Presidents Day….hey wait, I thought it was Washingtons birthday?

If that’s what you thought then you are actually correct well, kinda.  Washington, Was born on the 11th of February, in the Old Style calendar, but the 22nd on the New Style calendar.  The day celebrating him took place between, if your wondering what the old style vs new style is, well, its not real important to this article, but the new style is what we use and the new year starts on January 1st.  Anyway so why is it now Presidents day?  Well, let’s see if we can find out.  Most of us know that George Washington was Americas first elected President.  Originally titled Washingtons Birthday, it was originally celebrated on February 22nd, in 1879.  Originally it was only celebrated in government offices in Washington DC, but it expanded to all federal offices in 1885.  It was implemented by an Act of Congress.  It was the first federal holiday that honored an American Citizen.  So why is it celebrated on the wrong day?  Well, Washingtons birthday was moved to the 3rd Monday in February back on January 1, 1971 by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

The first time someone tried to turn it into Presidents Day was way back in 1951.  Harold Stonebridge Fischer from Compton, California.  He formed a committee called the “Presidents Day National Committee”.  Fischer thought that the office of the President should be honored, not just any one president.  He originally wanted March 4th, Inauguration Day to be Presidents Day, but that was overridden by the Senate Judiciary Committee (which had authority over national holidays). They felt that it was too close to Lincoln’s and Washington Birthdays.  They didn’t want 3 holidays so close together so they nixed it.  One of the original drafts of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act intended to rename Washingtons Birthday, Presidents Day in order to honor both Lincoln and Washington, It failed to rename it also, even thought the bill was signed into law in June of 1968.  So how exactly did it become Presidents Day? I mean we now know why its on the 3rd Monday of February, but when did the name change?  Technically it never officially did.  As with most things in today world, advertisers started pushing the term in the mid 1980’s, yup, thats where the name Presidents Day came in.  Through the years some states did officially rename Washingtons Birthday to Presidents Day, but it has never been federally changed.  So there you go.  That’s the short version of the Presidents Day story, there’s all kinds of observances and  such, but I’ll let you look into that yourself if you want.  So as always thanks for reading!

John

What did we learn this week? week 3

Well, its Friday, so it’s another edition of what did we learn this week? Well first off…..

Incest might not be best…..but it might be the only choice in Iceland!  Apparently its hard to find someone to date….in Iceland.  The population is so small, roughly the size of Pittsburgh, that people will sometimes start dating someone only to find that they are a long lost relative!  So to help this problem some very nice people have started a searchable database…for the link to the full story please visit my good friend, anacristina79’a blog at http://anacristina79.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/icelanders-avoid-inbreeding-through-online-incest-database/

I now pronounce you sausage and green peppers.  If you and your significant other are really into pizza and have 10k you now can have Pizza Hut take care of that pesky ring for you with their engagement package.   Yup you heard right.  Want to know more? Once again anacristina79 can be thanked for this one!  http://anacristina79.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/pizza-huts-10000-engagement-party-package-includes-a-ring-fireworks-and-pizza/

From the “you can never have enough bacon” department.  Well I love bacon, but I even think this goes a bit far.  Apparently Jack in the Box now is offering an extremely limited time bacon shake….yup you read that right.  They didn’t say how limited, so if you’re a bacon fan and want one you might want to visit the Jack in the Box website to find out where to get your fix!

Whitney Houston died? What should we do? Well if your the same company I bitched at last week for not offering a UMD game exchange program in the US (yeah I’m talking about you Sony!) you raise the prices on her CD’s, well at least until you get caught!  Sony put the prices back then apologized but seriously Sony wise up will ya?  The link can be found here at my friend anomic office drones blog, if you want the full story http://anomicofficedrone.com/2012/02/13/you-stay-classy-sony/

For all of you Grateful Dead fans with….cough….cough…. Glaucoma…The US is close to legalizing medical marijuana everywhere as long as it abides by the Washington DC rules….I would tell you more about it, but to be honest typing this is making me hungry so head over to http://anacristina79.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/congress-oks-medical-marijuana-everywhere-with-dc-rules-attorney/ for the link to the full story!

D’oh! Guess who got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?  That’s right Chelsea Handler…..er no….wait….I mean Matt Groening!  Yup the creator of The Simpsons and Futurama has finally been awarded his very own star on the walk of fame.  I may not be a huge fan of the last few seasons, but I love the older ones and think this star was a long time coming and well deserved, kudos Matt!   For more check out http://anomicofficedrone.com/2012/02/14/matt-groening-just-got-a-star-on-the-hollywood-walk-of-fame/

The Godfather part 4, What do you do if you’re a Sicillian drug dealer on the run from the Sicilian mafia…..er…..government?  Well if you’re an idiot like Michele Grasso, you run to London then post pictures of your escapades showing famous places….oh did I mention he even labeled a photo album Christmas in London?  Yup pure genius and now you can guess who’s being extradited back to Sicily.  The full article is over here at my other good friend Danny Carbons blog http://dannycarbon.com/2012/02/15/sicilian-fugitive-deported-after-london-whereabouts-revealed-on-facebook/

They do exist! Well according to Timothy Good anyway.  The best part? He says that Eisenhower had 3 secret meetings with them! Yup, he appeared on a BBC2 program discussing it.  The article also has some other info, how true it is I don’t know but its a good read! So check it out over at Ray Alex’s http://reinep.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/former-us-president-eisenhower-had-three-secret-meetings-with-extra-terrestrials/ and enjoy!

Put them in the Iron Maiden! Yup you Bill and Ted fans know that statement, and also you know I ain’t talking about the torture device either!  Iron Maiden announced their Maiden England World Tour! Yup so look to see if they’re coming to a city near you!

Be honest, you didn’t really buy the electric car to save the world….did you?  Because if you did guess what?  You may be making it worse!  Yup, a study that focused 34 Chinese showed that the amount of fine particle emissions produced to make the electricity for the electric cars was worse then from regular cars.  If you want the full story the link can be found here http://anacristina79.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/study-shows-impact-of-electric-cars-is-worse-than-petrol-powered-vehicles/

Thanks to the good folks over at http://larryfire.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/did-you-know-that-it-costs-2-4-cents-to-make-one-penny/ I now know that it takes 2.4 cents to make a penny!!! what the F#$%? why are we still making them!? they can be found on any street in the union! pay the homeless and unemployed to pick them up and return them! I mean we actually lose money making the things, no wonder we’re broke, any way head over to the above link for the full story!

So I find its funny that everyone seems to focus on movie and music piracy hurting the respective industries, but why is no one talking about technology knock offs?  Well my friends at the Ramblings of a Techie blog discuss this very topic, http://theatretechgeek.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/chinese-rips-off-damaging-the-industry/  enjoy!

And on the lighter side….er darker side?  Forbes magazine put together a list of where exactly the Galactic Empire and Emperor Palpatine went wrong! So enjoy!

Oh, and the last thing I learned this week is that when UPS says 2 days guaranteed means “we’ll get it there when we damn well please”  I find it funny that a company that loves logistics they don’t know what the f they are doing.  See, my package shipped on the 15th, 2nd day air.  I live near Chicago so imagine my surprise when I saw it landed in Des Moines Iowa, instead of at Ohare airport, then hopped on a truck to go from Des Moines, back to….Des Moines! yup it departed then a half hour later arrived there again! then departed like 10 hours later to come to Chicago by truck! WTF happened to the air part of the 2nd day air?!  So once again, UPS is late getting me a package, and before you jump on me, the original date that THEY said it would be delivered was the 17th.  So UPS gets the middle finger award for the week!

Enjoy your weekend!

John