February 3, 2015 – THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED DAY – NATIONAL CARROT CAKE DAY

 

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED DAY is always celebrated on February 3rd. This day we remember the unfortunate and untimely death of singers 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 17-year-old Richie Valens, and 28-year-old J. P. Richardson, aka: “The Big Bopper”.  These three singers died in an airplane accident on February 3, 1959 near Clear Lake, Iowa. Their pilot, Roger Peterson, also died in the crash.
The Day the Music Died was dubbed so by Don  McLean’s song  “American Pie”
Buddy Holly’s band was on tour and had played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake.  They were headed to their next destination in Moorhead, Minnesota.  For this leg of their journey, they decided take a charter plane rather than go with their tour bus.  Richardson “The Big Bopper”,  had swapped places with Waylon Jennings, taking the latter’s place on the plane and Tommy Allsup had lost his place to Ritchie Valens in a coin toss.
Not long after takeoff, they were no longer able to be reached by radio and they did not reach their destination, therefore the aircraft was reported missing.  The next day, the wreckage was found less than 6 miles northwest of the airport in a cornfield.  Poor weather conditions and pilot error were determined, during investigation, to have been the cause of the pilot losing control of the plane.
This event has echoed through history for over 50 years.  Visitors still make the pilgrimage each year to Clear Lake, Iowa, the resort town about 110 miles north of Des Moines, as this was the point of their last concert before the fatal accident.
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED DAY HISTORY
February 3rd, The Day The Music Died Day, is an “unofficial” national holiday.
“The day the music died” is a line in the 1972 Don McLean hit “American Pie.” McLean’s song, which he wrote in the late 1960s and released in 1971, was in part inspired by the tragic event which took the lives of three great musicians and their pilot.
Following are lyrics from the song “American Pie”
But February made me shiver,
With every paper I’d deliver,
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn’t take one more step. 
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.

National Carrot Cake Day – February 3

NATIONAL CARROT CAKE DAY

National Carrot Cake Day is celebrated annually on February 3rd.
According to Wikipedia,  carrot cake (Rübelitorte in Swiss German) is a cake which contains carrots mixed into the batter. The carrot softens in the cooking process, and the cake usually has a soft, dense texture.
Baking and ingredients
Carrot cake closely resembles a quick bread in method of preparation (all the wet ingredients, such as the eggs and sugar, are mixed, all the dry ingredients are mixed, and the wet are then added to the dry) and final consistency (which is usually denser than a traditional cake and has a coarser crumb).
Many carrot cake recipes include optional ingredients, such as kirsch, cinnamon, nuts or raisins. The most common icing on carrot cake is icing sugar and lemon juice or icing sugar and kirsch (Europe) and an icing with sugar, butter and cream cheese (United States).
As the cake is relatively moist, it can be conserved longer than many other types of cakes.
Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot_cake