Tales of North Korea Day

Selected tales of North Korea Day celebrations of the past. For a larger list, visit the main page.

The $100 Tip

Possibly the first "true" North Korea Day was celebrated back in 1999. I went out to dinner with my friend Lauren at some old-style diner somewhere on Central in Albuquerque (near UNM, no doubt). We did kind of a reverse dine and dash where we waited until nobody was around, then paid our bill and left $100 in an envelope with a note that said Happy North Korea Day and took off as quick as we could go without arousing suspicion. We never looked back.

Dinner, Ten Out the Window, and Spreading North Korea Day Cheer in the Mall

My buddy Eric is an awesome guy. He tries to live a life without fear. North Korea Day, 2001 was a day where he really succeeded. After dinner and throwing some money out the window of his car, he found that he still had some ones left. So he went to the mall and started handing dollar bills to random people and saying "Happy North Korea Day".

A Treasure Hunt

When I first moved to Illinois in 2002, I lived in this old apartment building that had an interior back stairwell that went down to a basement and a shared laundry machine. But what was interesting about the place was that it also had two abandoned apartments down there. With the dim lighting and the abandoned and trashed nature of the place, it was quite spooky. Although I couldn't convince anyone to sleep down there on Halloween night, it was the perfect place for some North Korea Day merriment. I went into one of the abandoned apartments, into a closet, and hid the money on an upper shelf underneath some junk that was there. For all I know, the money is still there waiting for YOU to find it.

Mail your family! Mail your friend! Mail anyone!

In 2004, my buddy Eric used North Korea Day as a way to inspire his fellow man. He purchased $100 worth of envelopes, pens, and stamps and got to work. He found a public mailbox and attached flyer. Underneath, he left his other materials in the hopes that people would walk past, pause, and send a letter to a friend or loved one.

Alas for Eric, his materials were taken down and confiscated before much could happen with them.

Your Reward for Literacy

In 2008, I recruited some friends (Glowworm and Diana) for a secret mission. We each took some bills (total: $100) and made our way through a local bookstore. We each chose some books from the shelves and hid the bills inside. We don't know what happened next, but hopefully whoever bought those books found a happy surprise when they got around to reading them.

However, I secretly suspect that at least half of those bills are still waiting to be discovered in books gathering dust on bookshelves in people's homes.

A Donation Made In Your Name

In 2009, I gave myself a challenge: identify the most hilarious charity for a donation in my friend Eric's name. So I wracked my brain to figure out what Eric would really care the least about. I finally settled on the Arizona Ballet. If you know Eric, I'm sure you find that as hilarious as I do. The plan didn't work out quite as well as I hoped because the email they sent him about it got caught in his spam filter, so I had to tell him about it myself. But then I realized something...
THAT MADE IT EVEN MORE OF A NORTH KOREA DAY CELEBRATION!

craigslist > for sale / wanted > free stuff

If you're familiar with Craigslist, you'll surely find this story amusing.
My friend Eric took to craigslist in 2009 to spread the North Korea Day cheer.
Here's the entirety of the posting (minus the pictures):


Date: 1259440936

PostID: 1485664936

Title: (free stuff) Happy North Korea Day!  Free $100

Happy North Korea Day Las Cruces!!!



For the first person who gets it, I've hidden $100 under a bench in Apodaca
Park.  Pictures of location are attached.



Enjoy.


    Location: Under Park Bench
        
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial
        interests

He forwarded me a few of the email responses that he got:


From: Jacob Licon

Hi,

I just wanted to thank you!! You dont know how much this will help my family
and I right now.!!! Thanks again!!!


From: Trevas Younger

Too funny! Is it true?


From: Loiana Haines

the money wasnt there

Before long, the post was flagged and taken down. It is unclear what part of the terms of use were violated, but I guess they were.
In my mind, this was probably the most successful North Korea Day celebration ever. I challenge you to beat it!

Arts and Crafts

In 2010, I gave myself another challenge. I wanted to decorate $100 like a young child might (all of my decorating looks like a young child was involved), seal it up somehow, and then give it as a gift. But to whom could I give this gift so that they would both appreciate the gift and be bothered by getting it at the same time? I was especially concerned about finding someone that would not destroy the artwork and spend the money. My sister-in-law Amy is notoriously frugal, family-oriented, and kind (all excellent qualities), which made her the perfect recipient.

On that Saturday, my sister and I sat down at my parents' table with the necessary materials.

Colored markers
Glue
Colorful glitter
A One Hundred Dollar Bill

With these items in hand, we got to work. We decorated for well over 5 minutes, until we had things just right. Then we hopped in the car and headed for the nearest place that would do lamination. We got the guy to help us laminate the bill and he never even blinked or even seemed to notice what we were doing. No doubt he's had lots of North Korea Day customers over the years.

When that was done, we stuck the bookmark in an envelope and marked it with her name and "Do Not Open Until Christmas". At Christmas, when she got the gift, she appeared quite delighted.
Challenge Complete!
Pic 1 Pic 2

A Singing Cow

In 2011, I decided that I wanted to find some service that I could spend $100 on, but that really didn't seem worth it. Unfortunately, it turns out that I'm not really aware of what services are available to me in this world, so this was harder than it sounds. In the end, I settled on a tried and true service that we're all familiar with: the singing telegram.

I called up a singing telegram service that advertised their services for $30. We selected my wife's sister and her husband, who have a 4-ish month old baby as people that were in need of some North Korea Day holiday cheer. Anyway, they live in what is essentially a suburb of Denver, so I was fortunate because they wanted to charge me $70 for it, instead of $30. However, I wasn't satisfied with that and told them I wanted to spend $100 and asked if they could include some add-ons and bring the price up. They agreed.

I decided to make this an anonymous "gift" in honor of the baby, so the plan was for the employee to dress up as a cow, show up at the door, and sing some kind of specially crafted song that was specific to the situation. Then they would give various overpriced gifts and leave.

Now because it was anonymous, we didn't want to specifically ask about it to see how it went. Here's where it gets weird. We never heard anything about it. And I never saw my credit card get charged. Did they do the deed and just haven't gotten around to charging me yet? Did my 15 minute conversation with someone setting this up get forgotten immediately? Did they lose all the contact information? Did I use a different credit card than I thought I did? I don't know and I'm not planning to investigate. And that, my friends, is North Korea Day in a nutshell.