Grab a Book, Have Your Mind Read and Be Nice to Lawyers

You may think you are ready for your Tuesday, but if you didn't know about mind readers and lobbyists at the train station, you might want to read the Five Things You Need to Know Today column to get caught up:

1. You need to know about Education Counts: The local group that lobbies the public to approve the school budget will be at the Chatham Train Station from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
2. You need to know that the Germans are coming: In fact, they’re already here. A group of exchange students from Germany are staying the week with Chatham host families, and Tuesday morning they will be exploring downtown Chatham Borough.
3. You need to know how to support the American Alzheimer's Association: And the answer is, by seeing a psychic. No, really! Monday at 7 p.m. The Amazling Flavin will be reading minds at Juniper Village, and the recommended $5 admissions fee will benefit the American Alzheimer’s Association.
4. You need to know about benevolence: The Reception takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse.
5. You need to know about all of today’s holidays: It’s fun when there are multiple weird holidays on the same day, and April 12 is a prime example. It’s National Library Day, National Drop Everything and Read Day (both these holidays are part of the week-long celebration of Library Week), National Be Kind to Lawyers Day and Equal Pay Day, a day that highlights the salary gap between men and women. A White House study dated March 2011 showed that in 2009, women with all levels of education who work full time consistently earn about 75 percent as much as their male peers.

April 12 is also the 150th anniversary of canons firing on Fort Sumpter, beginning The Civil War. It is also the 50th anniversary of the first time man ventured into space, when Soviet pilot Yuri Gagarin completed an orbit of the earth in his Vostok spacecraft.

For other information worth knowing, see the Chatham Patch events calendar and announcements section—and if you've got something the community should know, don't forget to make a post of your own in one or both of those site sections.