Just think about it: the opportunity to celebrate National Maricopa is a Great Place to Live Day.

Don’t laugh. You could make it a reality. There are 1,500 national “days” throughout the year — an average of four a day for every day of the year. The founder of the National Days Calendar says his group receives 20,000 petitions a year. A handful are selected to join the already long, long, long list of “special” occasions.

And even if the Maricopa idea is not selected, what’s to keep the city from declaring its own Maricopa is a Nice Place to Live Day? It just wouldn’t be national.

But you’d like to think it has a chance based on some of the days that have made the cut.

Let’s focus on April. There are 130-plus opportunities to celebrate your favorite days. Let’s break it down into two categories: legit ones and a much longer list of “Huh, what were they thinking when they came up with this?” ones. We’ll sprinkle it with a little local commentary.

National Earth Day on April 22 makes sense. An environmental tradition since 1970, it fits here given the beautiful natural areas surrounding our city, which must be treated well and preserved.

But these? Really?

  • April 16 — National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day: Meant to be a break after a late-night due to the previous day’s tax-filing deadline (although this year the tax deadline is moved to April 18), it became more of a reality in the post-COVID work-from-home reality. This year, it falls on a Sunday.
  • April 19 — National Hanging Out Day: A possibility, but do it at Copper Sky.
  • April 25 — National Hug a Plumber Day: The My Maricopa Plumber team is ready for that one.
  • April 26 — National Richter Scale Day: Who doesn’t want to honor seismologist Charles Richter? Also, National Pretzel Day. Did you know more than 80% of U.S. pretzels are produced in Pennsylvania?
  • April 29 — National Zipper Day: A 110-year tradition I’ve somehow failed to acknowledge until now.
  • April 30 — There are no fewer than 10 reasons to commemorate the final day of the month. They include National Oatmeal Cookie Day (Crumbl Cookies can do that — as well as about 170 more flavors), National Honesty Day (as in, I have lived in Maricopa for less than two years, but I absolutely love it here) and National Bugs Bunny Day (“Eh, what’s up doc?” which summarizes this column).