TGINSD

Not only is it Friday, but in Britain it’s also National Slackers Day.

Yes folks, Friday 22nd August is National Slackers Day, and for the sake of your health, you’re strongly advised to do whatever it takes to avoid any work whatsoever - whether it’s going into the office, doing the hoovering, going to the supermarket or even feeding the kids. It may sound harsh, but if it makes you happier and less stressed, we think you’ll agree it’ll benefit everyone in the long run.

BBC - Cambridgeshire Features

Bastille Day

July 14th is Bastille Day in France, a national holiday. Even Google gets in on the act (google.fr, that is).

The Bastille was a Paris prison, by 1789 more symbolic than significant. It had a sinister reputation as the place where people were held on the sole and arbitrary power of the king. More importantly in 1789, it was a storehouse of gunpowder and arms.

On July 14, Parisian crowds overwhelmed the prison and it was surrendered. The event is seen as a significant early step in the French Revolution.

Fête Nationale became a holiday in 1880.

Somebody always has more fun

NewMexiKen had a great Fourth, but Karen Fayeth I have to admit topped it by several thousand feet.

The Declaration of Independence

It was the Declaration of Independence that was approved by the Second Continental Congress on this date in 1776.

Independence itself was voted two days earlier. We celebrate the anniversary of the birth certificate, not the birth.

Although the section of the Lee Resolution dealing with independence was not adopted until July 2, Congress appointed on June 10 a committee of five to draft a statement of independence for the colonies. The committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, with the actual writing delegated to Jefferson.

Jefferson drafted the statement between June 11 and 28, submitted drafts to Adams and Franklin who made some changes, and then presented the draft to the Congress following the July 2nd adoption of the independence section of the Lee Resolution. The congressional revision process took all of July 3rd and most of July 4th. Finally, in the afternoon of July 4th, the Declaration was adopted.

The signing of the embossed copy we recognize as THE Declaration of Independence began on August 2nd.

Information and quote from The National Archives.

Happy Independence Day

Happy Father’s Day

NewMexiKen is the father of four — and their four terrific spouses too — and grandfather of six. I think I’ll take the rest of the day off. Watch some golf, watch some basketball, water my flowers.

That’s Dad with Reid, the youngest of the six Sweeties two years ago. Miss you Dad.

Flag Day

On this date in 1777 the Continental Congress approved a national flag: Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation. In 1916 President Wilson issued a proclamation declaring June 14 Flag Day. The present design of the flag was established in 1818 — thirteen stripes to represent the original states and a star for each state. Until 1912 the arrangement of the stars was left to the discretion of the flag-maker. The current flag with 50 stars was established on July 4, 1960, when Hawaii was admitted to the Union. The Star-Spangled Banner at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 had 15 stars and 15 stripes.

“Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance by Act of Congress on this date in 1954.

The Flag Today

“Protocol for flying the American flag on Memorial Day includes raising it quickly to the top of the pole at sunrise, immediately lowering it to half-staff until noon, and displaying it at full staff from noon until sunset.”

Library of Congress

Decoration Day

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade. …

In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended it to honor all soldiers who died in American wars. A few states continue to celebrate Memorial Day on May 30.

Library of Congress

Call Your Mother

“She put the mensch in dementia.”

Tom Friedman writing about his mother, on his first mother’s day without her.

Good stuff.

Cinco de Mayo

The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some recognition in other parts of the Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually September 16.

MexOnline.com

It ought to be a national holiday

Spring is half over at 8:55 tonight MDT.

It’s a cross-quarter day — a pagan holiday in Sweden, Norway, Finland, United Kingdom and Ireland.

Earth Day

Earth Day was first observed in Spring of 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities out of which came the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history, and the impetus for national legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. By the twentieth anniversary of that event, April 22, 1990, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations.

Earth Day is not without historical precedent. Both Arbor Day and Bird Day were established in the late 1800s to support forestation, conservation, and the appreciation of nature. Native American peoples have long recognized and celebrated in story and song the interdependence of the earth and all her creatures.

Library of Congess

Best line of the day, so far

“Will Charles Keating get his own holiday too? I understand that Johnny Mac was ‘wrong’ about him as well.”

Commenter at Wonkette on McCain’s apology for voting against the Martin Luther King holiday.

Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes

The Museum of Hoaxes.

Why is Easter today?

In Western churches Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox.

The equinox was March 20th. The full moon was March 21st. Happy Easter!

Next year Easter is April 12th. Today, March 23rd, is the earliest Easter will occur in our lifetimes (unless you live until 2285 when it will be on March 22nd). April 25th is the latest Easter can be; the next time that happens is in 2038.

Easter Birthday

Reidie, the youngest of The Sweeties®, is two-years-old today. Next year on his birthday he may wonder where all the “special” birthday celebration went — you know, baskets, eggs, chocolate bunnies.

Easter will not occur again on Reidie’s birthday until 2160.

Keri Russell is 32 today. Amanda Plummer, unforgettable as Honey Bunny in Pulp Fiction, is 51.

Joan Crawford was born on March 23rd in 1905. Miss Crawford was nominated for the actress in a leading role Oscar three times, winning for Mildred Pierce in 1945.

Handel’s oratorio Messiah premiered in London on this date in 1743.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

NewMexiKen assumes his Irish children and grandchildren are wearing green today, as is this blog, in honor or Ireland’s patron saint.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you
In the palm of his hand.

Happy Pi Day!

You passed it on 3/14 1:59.26

Thanks to Emily for the reminder.

Google knows what day it is

Three-day weekend

Before we all head out for more shopping this three-day weekend, I thought this item from last year was worthy of a review:

According to some of the calendars and appointment books floating around this office, Monday, February 19th, is Presidents’ Day. Others say it’s President’s Day. Still others opt for Presidents Day. Which is it? The bouncing apostrophe bespeaks a certain uncertainty. President’s Day suggests that only one holder of the nation’s supreme magistracy is being commemorated—presumably the first. Presidents’ Day hints at more than one, most likely the Sage of Mount Vernon plus Abraham Lincoln, generally agreed to be the greatest of them all. And Presidents Day, apostropheless, implies a promiscuous celebration of all forty-two—Jefferson but also Pierce, F.D.R. but also Buchanan, Truman but also Harding. To say nothing of the incumbent, of whom, perhaps, the less said the better.

So which is it? Trick question. The answer, strictly speaking, is none of the above. Ever since 1968, when, in one of the last gasps of Great Society reformism, holidays were rejiggered to create more three-day weekends, federal law has decreed the third Monday in February to be Washington’s Birthday. And Presidents’/’s/s Day? According to Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives, it was a local department-store promotion that went national when retailers discovered that, mysteriously, generic Presidents clear more inventory than particular ones, even the Father of His Country. Now everybody thinks it’s official, but it’s not. (Note to Fox News: could be a War on Washington’s Birthday angle here, similar to the War on Christmas. Over to you, Bill.)

Hendrik Hertzberg

Hertzberg has more.

A New Mexico Valentine

NewMexiKen received an authentic New Mexico style Valentine cookie yesterday evening. Bet you people living in states that aren’t the Land of Enchantment didn’t have such a purty gift.
The cookie is decorated in Isleta Pueblo pottery style and is from Chiwewe’s Bakery next to Chiwewe’s Smoke Shop, 1831 State Road 314 Southwest, Albuquerque. Click image for larger version.

Best word of the day for Valentine’s Day, so far

Nachküssen — German for a kiss “making up for kisses that have been omitted.”

From an article about kissing in The New York Times on Valentine’s Day 2006.

Best quotation of the day, so far

“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.’ ”

Martin Luther King quoted by Andrew Tobias.

El día de Reyes

La celebración en la cual los niños reciben los juguetes no es sino hasta el 6 de enero, “el día de Reyes” o Los Reyes Magos. Fueron los Reyes Magos quienes le llevaron los regalos al Niño Jesús, por consiguiente, son ellos quienes traen los regalos a los niños y a las niñas que se han portado bien. Los niños ponen sus zapatos cerca de la ventana para que los Reyes Magos le pongan el regalo en su zapato. Si el regalo es más grande que el zapato, entonces lo ponen al lado. Varios niños reciben un par de zapatos (calzado) nuevo como regalo.

El día Reyes se celebra con una merienda que consiste de chocolate caliente y la Rosca de Reyes La merienda se lleva a cabo entre las 5 y las 7 de la tarde y no es una comida pesada, sino algo así como lo equivalente al “High Tea”.

La Rosca de Reyes es un pan en forma de guirnalda que está hecha con muchos huevos y es muy grande, está cubierta con frutas cristalizadas y azúcar encima, pero adentro hay una figurita de cerámica que representa al Niño Jesús. La persona a la que le toque la pieza del pan con la figurita, tiene que ser el Padrino o la Madrina del Niño Jesus en el Día de la Candelaria, el dos de Febrero.

Mexican Traditions for Christmas

More info here.

On the twelfth day of Christmas

Though advertisers and merchants would have us believe that the Christmas season begins at Thanksgiving (or possibly Halloween), liturgically it begins on Christmas Eve and extends until Twelfth Night, the eve of the Epiphany.

The Twelve Days of Christmas are Christmas through January 5th. Tonight is Twelfth night.

2008

The Gift of the Magi

This is a Christmas season perennial here at NewMexiKen. Go ahead, read it again. It makes everything about the season seem simpler yet more precious.

Merry Christmas!

The Gift of the Magi
by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), 1906.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And
sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two
at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and
the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent
imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.
Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven
cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

Read the rest of this entry.

Well now, that’s a Feliz Navidad for sure

Spain’s “El Gordo” lottery awarded over 3 billion dollars worth of cash prizes Saturday. That’s “B” as in Brobdingnagian.

Yahoo News has details.

Holiday Survival Kit

A pretty cool (and useful) e-card from a lawfirm.

Cadwalader 2007 Holiday Survival Kit

Ha Ha Ha

This story gets NewMexiKen into the Christmas mood about as well as anything can — my preferred Christmas mood being grumpy, but with an underlying sense of Christmas wonderment. Anyway, it’s worth telling again. It was first posted here last year.

Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, writes about one of the Christmas season’s most cherished traditions — taking the little one to see Santa.

We were at the mall early to do some Christmas shopping yesterday when we saw a mom and her two young kids standing outside the door to Santa’s workshop. We asked her what the deal was, and she pointed to the sign about the extra holiday hours. We were in luck. It was 9:45, and Santa was going to be there at 10am. So, we got in line.

Sofie was excited and remarkably well-behaved. At 10, the line had grown behind us, but there was still no sign of Santa. At about 10:15, the kids started whining. At about 10:30, the parents started to wonder if maybe Santa had had a few too many the night before. At about 10:45, someone in line reported seeing “an old guy with a beard” in the parking lot heading toward the Santa house, but he wasn’t in costume yet. Finally, at 11, the doors to Santa’s workshop opened. A pissed-off elf informed us that “corporate” didn’t tell them about the early holiday hours. By this point, the mom in front of us had left, dragging her disappointed and crying kids through the mall - they’d apparently “lost” Santa privileges because they were misbehaving.

Sofie was first in line. She goes in and won’t even look at Santa. Not for a second. Santa was more than happy, however, to have mom sit next to him. Um, gross. So the picture…(which cost us about $700 give or take a few bucks) pretty much sums up our perfect Santa experience:

(1) A long wait in line
(2) Screaming kids
(3) Problems at “corporate”
(4) Our own kid didn’t want to sit on Santa’s lap (or look at him or talk to him)
(5) A lecherous Santa
(6) Ridiculously overpriced photos of the experience

Oh, the title to this post “Ha Ha Ha” — that’s because “Ho Ho Ho” is now seen as derogatory to women.

Best Christmas line of the day, so far

When I was a child, I tell my offspring, my brother and I often would receive just one present at Christmastime, typically an individual crayon. It wouldn’t even be a full crayon, but merely a stub. Still, we’d be grateful and would pretend that “brown” was our favorite of the 64 Crayola colors. We would talk about how great this crayon would be if only we could afford paper.

Joel Achenbach

[First posted here two years ago.]

The four stages of Christmas

1. You believe in Santa
2. You don’t believe in Santa
3. You are Santa
4. You look like Santa

Christmas music from a century ago

The Antique Christmas Lights Museum has lots of information about the evolution of Christmas lights, but hidden among its goodies is a page of Vintage Christmas Recordings. The 18 recordings were made 1908-1914 and reproduced on a 1908 Edison Home cylinder player for conversion to mp3 files.

It’s a NewMexiKen holiday tradition

Time for our annual visit to Ugly Christmas Lights.com!

Top ten things I miss about Christmas in New Mexico

Gosh, Karen makes me homesick and it’s not even Christmas and I’m at home — Top ten things I miss about Christmas in New Mexico.

The human spirit

NewMexiKen received a Christmas letter from a good friend who volunteers at the Occupational Therapy Clinic at Walter Reed Army Medical Center teaching amputees how to cook. (Bless you, Jeanne.)

Jeanne writes:

It’s amazing how upbeat they are and determined not to be defeated or defined by their injuries. While we were eating the Thanksgiving meal, one of the amputees, who’s really into cooking said, “The good thing about eating dinner with a bunch of amputees is there’s plenty of leg room under the table.”

She continues:

They joke and fool around and have a really good time–the current bunch especially. The downside, of course, is the missing limbs and sixty percent of the amputees have traumatic brain injuries. IEDs have a lot to answer for.

It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life in 30 seconds with bunnies.

Your favorite Christmas movie

Nora has nominated Miracle on 34th Street as the best Christmas movie. I said it was A Christmas Story. What do you think? Or nominate your own favorite.

Away

NewMexiKen is away. I expect to be back this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!