Constitution Day, September 17th

Constitution Day

What? You haven't heard of Constitution Day? You probably missed the USA Today article; it's a little small. If you want an article with a little more substance, check out The Washington Post, which is mostly an interview with Chief Justice John Roberts. (Or, here is also this article, which isn't so neutral about the state of the nation in relation to the Constitution.)

Personally, I think it's interesting that this holiday is not celebrated much in the press, because this holiday came into being at the request of William Randolph Hearst. The press should be all over this holiday! All in all, since we don't get a day off, Constitution Day has probably become just an elementary school holiday, an opportunity to teach about the Constitution. But, I think that there should be more.

Constitution Day is also known as Citizenship Day, which was Hearst's original intention when he promoted the day. I know that I take my citizenship for granted sometimes, and I think that I don't understand totally what citizenship means. In school we were evaluated with every report card about our citizenship. But, I wonder how good of a citizen I am without the reminder every six weeks? Does being a good citizen require that I drive the speed limit, as it once required that I not run in the hallways? Does it require that I recycle, constantly, always, even when it's not convenient, as it once required that I keep my desk clean? Does it require that I be kind and respectful, to everyone I encounter, even if I might be the Utah State Senate Majority Leader and I am dealing with a pizza delivery girl, as it once required that I be kind and respectful to my teachers and fellow students? I wonder, in our society do we demand more of our children as citizens than we do of our adults?

I'm not sure why I feel so strongly about this today. Maybe because yesterday I heard this story on NPR about "silent raves," where large groups of people get together to dance to their own music on their i-pods. It seems like a excellent example of American freedom... you don't even have to listen to the same music as the person next to you at a dance, yet it seems so isolated, so detached, and I am afraid that we are losing our concept of "we the people..."

National Grammar Day, March 4th

National Grammar Day

Oh, my goodness, I almost forgot! Today is National Grammar Day! And I would not have known about National Grammar Day, if Soccer Dad, had not given me the heads up about it! Now, even though I have my B.A. in English, I haven't ever formally taken a grammar class, so, I do feel a bit insecure around some people when they talk about nonrestrictive modifiers and future perfect tenses. However, I do love language, and can appreciate grammar and those whose skills are above my own, and today I will pretend that I have the best of grammar skills, and as long as Edgy doesn't tell on me, no-one will be the wiser. Just, no-one comment on the run-on sentence, please.

Anyway, I found this delightful article about the ethics of grammar, which tells me of the four situations where it is permissible to correct a person's grammar. And, I have discovered that according to SPOGG (Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar) voters, President George W. Bush is the celebrity with the worst grammar. (Sorry Soccer Dad as a Democrat, I felt morally responsible, to point that one out.) And, I have discovered that SPOGG has a blog!

I feel as if I am witnessing the development of a real-life-English-major-e-version of S.P.E.W.!

Anyway, thanks again Soccer Dad!

National Inane Answering Message Day, January 30th

National Inane Answering Message Day

Unlike last year, this year the U.S. Census Bureau does not have a message for National Inane Answering Message Day. The U.S. Census Bureau employee with a sense of humor must have quit his job.

So, we must turn to other venues for Inane Answering Message Day hilarity, even if we think they didn't quite get the point of what an inane answering message is. Alors, we must just laugh at what we can.

National Dessert Day, October 14th

National Dessert Day

I recently read an ad for a hair tonic in a newspaper from 1900. The ad read:

"Homeliness--not positive ugliness--but mere plainness, often passes for beauty when crowned with a halo of beautiful hair." (J.C.Ayer Company)

Great. Now, I am worried about homeliness.

I think that I am going to have to eat a whole lot of dessert today.

Leif Erikson Day, Columbus Day (Observed), October 9th

Today is the day of many celebrations... It is Leif Erikson Day, and Columbus Day (Observed), and Soccer Dad's birthday, so go wish him happy birthday. And if you have today off, I am really jealous of you.

So, why do we have a Leif Erikson Day and a Columbus Day, and why are they so darn close to each other?

Columbus Day commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World. (You know, "In Fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue...") Columbus Day was first celebrated primarily by Italian-Americans in New York City on October 12th beginning 1866. (But, some dispute his Italian heritage.) The celebrations spread across the United States to San Francisco by 1869. Yep, only three years. All this partying must have got out of hand because those who were in charge decided that it would be easier to make it a national holiday than to try to stop the partying. In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed October 12th to be Columbus Day, National Holiday. (Kinda makes you wonder what is going to happen to Talk Like A Pirate Day, huh!)

October 12th proved to be an inconvenient holiday for Americans, and, since it wasn't Christmas or the Fourth of July, when President Richard Nixon came along, he declared that Columbus Day was to be observed the second Monday of each October, which also is Thanksgiving Day for our Canadian friends. Which makes this holiday convienent for those with dual citizenship. Also, the three day weekend-ness gives Columbus Day so much more credibility as a holiday.

So, why do we have Leif Erikson Day?

Italian-Americans embraced the celebration of Columbus Day. But, not all Americans were happy about the celebration of Columbus's landing. Rasmus B. Anderson petitioned for Leif Erikson to be nationally recognized as the first European to set foot on the American continent. In 1929, Wisconsin was the first state to recognize a Leif Erikson Day.

Rasmus died in 1936, so he did not see Congress declare, by joint resolution, Leif Erikson Day in 1964. Congress authorized and requested President Lyndon B. Johnson to proclaim October 9th as "Leif Erikson Day" and requested that each successive president of the United States make the same declaration.

October 9th is not the day that Leif Erikson landed on the American continent. In fact, the date is not his birthday, nor his deathday, nor the day he got married, or anything else date-worthy in Leif's life. October 9, 1825 was the day the ship Restauration arrived in New York Harbor, which marked the start of the first organized immigration from Norway to the United States.

So, really, if you have the day off, you are just celebrating immigration today, Italian, Norwegian...

German American Day, October 6th

German American Day or Deutschen Amerikaner Tag

Declared by President George W. Bush, every October 6th is German American Day. He stated:

German Americans advanced our civic liberties through their strong support for freedom of the press. As publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, John Peter Zenger championed the rights of citizens to criticize elected officials in print. The German-language newspaper Pennsylvania Staatsbote published the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence. And in directing The New York Times through modernization in the early 20th century, Adolph Ochs helped set a new standard for balanced and innovative reporting.(President Proclaims German-American Day)

Interesting.

If you are in Utah, this weekend is the last weekend to head on up to Snowbird to celebrateOktoberfest. It will be really fun. Go ahead, you know you want to eat some German food.