Category Holidays

More Than a Dream

Michael Leave a comment
A big announcement is coming up. On February 1 the National Football League selects its Hall of Fame “Class of 2020.” I’ve always been sort of tickled by sports halls of fall identifying those selected in a particular year as the “class of.”  But then what should we expect from a business built on little boys’ games most others set aside right around graduation day?
 
There are halls of fame for everything, not all have “classes of” but they routinely preserve the memories of those ostensibly demonstrating greatness in their chosen field. There are the sports halls of fame for professionals and amateurs, music halls of fame from country to rock to gospel to blues, there are transportation halls of fame including aviation and motorcar entries, there are entertainment, business, and industrial halls of fame. There are more halls of fame than just that one that made Canton famous even if it is a little better known that say the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum of Leadville, Colorado.
 
Something almost every hall of fame can relate to is that as soon as new inductees are announced criticism of the choice or oversight of some more worthy selection commences. Criteria is questioned, motivation is questioned, often the parentage of those making the selections is questioned! I am certain among the thousands of people enshrined in the hundreds of halls of fames none would be a unanimous choice if the choice was made by the entire represented avocation, sport, or profession. We just aren’t built for agreement that way.
 
Staying with sports halls of fame for the moment, every year at announcement time the sports talk shows are flooded with calls from fans who know So-And-So was a much better PositionInQuestion than Whatshisname could ever be followed quickly by calls from others pointing out that’s only because Whatshisname played in the LiveBall, DeadBall, LessInflatedBall, LeatherHelmet, PreSteriod, or Paleolithic Era or perhaps because the players in So-And-So’s time were bigger, smaller, faster, slower, taller, better trained, or nongenetically modified. And all might be valid points if anybody really cared or if we were talking about statistics. Performance will change as time changes and standards of performance change as performance itself changes. But are statistics all it should take to be enshrined in a hall or fame. In fact, should statistics even be considered when selecting somebody for enshrinement.
 
If you’re still reading don’t bail on me yet because a point really is coming up. 
 
Criterion 1: If you are telling the story of us, can you do it without saying his or her name?
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While I was reading an article about the recent NFL special “Centennial Class,” among the readers’ comments was a surprisingly intelligent one. While others debated the merits of those selected and ignored, making what they probably thought were very compelling arguments, one reader observed the only criterion should be “can you tell football’s story without mentioning his name?” Now that’s selection criteria in a nutshell. Not victories or championships or statistics, but contribution.
 
Halls of Fame have something else in common. They all “enshrine” their recipients. Not recognize or honor. Enshrine. To enshrine is to preserve or cherish as sacred, something worthy of awe. That anonymous commenter had the right idea. If you are going to enshrine somebody that person should be such a big part of the story that the story would not exist without him or her. You might have noticed when I mentioned the different types of halls of fame from automotive to wrestling, there is no Human Hall of Fame. Maybe that’s why we don’t have a human hall of fame. Who has given so much we wouldn’t be us otherwise? Who is so worthy that we could “enshrine?”
 
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Many celebrate it with a day of service as a means of commemorating Dr. King’s service to the civil rights cause. An interesting thing about Dr. King’s famous “I have a dream” speech is that every American, recognizes the words “I have a dream.” Not many speeches have that level of recognition. Say Martin Luther King and the first thing most people hear I their heads is “I have a dream.” It’s up there in our subconscious right beside “four score and seven years ago,” “a day which will live in infamy,” and “ask not what your country can do for you.” You hear the words and you know the speech. Or do you?
 
Did you know on August 28, 1963 when Dr. King addressed the crowd i  Washington he uttered the words “I have a dream” eight times. Do you know what came after any of them? One time it followed that his dream was his children would be judged by the “content of their character.” Not by their name, their color, or their station in life, but by their character. Character. Who they are and what they do to make them them part of us. 
 
Is that not for what we all should dream and thus strive? To be of character worthy of being remembered. To not be able to tell the story of us without mentioning us. If we were to have a Human Hall of Fame and we used that single criterion – Can you tell our story without saying his name? – Martin Luther King Jr. certainly would be in the inaugural class.  
 
Later this week when you’ve done your service and you’re back to debating the various halls’ of fame classes of 2020 take a moment and pretend you’re on the selection committee for the Human Hall of Fame. You get to ask one question. Can you tell the story of humankind, how we got to be us, without mentioning somebody? Who would you enshrine there? 
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I Firmly Dissolve

Michael 2 Comments
The new year is already more than a week old and I haven’t published a new post yet. I should be swiftly and severely punished for this. Or not. I pick not. I tried to write. Really I did. But I’ve been busy. I’ve been doing my spring cleaning, clearing out the herb garden, and ordering candy corn. Yeah, my chronology is a little disheveled. And I mix metaphors in my spare time too. 
 
Jan9Something I haven’t done yet this year, besides writing until today, is I also have yet to resolve anything. But hey, that’s the norm for me. I won’t even think about “New Year’s Resolutions” until sometime in March. I may not do anything then either but I will give it a good think. My resolution of years and years ago not to make New Year’s Resolutions in January (which I am proud to say I have kept quite well thank you) did not have the universal impact I was hoping for, encouraging others to likewise temper their plans for self, and often world,  improvement as each year begins. I see by delaying my first post of 2020 for 9 days I’ve gotten here too late to see many people who forged ahead with New Year’s Resolutions on January 1 adhering to those grand plans. How can I tell? Well…
  • You don’t “spend less time on social media” if you are posting to Instagram you doing things without your phone in hand.
  • “Eat healthier” is more than picking a non-GMO and gluten free beer for your weekly binge. (Is that even a thing?)
  • You do not get credit for “being nice to everybody” for adding 🤫 to end of a Twitter rant in which you call anybody a blithering idiot. (Yes, even exes and politicians) 
  • Getting up to find your remote does not mean you “take more walks.”
Surely there are some still resolving successfully even 9 days in. To you, congratulations! To the others more representative of my examples, well, at least you think you tried.
 
Look, it’s a new year and in another 357 days (leap year, remember) it will be another new year then yet another and so on and so on and so on. The only resolution you really need to make and keep is to do your best to make it to your next chance to resolve. Or not. 
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Happy Old Year

Michael 2 Comments
Movie goers who are certain they don’t make ’em like that any more, like me, often find themselves wishing for 1946 again. The Big Sleep, Razor’s Edge, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Gilda. Those were some of 1946’s bigger box office pay days. Oh yes, there was that big box office flop, It’s a Wonderful Life. 
 
Oh to relive 1946. That’s just what Sheila Page played by Joan Leslie gets to do in 1947’s Repeat Performance. In a heavily reworked version of the 1942 William O’Farrell novel, Sheila gets to relive 1946 from New Years Eve to New Years Eve. Well people had been reliving past cinematic lives for a while, particularly around the holidays, the previous year’s Capra classic being just the latest. Ah, but this one had a twist. Sheila doesn’t just watch her past life like Ebenezer Scrooge or George Bailey. Nor does she dream or imagine what a do over might get her the second time around. She gets dropped right back into her previous year with the full knowledge of the happenings of her first go at it and her plan for rewriting the script. 
 
Surely you’ve said to yourself a time or two “if I could only do that again” or “I wish I could have that day back.” Without revealing any more of the tale if you should want to see it for yourself* you probably can figure out that things aren’t going to go as planned. Obviously she didn’t live her first shot at 1946 in a vacuum and she isn’t going through version 2 alone. That’s the trouble with wishing for a redo, everyone else comes along too. Whether you want them or not. And there’s no guarantee that even if you could do your part differently that with everybody else adjusting and refining the end result won’t be the same.
 
My 2019 was not a banner year for me. If you’ve been reading these posts for a while you know that. If you are new just read the last posted kidney transplant update and you’ll get an idea of what I did on my summer vacation and it didn’t involve Disneyland. So if I had a chance to repeat this year would I leap at it? 
 
I think I’ll take a crack at revising things in the new year. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if we could dispense with today and tomorrow. I’ve already had enough of 2019.
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NewYearsClock
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*The 1947 movie Repeat Performance was lost until very recently. There are plans for a DVD and BluRay release. It is currently available in Turner Classic Movie’s on demand listings. There is a newer movie of the same name from 1996 that was a completely different story, perhaps even more obscure that the one lost for 70 years. Don’t be fooled by that. In 1989 NBC released a remake of the 1947 film as the made for TV movie Turn Back the Clock starring Connie Sellecca in the Sheila Page role as Stephanie Powers. That movie should not be confused with the 1933 comedy offering Turn Back the Clock which involves people reliving past lives but they were having a lot more fun than those that came in William O’Farrell’s novel released 9 years later which became the source material for the 1947 and 1989 movies. And you wondered why I wouldn’t want to redo a year. They can’t even get redoing movies right and that stuff is made up!
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“Happy Holidays,” he said.

Michael Leave a comment
In Miracle on 34th Street Santa Claus declares, “Christmas is not just a day, it’s a state of mind.”
 
I think he was absolutely right. And it’s not just Christmas. It is Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Saturnalia, or any of another dozen religious and secular holidays. The honored guest may differ but the driving force is the same in all: a celebration of life. Maybe new life, maybe preserved life, maybe life’s good health, or maybe the emergence of life. Life, common to all.
 
The fact that Christmas gets the bulk of recognition in the United States certainly colors the way Americans greet and celebrate with each other come late December. Being Americans we also go out of our way to inform the world in what somebody is sure are no uncertain words that we don’t play favorites, every one is equal, and if we wish you a Merry Christmas we really mean happy whatever you choose to celebrate today, this week, or this month.
 
Um, sorry, but no we don’t. We really mean Merry Christmas. Okay, I really mean Merry Christmas. But I don’t mean it in a mean way. You see I know how to wish a Merry Christmas to you. I don’t know how to wish you a anything else. When I wish you my Merry Christmas I wish you the peace and joy of the season. In my season that peace and joy is manifest in new life. 
 
20191222_214028Peace and joy. Because I don’t celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, although I know the words I don’t know their meanings to the celebrants of those words. But I know if they were to greet me with words customary to their celebrations that whatever the words would be there would be an underlying message of peace and joy, continued good health and a happy life. And I would be grateful for that wish.
 
Over the years the winter festivals have caused considerable consternation but have also been the source of considerable moments of peace. Even as wars raged there were moments when hostilities abated and peace fell even if not with much joy. It would be a great advancement to life if we could spend less time concentrating on the words and more time on the message.
 
Peace and joy to you however you find it, today and forever in your state of mind.
 

It’s Super! Yeah, Right.

Michael Leave a comment
Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside.
This close to Christmas with yet a weekend still ahead of us it should be a time to stay indoors and finish trimming the tree, plan the big family dinner, tune up our voices for midnight mass, and venture outside only for snowman building, sledding, and ice skating. Instead there is one last suspense filled 24 hours. Super Saturday. Also, and perhaps more appropriately known as Panic Saturday.
 
I’m sure with apologies to the National Football League but not to American consumers, Super Saturday is expected to outsell Black Friday this year as it has in most recent years, bringing retailers 60% of the years holiday sales and as much as 40% of this year’s total haul at the hands of those clutching fast melting credit and debit cards.
 
It’s hard for the young crowd to picture it but once upon a time, with the notable exceptions of Spiegel’s and Sears, people had to go to a real store to shop, those stores were closed on Sundays, and without constant flood of email reminders shopping was often a last minute activity. The Saturday before Christmas was the last chance to finish filling out the kids’ Christmas lists. So even without the commercials, banners, and full page ads those Saturdays were already super for many stores.
 
I’m not sure what to make of this year’s edition of Super Saturday. There are 3 days between Saturday and Christmas which is one more than most carriers need for 2 day delivery. Will people take that chance or will in store shopping outpace on line shopping? Will Internet shoppers take the order on line and pick up in store option? Will Saturday night bring regret over whatever choices were made.
 
Or will the collective America decide its bought enough already and spend Saturday building snowmen, sledding down a nearby hill, and falling on their behinds at the frozen over pond?
 
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Skaters
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Dear Santa

Michael 2 Comments
Not every year but often enough I’ve shared a letter to Santa here and that overgrown elf didn’t even have the decency even to reply with regrets. Just blew me off. I get it. I’m older than 6 and I asked for impossible things. You know the kind of stuff people ask for when they are putting their Christmas list on line – peace on earth, enough goodwill to choke a horse, and a good take out pizza at a decent price that feeds less than eight.
 
So this year I’m simplifying my requests. I’d still like peace on earth and goodwill to all people regardless of gender identification, but let’s scale back some of the top tier requests. For instance, Dear Santa, please bring me…
 
A phone book. Seriously, have you ever successfully looked up a phone number from the Internet. And forget about finding an address. I’m sure both are no problem if you’re willing to spend enough dollars. Oh yes, there are sites out there that claims to be free and indeed you can search for free. You just can’t find for free. But those of us old enough to remember phone books remember those days of being able to look up a name even if we couldn’t spell it absolutely correctly and find an address and phone number. That’s the sort of thing that is particularly handy when you are writing out Christmas cards and can’t make out if that’s 333, 338, 388, or 888 Easy St. and swear you’ll re-write clearer when you update your old fashioned address book for next year.
 
Easy open everything. I don’t mean just aspirin bottles. On everything. Everything! Seriously, whether it’s a flash drive, a chef’s knife, or a 10 foot retractable steel rule, it comes sandwiched between two pieces of plastic that are fused together and there is no “open here” corner. The only way in is to hack your way through the plastic vault with a machete or fire axe. That’s assuming you have a machete or fire axe that is not still sealed in its own packaging. And Santa, while you’re at it, how about those aspirin bottles too.
 
Television theme songs.  Because I miss them. You might think this is a silly request but if Santa was able to come up with pet rocks, Tamagotchi, and Tickle Me Elmo … well, silly is as silly does.
 
So that’s my list for this year Santa. There’s not much so I expect to get something this year. And while you’re at it, how about that reasonably priced pizza for one. Two large with 3 toppings for $5.95 is a great deal but come on, there’s just me here.
 
Thank you and Merry Christmas 
DearSanta

Laws of Nature, Naturally

Michael 1 Comment
There are only two things in life you have to do … die and pay taxes, hahahaha! How many of us have heard that tired line how many times? Actually one of those things you really don’t have to do. Are you tired of pledging a part of your income in taxes? As of last month there are 15 countries you can move to with no personal income tax*. Remember than the next time you feel the urge to complain about being gouged by the government. As for the dying part of the grand equation, well, yeah that is something you can put on your bucket list and be sure of accomplishing.
 
Don’t think though that because we’ve eliminated “paying taxes” on the things you must do list that we are down to a single item. There are the laws of nature that neither man nor beast can circumvent. That saying should go “there are only about 3,845 things you have to do” but I’ve often been accused of hyperbole so maybe not that many. But more than two.
 
For instance, you must march along with time. We cannot stop time and until we sign a treaty with the Vulcans sometime in the 23rd century and they share their vast knowledge of astrophysics we won’t be able to slingshot around the sun and go back in time either. However, thanks to the efforts of retail marketing experts we can expand time. Proof is that one day sales now routinely happen over a full weekend and a single day (Cyber Monday) can last a whole week and another (Black Friday) now takes up almost what was once an entire month. Although marketers have been improving the concept, the idea of time expansion is not new and was first developed by the United States government with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1975 which stretched paltry 24 hour celebrations of key historical events over 3 days eliminating those pesky workdays between weekends and an extra day off for the holidays that had the nerve to land on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday in certain years. 
 
An immutable law of physics is the conservation of matter which states that mass is a constant which cannot be created nor destroyed, but it can change shape or form. This is especially well documented around the holidays when the goodies on that Christmas cookie tray change from the shape of a Santa on his sleigh to the shape of your ever growing midsection. This law also governs why post New Years Resolution diets fail. You can eat all the celery you want but a pound of vegetables is still a pound and when you gobble it up that pound must be reformed into something else, most likely your waist.
 
ChristmasLights
Some things, again most noticeable during this holiday season, seem to defy this law. It is well documented that any new set of Christmas tree lights once removed from their package and placed on the tree then removed from the tree at the end of the season expands in size and never fit into the original packaging again. If matter cannot be created from where is this excess stuff transferred? I suggest you take a look at some of the most common chocolates you fill those Christmas candy dishes with. Those pound bags of colorfully wrapped Hershey’s Kisses are steadily shrinking, this year down to a trim 11 ounces. They aren’t the only ones who suffer when lights, garland, and even extension cords outgrow their storage cartons. Even the niche traditional candies are being downsized in a heroic effort to maintain the conservation of matter. The Italian delight LaFlorentine torrone is down to boxes of 7-1/2 ounces and Terry’s chocolate oranges once a proud half pound now weigh in at a hair over 6 ounces.
 
The other constant in life may be noticed only by fathers with children getting their first bikes this Christmas but is valid year round and is not gender exclusive. That is a new law of nature, the law of actual assembly time (LAAT). This applies to all toys with the back of the box fine print “some assembly required” as well as to DIY home improvement projects and with appropriate extrapolation, to luggage retrieval times at airports with more than one gate. The LAAT states to determine the actual assembly time multiply the given estimate by 3 and adjust with an additional 5% for every tool required, known as the tool locating variable. (For luggage retrieval substitute “TSA approved lock used” for “tool required.” If locks are not TSA approved actual retrieval time approaches infinity).
 
So you see there are more absolutes than death and taxes, even in The Bahamas.
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*Countries with no personal income tax, in case you are planning a big move sometime in the future. (You probably will notice some of these places are potential paradises while others don’t get so high a AAA travel rating. Of the most desirable places what you save on taxes may end up going to buy a quart of milk. Probably another one of those absolute laws –  The Law of You Get What You Pay For.)
 
Bahamas
Bahrain 
Brunei
Cayman Islands
Kuwait 
Maldives 
Monaco
Nauru 
Oman
Qatar
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Somalia 
United Arab Emirates 
Vanuatu 
Western Sahara

Yippee Ki Yay…

Michael 7 Comments
We’ve bitten off the better part of the first week of December. That certainly makes it Christmas movie time without complaints that it’s “too early for Christmas!” Personally, I watched my first Christmas movie for this year, this year’s new favorite Christmas movie, on Thanksgiving night and I’ll watch it again at least once a week until Christmas Eve. More about that later. 
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I haven’t done a rant on what makes a Christmas movie for a few years and it’s probably time to revisit that topic lest some of you try to use the season as an excuse to pull out Die Hard from your old VHS library. Yes, there is a Christmas tree in the ball room or whatever that room was supposed to be. If it was the company’s reception area that was the grandest display of corporate opulence even by movie standards. Anyway, the presence of a Christmas tree is not the defining factor of what makes a Christmas movie, otherwise The Poseidon Adventure, Gremlins, and Eyes Wide Shut would be experiencing revivals at your local Bijou every December. 
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Along with characters and plot, movies have to have a setting. Even if it’s an indeterminate long ago and far away they take place at some time in some place. Sometimes the some time is around Christmas. The Shop Around the Corner (which grew up to become You’ve Got Mail) and Untamed Heart are two movies that spend a lot of time around Christmas yet neither identifies as a Christmas movie. The production companies, distributors, and audiences recognize them as love stories and if some scenes have a Christmas tree it is just creating a believable setting. 
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Every once in a while things get more than a little confusing in that regard. In 1947 George Haigt, and Robert Montgomery, and MGM Studios teamed up to present Lady in the Lake, a Steve Fisher adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s 1943 novel of the same name featuring private detective Philip Marlowe. Movies don’t often mimic the books from which they are adapted, in fact you can say they rarely are on the same page. Chandler’s readers were probably confused right from the opening credits of the movie which were presented in a series of Christmas cards with popular Christmas carols providing the background music. Throughout the movie, Christmas trees and wreaths are prominently displayed, holiday greetings are offered and returned, the season is toasted, gifts are exchanged, and one scene opens with a recitation of Dickens “A Christmas Carol” playing on the radio. All from a book whose action takes place entirely in mid-summer in a movie that was released in late January. Christmas movie? Um, no.
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But fear not Christmas movie lovers, there are scads of films, old standbys and newer releases, that will transform the Scroogiest viewers into holly, jolly revelers without ambiguity – movies that add punch to any nog and present their presents wrapped in bows and delivered with care. Everyone has a favorite and every favorite has an ardent following. Yours may be a classic in black and white or an animated interpretation of a classic tale. It could be a big budget musical or an independent dark horse. It’s your favorite because you identify with a character or are reminded of an event every time you hear the title song. Or perhaps it offers a dream holiday you know you will not experience in your own life. Or, like my current favorite, offers an experience almost exactly like my own life.
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I say my current favorite because like children there can be no real favorite among Christmas movies. The favorite is the one making you smile today or remember yesterday, the one encouraging a perfect alternative to an imperfect world and providing an escape from the ordinary. My current favorite is full of imperfections. Imperfect characters making imperfect plans, and ordinary people doing ordinary holiday things while dealing with ordinary year long problems. With all that mediocrity come the glimpses of joy and the fleeting feelings of fun that accompany real people living real lives. Before the closing credits roll you are smiling at them and yourself and ready to get back to whatever is next on your to do list only now you do it with that song running through your head. And not annoyingly.
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My current favorite Christmas movie for this year is Love the Coopers. It’s so unmovielike! It asks you to suspend very little disbelief and quite believably could be about any family, including mine. You want to give them all back but you can’t because you love them so dearly. Love the Coopers, I think it needs a comma but Steven Rogers didn’t and it’s his story so I guess he should know. Maybe it’s more commanding that way. Or maybe it’s supposed to be just a little ambiguous. Just like us.
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Merry Early Christmas!
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Acquaintancegiving

Michael 2 Comments
Sing along with me… It’s the most confusing time of the year! 
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The week before Thanksgiving – ugh. (Non-American residents please hang in there, next week we’ll be back to more universal topics.) This week the food related sites and emails are torn between last minute meal prep tips, what to do with leftover turkey tips, and Christmas cookie freezing tips. Home decor posts are split between the Thanksgiving tablescape to die for and how to make this year’s Christmas wreath out of empty aluminum soft drink cans (the new skinny 8oz. models). And editorial writers aren’t sure if they should sharpen their quills for the annual “1001 Things to Be Thankful For” column or “It’s Time to Apologize to Displaced Native Americans” missive. The only ones who seem to have a handle on the week are the merchants who will be switching headers on the sales catalogs from “Black Friday Sale!” to “Holiday Sale Spectacular!!!” (Same ad, just a different name.) 
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A new confusion, one even I missed the early signs of, are what we call this upcoming holiday. Although there had been “Days of Thanksgiving” in what would become these United States since the early 1600s, it was by a proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that the holiday we celebrate today was established. For years thereafter the President would proclaim one of the last Thursdays in November to be a “Day of Thanksgiving.” In 1941, Congress finally got around to formalizing the holiday with a resolution permanently stamping the fourth Thursday in November on future calendars as Thanksgiving Day. 
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And so it was for going on 80 years that about this time each year, people would greet one another with a jaunty “Happy Thanksgiving!” Sometime in my life, which admittedly spans more than 3/4 of those 80 years but a far smaller portion of the 300+ years since the Pilgrims made up the silent majority, people began to augment Happy Thanksgiving with phrases like Happy Turkey Day or Good Harvesting. Then in 2007 Friendsgiving reared its ugly head.
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“Thanksgiving is for families,” the argument went. “I want to celebrate my gratitude for my closest friends with my friends.” Sometimes people would actually verbalize that they liked their friends better than their families anyway. Now I am not against friends and friendship nor do I feel friends should be excluded from our celebrations, our gratitude, or our celebrations of our gratitude. In my world when we wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends we invited those friends to Thanksgiving dinner. The house was more crowded, table was a lot fuller, and not all the plates matched but we all squeezed in, gave our thanks, and proceeded to devour many pounds of food apiece. A couple of years we even tried a buffet style dinner and one particularly warm year we extended the festivities onto the back yard deck. What was important was that we all shared the wish for family and friends with the same expression of gratitude.
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By a totally unscientific review, this year that great marker of contemporary social acceptance, the Television Sitcom Holiday Special, featured more Friendsgiving celebrations than family Thanksgiving meals. I know next month the airways will be full of “Happy Holidays!” taking the place of yesteryear’s “Merry Christmas” and I’ve learned to accept that. I suffer through the growing number of Indigenous Persons Day recognitions where Columbus Day used to be and I am willing to concede Presidents Day actually exists even without ever having been recognized by any governing body outside of Madison Avenue. Valentine’s Day is for more than lovers and St. Patrick’s Day really is a test of who can drink the most green beer in a single seating. Can’t we leave just one holiday alone?
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If you’ll excuse me now, I have to make room in the refrigerator for some turkey hash, sweet potato pancakes, and green bean casserole soup. I want to be able to properly give thanks well into next week too!
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Turkey

A Mean Trick

Michael 2 Comments
Yesterday it took over local social media, legitimate news reports, even grocery store check out lines. Are they postponing Halloween? That’s right, postponing Halloween. We’ve screwed around, pushed around, and rewritten every other holiday, so why not this one. Why? It’s supposed to rain today. Not remnants from a hurricane which we’ve had on past Halloweens. Not a threat of a tornado which we’ve had on past Halloweens. Not a forecast for as much as a foot of snow which we’ve had on past Halloween. Rain. Just rain. 
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Personally I think the cry for postponement of Halloween (I can’t believe I’m even writing those words) is because it’s Thursday. The requests for postponement (sheesh) are to Saturday when the weather is predicted to be clear but some 25 degrees colder than today with evening temperatures in the 30s rather than say Friday when it will be clear and then temperature closer to 50. If everyone is so concerned about giving the kids a more comfortable night top Trick ot Treat, Friday would be the way, or the day, to go.
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I think those people wanting a Halloween Rain Delay (sigh) aren’t looking forward to coming home from work to the kids already in costume, fidgeting around the dinner table, rushing through their own meal, and then having to drag themselves out in the rain instead of resting with the traditional after work adult beverage.
20191031_133600Without playing “Remember the Good Old Days” I remember Trick or Tearing in ponchos and rain boots or snow suits and galoshes more years than not. Even my  not-yet-thirty year old daughter took the opportunity to take her turn on the Remember When Machine and remind me of the year she went out in pursuit of a bagful of candy through snow drifts taller than she was. (I remembered that year. 1993. She was 4 and dressed up like a clown before clowns were too scary to be for Halloween. I held her above most of that snow on her candy trek.)
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Whoever led the charge got their way. Yesterday evening around 7 I recieved the automated call from our Chief of Police announcing Halloween (or more accurately Trick or Treating) had been rescheduled to Saturday.
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I think in a few weeks I might start a campaign to ask for the New Year holiday to be shifted to April when the threat of ice, snow, and sub-zero temperatures has passed. Probably not. New Year’s Eve on a Monday this year. We wouldn’t want to mess around with a four day weekend that didn’t take an act of Congress.
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Oh, in case your wondering, it reads raining earlier but right now it’s clear and sunny and 69°. I think I want an adult beverage now.
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