Who are all these people who are off on Presidents’ Day?

My lonely Volvo on Assembly Street at mid-morning.

My lonely Volvo on Assembly Street at mid-morning.

When I parked on Assembly Street this morning, I had an entire block of spaces to choose from. When I came back an hour later, my old Volvo was still alone, except for one car at the very end of the block that you can’t see in the picture above.

Were you off today? If so, fie on you.

Personally, I have never had a job in which this was a holiday.

And further, what does this “holiday” mean to you? It’s not Washington’s Birthday, although — I was surprised to learn — that is the official name of the day (Wikipedia says it’s only called “Presidents’ Day” colloquially). It’s not Lincoln’s birthday.

It’s sort of like… not anything really. At least on Columbus Day — another holiday I’ve never had off from work for — we can have big Culture War over the meaning. But what does this one mean?

It’s about as vague as you can get….

 

28 thoughts on “Who are all these people who are off on Presidents’ Day?

  1. Brad Warthen Post author

    And yeah, I kinda know the answer to my question: federal and state employees, and probably bankers and lawyers.

    But I just felt like ranting about it a bit…

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        I threw in lawyers because there are a bunch of lawyers in the building I was going into, and still all the spaces were empty. But I guess that’s because they all have spaces in the parking garage.

        But nobody’s coming to SEE the lawyers, apparently…

  2. Doug Ross

    You won’t like this Brad, but President’s Day should be shifted to the day after the Super Bowl. That would be something both parties could actually get behind and support without much opposition.

    When I’m elected President, there will be a national holiday every month. All the new ones will be on Fridays, though.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      OK by me. But I think you’re making the Trump mistake: Assuming the president gets to do what he wants. He still hasn’t figured out why he can’t just give an order to end the Russia investigation.

      I think it would be awesome to take off the day after the Super Bowl. I would love to celebrate Annual End of Football Day…

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        But before I vote for your bill, I want an amendment: The Super Bowl must be played on or before Jan. 12. That’s the date on which the first game CALLED “Super Bowl” was played, in 1969.

        Something must be done to keep this abomination from creeping further into February.

        By the way, Jan. 12, 1969, was also the day that I quit being a football fan.

        After suffering through the last two years of the hated Packers being hailed as world champs, finally my Colts held the honor. They were the champions of the NFL!

        There was just this one silly post-season exhibition against the champs of the laughable AFL to get out of the way.

        And the Jets beat them. Worse, they beat them after days of having to listen to that idiot Joe Namath boasting that he WOULD beat them.

        That was it. I wasn’t going to follow such a capricious game any more…

        1. Doug Ross

          Here’s the new National Holiday Schedule:

          January: New Years Day and MLK Day
          February: Sports and Recreation Day (Monday after Super Bowl)
          March: first Friday in March is now Presidents Day
          April: Monday on or after April 15th – Tax Day (no sales taxes collected in any state)
          May: Memorial Day
          June: Second Friday – Heritage Day (celebrate your roots)
          July: Fourth of July
          August: First Friday – Peace Day (we need at least one to counter all the war related holidays)
          September: Labor Day
          October: First Friday – National Parks Day (free entry to all parks)
          November: Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving
          December: Christmas

          Who says no?

          I will also push for a national four day work week…

          1. Claus2

            Why an MLK Day and a Peace Day? Aren’t they the same thing? Christmas and MLK Day… the only two national holidays named for a single person. MLK is not Jesus Christ unless he too plagiarized and committed adultery.

            April – Why a national no tax day… just go online any of the other 364 days and buy your items.

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          Actually, it doesn’t. I pass up about 99 percent of the opportunities to mention the cretin.

          But if you don’t like it when I DO mention him, don’t read it…

          1. Claus2

            “But if you don’t like it when I DO mention him, don’t read it…”

            So you’re telling me to not read 99% of your comments.

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              Suit yourself. I’m going to say what I’m going to say. I’m with Max Boot:

          2. Claus2

            ” the cretin”

            Funny isn’t it, if I had ever called Obama or Hillary that you would have rejected my post. When the term fits both, the latter especially.

            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              Except, of course, it doesn’t. No serious person doubts the intelligence of either of them, whatever else one may say about them…

              If it makes you feel any better, I don’t like calling people names, and I don’t like defending myself when I do. But sometimes, the usual words just don’t fully express the point that I’m trying to make. It happens. I’m not proud of it…

  3. Sally

    Come on, Brad. Stop being an old curmudgeon. Presidents Day is a federa holiday and state and local governments follow suit. That’s why you won’t get mail today, the schools are out and (maybe) the banks are closed. At least, the feds eliminated another designed holiday — Lincoln’s birthday — by combining Abe and George Washington’s birthdays into Presidents Day. Today is no different than any other federal holiday, such as Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, July 4th, MLK Day.

    1. Barry

      Some schools were out. It’s a weather make up day for most districts. My children were all at school.

      1. Sally

        Yep, you’re right about the schools being in session. Usually, students are off on Presidents Day, but it was used as a weather make-up school day. At least, it was in Richland District Two. I saw the school buses. So, I should have written that the schools are open but the banks are closed. Yes, this was a banking holiday. Nobody was at First Citizens when I used the ATM.

  4. Claus2

    At the time that was taken most people with real jobs had already been at work for hours… not finishing up their breakfast at “the club”.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      You’ve really got a bee in your bonnet about that, don’t you? It’s one of the ways we know you, whatever name you’re using at a given time…

      In any case, obviously those people with “real jobs” weren’t at them today, or there would be cars parked in those spaces.

      Guess they aren’t “real jobs” then…

      1. Claus2

        How many business people do you know who eat breakfast until 10:00 every morning? Most business people I know are in at 8:00. Maybe you work until 7:00.

        In response to the backhanded comment, when is the last time I’ve changed my name? 2-3 years ago when I went from Claus to Claus2 because either you blocked me permanently or the system did. Boy that must be a textbook Sherlock Holmes moment of detective work there to realize I’m the same person.

        20 days until Daylight Savings Time… then we get to listen to you complain about that for the next six months.

  5. Karen Pearson

    Doug, I second that schedule! And Brad, we retirees are also off on this and every Monday. 🙂

  6. Scout

    Aiken school district was out. They are a bit more conservative about calling days. We only had one to make up and they took it off of Christmas. But I spent the day working anyway, writing IEPs. 4 meetings this week. I’m tired.

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