Have You Ever Heard Of The Toynbee Tile Mystery?

Welcome to February 23rd, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate mysterious tiles and a banana’s last stand.

Since the 1980s, people in cities across the United States have found strange tiles on their sidewalks and streets. Each of these license plate-sized tiles all had the same bizarre message: TOYNBEE IDEA IN MOVIE 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER. And they’ve continued to pop up randomly for 40 years. They’re called Toynbee Tiles and no one has ever figured out who’s doing it. Or even why. The message seems to be a reference to the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but that’s not for certain. All that anyone knows is that the tiles usually show up during the summer months and are set in place using tar paper. On National Tile Day keep a look out for the mystery that may be lurking under foot.

If you have ever turned overripe bananas into delicious banana bread then you already know the virtue of the adage, waste not want not.  But before the 1930s most banana based desserts only used slices of the fruit in perfect condition.  The Great Depression changed all of that. During a time when food was scarce, no one would dream of tossing out fruit, even if it was past its prime.  The real hero was a newly discovered ingredient which did most of the heavy lifting: baking soda.  By the 1930s, cookbooks made use of baking soda in all kinds of quick bread recipes and ripe bananas played a starring role!  On National Banana Bread Day, bake up a tradition that’s still good to the last crumb.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.