A long history exists in the computing world of hiding "easter eggs," cool little tidbits that are there more for the programmer's indulgence than the actual user, and OS X (indeed, most software Apple has ever produced) has its share of them. Today we find one that traces back to OS X's Unix roots (specifically FreeBSD), and is just for fun... or is it? Perhaps it's serious business, if you're a chosen hobbit.

Either way, your Mac is here to help. Head to the terminal and type the following:

cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr

Don't worry, "cat" is just a command that tells your Mac to display the contents of whatever file path you type next (yes, perhaps that's oversimplifying it for an audience of unix geeks, but bear with me... this is supposed to be fun, remember?).

What you'll see is.. well, fun. And if you're not on a Mac, we'll put the contents here for you. Enjoy!

Contents of /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr:

/* * Lord Of The Rings * * $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/calendar/calendars/calendar.lotr,v 1.2 2003/10/09 00:31:48 grog Exp $ */ #ifndef _calendar_lotr_ #define _calendar_lotr_ 01/05 Fellowship enters Moria 01/09 Fellowship reaches Lorien 01/17 Passing of Gandalf 02/07 Fellowship leaves Lorien 02/17 Death of Boromir 02/20 Meriadoc & Pippin meet Treebeard 02/22 Passing of King Ellesar 02/24 Ents destroy Isengard 02/26 Aragorn takes the Paths of the Dead 03/05 Frodo & Samwise encounter Shelob 03/08 Deaths of Denethor & Theoden 03/18 Destruction of the Ring 03/29 Flowering of the Mallorn 04/04 Gandalf visits Bilbo 04/17 An unexpected party 04/23 Crowning of King Ellesar 05/19 Arwen leaves Lorian to wed King Ellesar 06/11 Sauron attacks Osgiliath 06/13 Bilbo returns to Bag End 06/23 Wedding of Ellesar & Arwen 07/04 Gandalf imprisoned by Saruman 07/24 The ring comes to Bilbo 07/26 Bilbo rescued from Wargs by Eagles 08/03 Funeral of King Theoden 08/29 Saruman enters the Shire 09/10 Gandalf escapes from Orthanc 09/14 Frodo & Bilbo's birthday 09/15 Black riders enter the Shire 09/18 Frodo and company rescued by Bombadil 09/28 Frodo wounded at Weathertop 10/05 Frodo crosses bridge of Mitheithel 10/16 Boromir reaches Rivendell 10/17 Council of Elrond 10/25 End of War of the Ring 11/16 Bilbo reaches the Lonely Mountain 12/05 Death of Smaug 12/16 Fellowship begins Quest #endif /* !_calendar_lotr_ */