Welcome back to my Thoughts for Thursday or as we now call it, “TFT”.
As expected, after managing to complete my TFTs for two consecutive weeks (Hooray for Me!), I followed that up with a gap of a few weeks just to make sure none of you had gotten too spoiled (No one likes to be taken for granted).
But here we are again just the same, filled with anticipation over what Uncle Steve might decide is his current target to wield his mighty pen of sarcasm and justice against this time.
Masks? No, despite becoming even more of a problem for our country than it ever has been, I’ve covered that enough for the time being.
Here’s a quick reminder- Wear the freakin’ masks and stop attacking the people who do or acting like a diaper baby when you have to put one on. It’s simple, see?
Small Business Life during a Pandemic? Not today. While fascinating stories are still waiting to be told, I’ll put those on pause for now as well.
The Migrant Crisis? Distracted Driving? Conflict in the Middle East? You have obviously overestimated my credentials if you think I have solutions to issues on this level. Way above my pay grade as well, sorry to disappoint.
No, today I’m going to delve into a topic that is at the forefront of my thoughts today and much more in line with my intellectual qualifications to comment on.
National “Fill in the Blank” Days.
What in the name of Sam Hill am I talking about this time? (Also, did you know that the origin for the expression, “Sam Hill”, is most likely a euphemism for “Hell”? I always thought it was just some oldie time guy. Fascinating stuff, I know.)
Back to the incredibly important topic at hand- National ________ Days.
Did you know September 20th was National Pepperoni Pizza Day? I found that out when Pizza Hut emailed me this important factoid and I felt obligated to order a Pepperoni Pizza. I mean, I didn’t want to be unpatriotic. It’s a National Day!
It also happened to be National Fried Rice Day; National String Cheese Day, National Punch Day (The drink I hope), and National Care for Kids Day.
All these momentous National Days on the Same Day! What are the chances?
It’s like if Thanksgiving, Easter, and Labor Day all happened at once! What are the chances, I “Thought” to myself.
So, I did a little investigating and discovered to my amazement, this wasn’t an unusual occurrence.
As it turned out, last Tuesday, the 21st, was National Chai Day, National Pecan Cookie Day, National New York Day, and most importantly of all- National IT Professionals Day!
My own day, celebrated by the entire Nation, and I didn’t even realize it until I looked it up.
That’s like finding out last week was Christmas and no one mentioned it! I wondered, what other amazing National Days was I oblivious to?
So, I looked up what National Celebrations are happening today, that I should recognize and tell you about at this very minute and found the following National Days going on right now: Snack Stick Day; Great American Pot Pie Day; Teal Talk Day; Innergize Day; Restless Legs Awareness Day; and Checkers/Dogs in Politics Day.
Ok, it suddenly dawned on me that none of these sounded even remotely like Christmas or even IT Professionals Day (Which is really close to Christmas in importance). I’m not even sure what most of these are?
“Restless Legs Awareness Day”? Ok, I suppose that could be important? I mean, I don’t want to ignore what I guess is a medical condition, even if I can’t recall ever having seen their Telethon, but still important I’m sure.
“Great American Pot Pie Day” and “National Snack Stick Day”? Now, I like a good Pot Pie even if I don’t think I’ve had one in years and it turns out a “Snack Stick” is mostly like what we called “Meat Sticks”, but seriously, these don’t really compare to “National Pepperoni Pizza Day”. I suppose we can use all of the Food Related Days we can get, so I’ll give them a pass.
But what about these others?
“Innergize”? That’s not even a real word for Cripe’s sake. (And who is this “Cripe” anyway? Is he related to the “Sam Hill” guy from earlier?)
I had to turn on my Google Machine and found that “Innergize Day” is the day after the Autumnal Equinox and “offers an opportunity to relax and rejuvenate”. Well, isn’t that special?
I’m afraid that if your job isn’t aware of this super important National Day, they may not agree with your desire to spend your time doing only relaxing and rejuvenating stuff. If your job is making you do actual work today, you stop right now, show them this TFT, and head on back to the Nap Pods you should have available to celebrate like you should.
I also used my Google Machine to look up “Teal Talk Day” and it turns out that this is about Ovarian Cancer Awareness. A disease that certainly deserves more attention and focus.
Once I researched it, I get the “Teal” notion like “Pink” has become the color for Breast Cancer Awareness. There seems to be all kinds of colors for all kinds of cancers, so bringing focus to any of these is great. Glad I learned this.
Finally, we have the National Checkers/Dogs in Politics Day. Now I made the assumption that this was also a very important day with an odd name that once I looked it up, I would discover something as equally important to Cancer Awareness. I did not.
It is literally a day to celebrate “Dogs in Politics”. Like Mayor Snuffles or Governor Rover? “Checkers”, was Richard Nixon’s dog that I guess he gave a famous speech referencing, hence the name. So, this is the day we celebrate the Presidential First Dogs who have dutifully served their country? Seriously?
Anyone who knows me understands I love dogs. My daughter’s dog, “Bea”, has even taken over the duties of my TFTs in the past, so no one can argue my canine affections, but a National Day?
It started to make me wonder if maybe these “National Days” aren’t really the important official events that they first appeared to be? I discovered an article from The Atlantic, that was a shocking revelation. It states:
“Many of these days are new in the past few years, and a small percentage are recognized by the government. Whimsical as these days seem, the creation and maintenance of national days are a phenomenon with massive financial implications. Many such days are used—or were even specifically invented—to coax people to talk about products and services. This happens on a scale that traditional advertising almost never achieves. Even spending millions on a Super Bowl commercial cannot command so much favorable attention to a product—given freely and enthusiastically by unassuming consumers who blast it into the timelines of everyone they know.”
This is news that is both distressing and disturbing.
Am I to believe that “National Pot Pie Day” is merely a contrived holiday artificially created by a Pot Pie Advertising Conglomerate and not the genuine celebration by real Americans who simply wanted their love of Flakey Crusted Meat and Vegetable Pies to be justly honored?
Then what about the others? The upcoming National Dumpling Day, National Chocolate Milk Day, Corned Beef Hash Day, or even the non-food related occasions such as National Ghost Hunting Day, National Scarf Day, or National Hobbit Day?
Are they all just false festivities to manipulate us into spending our money on more things we don’t need while pulling our attentions away from the important issues like work and pandemics and politics and wars and – ok, hold-up? Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all.
I can only watch so much of the news before I need to focus on something a little bit less depressing and terrifying and maybe a Pot Pie Day is just what we all need.
And there’s no way I’m not going to remind you of next year’s IT Professional’s Day when it comes up again. I will make sure to have a list of gifts I would like you to send my way available for you to consider, so save up your money, it’s going to be a big list.
Mark your calendar now so you won’t miss it.
And as always-
Stay Safe and Stay Well, Uncle Steve
Comentarios