Many of you may have guessed that the 4th is one of my favorite holidays and they would be right. You get together at picnics with family and friends, eat hot dogs, barbecue, watermelon and ice cream, drink beer, and, of course, watch and/or explode fireworks till our heart’s content. What could be better?
However, have you ever stopped to consider what it costs to shut-down the U.S. economy for one day? Economist estimate $19.2 billion. That’s $77 for every man, woman and child in the nation. I know a lot of businesses keep going so let’s assume the economist were 50 percent off in their calculations - that’s still $9.6 billion which is certainly not chump change in anyone’s business. It’s easy see how difficult it would be to stop the wheels of commerce just to celebrate something.
I suppose this’s all well and good, but some folks are hollering for more holidays. As our population becomes more diverse it was bound to happen. The trend, unfortunately, has become more political and economic than commemorative. Are you surprised? But it can be an expensive trend to take 24 hours away from the assembly line every time someone needs stroking.
Here’s some additional holidays on somebody’s drawing board: There are more Jews here than Israel, wouldn’t it be fair to make Yom Kippur equal to Christmas and let everyone stay home on Sept. 17th? The Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7th, Confucius’ birthday is Sept. 28, Buddha’s birthday is April 8th, the Moslem’s first day of Ramadan is in early March, Zambian Unity Day is July 2nd, and Virgin Island Independence Day is July 3rd. Wow! We could get a six day weekend with some of those holidays, but who will be around to make things work if we’re all off celebrating?
Trivia question of the day
(Try it without Google)
The answer will be in tomorrow’s blog.
Yesterday’s Question: Give the secret identity of the comic book character Oliver Green. His sidekick’s name was Speedy. ANSWER: The Green Arrow
Today’s Trivia: Who was the Englishman who bet he could travel around the world in 80 days?
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