skinny girls & mayonnaise

Browsing the news items on yahoo.com, I was surprised to discover that today, February 18th, is National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day.

Can you spot the flounder?

Not only did I not realize it was a holiday, but I’ll admit I didn’t even know people stuffed flounder with crab. Not that I’m against the idea, mind you — I’ve been known to stuff everything from sushi rolls to artichokes with crab. Why not a flounder?

Thinking more about it, though, I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen flounder in a market. Halibut and sole, yes, but no flounder. Would a crab-stuffed sole still count on National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day?

I also got wondering who it was that lobbied Congress to have a National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day? Now I can perfectly understand, say, the National Cherry Growers Council spending a little cash and making an impassioned case for National Cherry Month (which, by the way, is February — a month that is also designated National Grapefruit Month, National Canned Food Month, National Snack Food Month, National Hot Breakfast Month and National Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month, to name a few). But who exactly decided they needed a National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day? Was it the crab council folks, or the flounder council folks? Was it a marketing partnership effort between the two?

It seems as though there is a National food day for nearly everything you could think of — and many things you never would’ve thought of. February 1 is National Baked Alaska Day — great if you’re on a cruise ship, I guess. February 4 is both National Stuffed Mushroom Day and Homemade Soup Day. The soup folks didn’t get the “National” designation, probably only one of those per day. February 6 is National Chopsticks Day. I’m looking forward to February 22 — National Margarita Day. There’s even days for our furry friends — February 23 is Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day. And all of that is JUST February. Hop on over to March — National Flour Month — and you’ve got National days for cold cuts, absinthe, cheese doodle, crown roast of pork, meatballs, potato chips (!), bock beer, lobster newburg, melba toast and turkey neck soup, among others.

Will I be celebrating this holiday by making crab-stuffed flounder? No. Instead, tonight we will be eating pizza — which were I a purist, I might’ve saved for National Pizza Day. But we missed that boat for this calendar year — National Pizza Day was February 9.