Thanksgiving Comes First, 2014

Suldog is leading the charge again, among those of us who celebrate Thanksgiving in November, to remember not to skip over this hallowed and august celebration before barreling our way into the madness that is the end of the year holidays of consumption.

Too many stores are trampling tradition and refusing their employees the dignity of a day to celebrate with their families, all in the name of chasing a few dollars which research has shown only siphon off Black Friday profits, not adding to them.  Yes, really, opening on Thanksgiving Day itself doesn't bring store profits up, it just spreads the same amount of spending over two days.

No, i will not be shopping on Thanksgiving, nor will i be shopping on Black Friday.  We have enough stuff in our house, anyway, and most of our gifts are home baked or very simple ones for family and close friends.  This year, to keep them from losing the last of my tools, i think all of my kids will get their own small tool set.  Perhaps then i can hide mine well enough that it will stay together.

Back to the subject at hand, i do not care how many tool sets are on sale only on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday, i will find others on different days.  While i understand that hospital workers, and some plant engineers, and people who keep our electricity flowing, our newspapers printing, and our convenience stores open will have to work, there's no reason most retail workers shouldn't have a day to enjoy and be thankful without having to go to work to sell stuff to people so greedy they can't wait one more day.

When i was young, i remember the grocery stores were open for a few hours in the morning only on Thanksgiving, so their own employees could go home and have an afternoon with their families.  Grandpa was always called to the hospital, too -- he delivered babies, and they don't read calendars.  Everything else was closed.  That's what i miss, that you knew what the day was for, and you celebrated it that way.

The times they are a-changing, it is true, and in some things, for the better.  In this tendency to play into the greedy season before we even have a chance to wipe the gravy from our lips, i think it's for the worse.

If you have the misfortune to have to work retail on Thanksgiving, you won't be seeing me.  You are welcome.


Today is:

Anniversary of Moquegua City -- Peru (founded this date in 1541)

Banquet for Monkeys / Monkey Buffet Festival -- Khmer Ruins of Lop Buri, Thailand (about 3,000 monkeys are served lunch while humans get to watch; some describe it as a riot but without the police)

Cat-Napping Convention -- Fairy Calendar

Day Sacred to Proserpina -- Ancient Roman Calendar (also Persephone, of the Greeks, the Wheel goddess of the Underworld, often associated with St. Catherine; see below)

Evacuation Day -- 19th Century New York City (withdrawal of British troops in 1783)

Hari Guru -- Indonesia (Teacher's Day)

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women -- UN

International Hat Day -- www.internationalhatday.com

Mangé Yam -- Haiti (fete de la moisson; a yam harvest festival)

National Day -- Bosnia and Herzegovina (commemorates the 1943 declaration of statehood within Yugoslavia)

National Don't Utter A Word Day -- internet generated, and variously listed as the 25th of November, February, or May; pick one if you want

National Parfait Day

Persephone Day (a/k/a Kore) -- Ancient Greek Calendar (celebration of her as wheel goddess of the underworld; date approximate, but she is often associated with St. Catherine; see below)

Saint Catherine of Alexandria's Day -- of the Catherine Wheel, sometimes associated with the Wheel of Karma and the Hindu Kali; one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (Patron of apologists, archivists, attorneys, barristers, craftsmen who work with wheels of any sort, dying people, educators, girls, jurists, knife grinders and sharpeners, lawyers, librarians, libraries, maidens, mechanics, millers, nurses, old maids, philosophers, potters, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, spinners, spinsters, stenographers, students, tanners, teachers, theologians, turners, University of Paris, unmarried girls, and wheelwrights; Aalsum, Netherlands; Bertinoro, Italy; Camerata Picena, Italy; Dumaguete, Philippines; Heidesheim am Rhein, Germany; Kuldiga, Latvia; Mähring, Germany; Saint Catharines, Ontario; Zejtun, Malta; Zurrieq, Malta) related observance
     Women's Merrymaking Day -- Women go 'Cath'rining' and have a good time (in some places, especially France, women may propose marriage on this day)

Shopping Reminder Day -- exactly a month until Christmas

Srefidensi -- Suriname (Republic Day/Independence Day)

Statehood Day -- FBiH, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Strange Names Day -- in honor of all the celebrity -- and other -- kids with "unique" names; sponsored the last Tuesday in November by Marlar in the Morning at 101QFL in Rockford, IL, US

Vajiravudh Day -- Thailand

White Ribbon Day -- International (if you know a victim of violence, help break their silence! because domestic violence affects all of society)


Birthdays Today:

Barbara and Jenna Bush, 1981
Jerry Ferrara, 1979
Donovan McNabb, 1976
Eddie Steeples, 1973
Christina Applegate, 1971
Jill Hennessy, 1968
Cris Carter, 1965
Amy Grant, 1960
John F. Kennedy, Jr., 1960
Bucky Dent, 1951
John Larroquette, 1947
Ben Stein, 1944
Joe Jackson Gibbs, 1940
Lenny Moore, 1933
Paul Desmond, 1924
Ricardo Montalban, 1920
Joe DiMaggio, 1914
Solanus Casey, 1870
Carry Nation, 1846
Karl F. Benz, 1844
Andrew Carnegie, 1835


Today in History:

A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples (Italy) and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places, 1343
The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins, 1491
A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha, in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people, 1667
The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died, 1703
First English patent granted to an American, for processing corn, 1715
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded, 1758
Farmer's Almanac first published, 1792
The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy, 1826
A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again); the storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster, 1839
Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, 1867
John B Meyenberg of St Louis patents evaporated milk, 1884
American College of Surgeons incorporates in Springield, Illinois, 1912
First Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in Philadelphia, 1920
690 earthquake shocks recorded in 1 day in Ito, Japan, 1930
The first Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m), 1933
Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock", 1940
New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom, 1947
Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London later becoming the longest continuously-running play in history, 1952
The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire destroys an entire city block, 1982
The United Nations establishes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to commemorate the murder of three Mirabal Sisters for resistance against the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in Dominican Republic, 1999
Powerful storm brings 3 years worth of rain in 4 hours to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sparking terrible floods, 2009