Regular readers of AOL Weird News know that every day is weird, but July 9, 2011, is truly the oddest day of the year -- from a calendar standpoint.
If you were to write down the date in numerical form, it would look like this: 7/9/11 -- all odd numbers.
To make things odder, there are only six days each century when three consecutive odd numbers make up the date.
The odd sequence of events began on Jan. 3, 2005 (1/3/05), which was followed by March 5, 2007 (3/5/07), and May 7, 2009 (5/7/09).
Other than July 9, there will only be two days -- Sept. 11, 2013 (9/11/13), and Nov. 13, 2015 (11/13/15) -- left to celebrate this, well, odd series of calendars quirks.
So who is celebrating?
Oddly enough, the main person seems to be Ron Gordon, a retired high school teacher in Redwood City, Calif., who has been getting the word out about the odd calendar day ever since Sept. 9, 1981, which he declared "Square Root Day" because nine times nine equals 81.
"I stumbled on to that one and I stumbled onto Odd Day back in 2005," said Gordon, who lists his age as "eight squared plus one" (65 to non-math geeks).
Honestly, since these odd days don't come around very often, very few traditions for celebrating them exist.
However, Gordon is suggesting a few things that come across as quite odd.
"It's a great day to do your odds and ends," he said. "Or you can give a friend a high-five, root for the odds-on-favorite, read 'The Wizard of Odds,' watch 'The Odd Couple,' say 'Aaaahd' in the doctor's office, look for sea 'odders,' find that missing odd sock and beat the odds."
Gordon is also offering a fairly odd contest as well on his website, and said he will offer a prize of $791.10 to the people who involve others in things like the "Oddest Parade of Odd Characters," write the best "Odd Ode," or create the best odd celebrations.
Since the word is just getting out, you'd think the odds would be good to win, but Gordon said he's doing something odd: He's trying to increase the pool of entries by "allowing entries for seven plus nine plus 11 days" (27 days for those
who would rather be normal than odd).
"People can either enter 13 days before July 9 or 14 days after," he said. "Also, there will be seven plus nine plus 11 winners [again, 27], so every one will get around $29.29 -- minus the odd cent or two."
Gordon hopes to attract as much attention as possible to this odd day because an odd quirk is keeping him from promoting the next one.
"The next odd day is Sept. 11, 2013, and I think, under the circumstances, I will just send a message quietly to the media about a month beforehand," he said.