day. Now, the Queen enjoyed her tea very much, so why not celebrate one of her favorites on her birthday? I found a really neat tea box collection with the Queen's image on it. It would be pretty cool. Today is also chocolate-covered cashews day, so you could send your loved ones some tasty treats. There are a number of options to choose from that I could find. And back in the first segment, we talked about Remus and Romulus and that statue of Lupa. Well, you can get a small statue of them, or you can get a charm or t-shirt featuring them, and it's pretty cool. And then there's a model of the Pantheon building. That'd be fun for any 3D puzzle doers in your family. And I also found the complete works of Livy. So remember that historian who wrote the 142 books? Well, they've lumped it all together in one book, over 2,000 pages of Roman history. You can check that out. And then in our second segment, we talked about the Game Boy. There are retro Game Boy options you can check out, along with Game Boy shirts and other Game Boy decor. And our third segment featured the Queen. You could also get your loved one a replica hat, just like the ones the Queen wore regularly. So there are actually lots of customized gifts to April 21st available as options to you. And as always, if those ideas are not cool enough, you can give them a shout out right here on this podcast. If you want to do it the old fashioned way, you can email me their name and some interesting tidbits and I'll include it. Or you can check out the feature we've added where you can record your own voice and do your own shout out to a loved one. It's using the SpeakPipe app and it might sound something like this.

Valerie's Family: 35:36

Happy birthday. We love you, Mommy. Happy birthday. I love you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, Valerie. We love you.

Truman: 35:47

Yep, and you can find the link to do that in the show notes. And as always, if you have a story that just needs to be shared about any day in the past, send me an email at daystriderstories at gmail.com and let's connect. And while you're thinking about all that, how about clicking the follow button on your podcast app? That way you can get notifications when the next episode is released. And by the way, if you're still listening at this point, I wanted to share that I'm a little surprised that none of you have ever tried out the SpeakPipe feature where you can leave me a voice message. Just say hi or talk some trash. Say, Truman, you're crazy. Anything. I guess perhaps you're afraid I'll use your voice in an episode. I don't know. But I would have thought at least one of the listeners would have tried that feature out. Oh, well. Either way, I'm living the dream making these episodes, and I'm really excited about the upcoming shows that will be released over the next 90 days. So thank you for listening, and especially thanks from all of you who give me encouragement when we cross paths in our daily lives. Much appreciated. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, this is Truman Pastworthy, reminding you that every day has a great story. And we'll be striding through them all to find some more goodies for you. Now get out there and make your own great story today.