Happy National Sea Monkeys Day!

When I was a little kid, you could find the coolest things for sale in the back of comic books. There were the amazing X-ray-vision glasses which I was convinced would let me see through girls' clothes. (Hey, I was 8, and Peggy Sue down the street was too, so there wasn't much to see anyway.)  When I put 'em on, I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face, much less anything alluring.

There were the Magical Growing Rocks that you put in water and they developed right before your eyes.  Of course, they weren't rocks at all but metallic salts. Apparently these are still popular.  There's even a high-end Magical Growing Rocks Chamber available on-line for $750!

Then there was the ventriloquist device that was supposed to enable you to throw your voice across any room.  I couldn't wait to get this to try it out on old Queen Cole, my mean-as-a-snake 4th grade teacher.  Alas, I almost choked on the thing the first time I tried to use it and never got the chance to try it at school.

But my favorites were the mysterious, aquatic Sea Monkeys.  Just drop the little eggs in the water inside the miniature aquarium that came with the hatching package, and in a few days you'd have a bowlful of wiggly, squiggly primates. Okay, they were really just brine shrimp, but I thought they were about the coolest things in the world.

That's why I'm delighted that since 2007 there's been a day devoted entirely to these delicate creatures.  As a matter of fact they are still quite popular, and many parents use them as first pets for their kids.  That's because they're inexpensive, don't eat much, require little care, and can live up to two years.

So, Happy Sea Monkeys Day, and if you'd like to learn more about how to raise a herd of your own, check out this great article on WikiHow.com.