By VOA
2011-12-31

Now, a Special Words and their Stories for New Years. I'm Faith Lapidus.

The New Year is the time for new beginnings. It is also the time to buy a new calendar. Yet it can take a lot of time just to choose the right one. There are lots and lots of choices. In fact, There are more calendars than days in the year. There are small ones. Big ones. Calendars that sit on a desk. Calendars that hang on the wall. Calendars to carry around. Calendars that show a whole month or one day at a time.

Of course, in one way all calendars are the same. They all list the same days of the year in exactly the same order. But people do not buy calendars just to know what day it is. Calendars have become popular gifts because many are filled with beautiful pictures.

Some have pictures of famous art works. It is like hanging a different painting on your wall each month. You can even learn from calendars. They often give information about their subject -- such as famous writers or American Indians or flower gardens.

There are calendars about food and about beautiful places in the world. Calendars about sports and about movies. Funny calendars with popular cartoon characters. Calendars of famous people, like Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe.

For pet lovers, there are calendars with pictures of cats doing unusual things. Three hundred sixty-five of them – one for each day of the year. Calendars of dogs wearing clothes. And calendars of beautiful women in swimming suits, not wearing much at all.

Would you rather look at pictures of cars? There are calendars with those, too. For busy mothers, there is a magnetic calendar to hang on the wall. There are even calendars for children who can draw the pictures themselves.

Some people do not just look at their calendars. They use them to write down important things they must remember, like meetings or doctor's appointments. Busy people can buy small calendars to carry around to help them organize and plan their life.

But what if they forget to look at their calendar? Do not worry, there are electronic organizers that make sounds to remind people of things they must do. These days, if you forget something, it is getting harder and harder to find a good excuse.

Some people do not like little calendars, or big ones, or noisy electronic ones. They are happy just to write down notes to themselves on small pieces of paper. The smaller the better, usually.

These people never worry about all the time it takes them to find their small pieces of paper when they need them.

I'm Faith Lapidus wishing all our listeners a Happy New Year.