Sun Lite for Jan. 27, 2003

Monday, Jan. 27, 2003 | 8:23 a.m.

Make some noise

We here at Sun Lite are always up for a celebration, no matter how trivial the occasion. In our book, any day that ends in the letter Y is a fine day for a party.

So isn't it fortuitous that Tuesday (there's that Y) is also National Kazoo Day? What are you waiting for, an invitation? Break out the paper hats and, well, these annoying noisemakers and party like it's 1983.

That's the year National Kazoo Day originated, according to kazoos.com, home of Kazoobie-brand kazoos in Hilton Head Island, S.C. The website features a brief history of Kazoo Day, as explained by Barbara Stewart, author of "How To Kazoo" (Workman Publishing, 1983, $7.95).

Seems the holiday is the brainchild of Willard Rahn, a chaplain who headed the Joyful Noise Kazoo Band at a nursing home in Chambersburg, Pa. Rahn saw an article in Reader's Digest trumpeting National Tuba Day and decided kazoos deserved similar recognition.

Kazoos.com also offers a primer on how to properly play the kazoo: The kazoo should be viewed as a "singing drum" rather than a horn-section instrument (and you thought it was a toy). Players should sing or speak through the instrument, and the air current that's created makes the membrane (that flimsy piece of paper found on low-end models) vibrate, producing the kazoo's signature sound.

Blowing air through a kazoo "is a common mistake" among first-time kazoo-ers.

And whatever you do, don't tear that piece of paper. As any one who's kazooed knows, that spells kaput for a kazoo.

Over the hill?

Need another reason to celebrate? Marshmallow Peeps turn the big 5-0 this year and, no, we don't mean the long-lost box in the back of your cupboard.

In honor of the beloved (or loathed, depending on who you ask) Easter candy's birthday, Peeps' maker Just Born Inc. sponsored a telephone survey to gauge the public's Peeps perception. Among the findings: