Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for February 18, 2012

There should be more summer holidays for sure.

It should be a rotating holiday, shared among the birthdays of the ten best presidents. I can’t stand thinking of it as Presidents’ Day. I don’t want to celebrate Millard Fillmore, Richard Nixon, or George W. Bush. I think of the day as Washington-Lincoln Day. Each of them men (G.W.’s slaveholding nothwithstanding) deserves a day.

And speaking of Summer Holidays – there are none in August. Gotta fix that somehow.

I was living in Vancouver when someone noticed there was no holiday in August. And that is actually why British Columbia Day was established.

Regarding “official” holidays, let’s just keep a couple of the big ones (Independence Day, Solstice [Christmas has no business being observed by the Government], New Years), but give everybody in the country eight floating holidays that they can take whenever they like, no questions asked. If you want to take Truman’s birthday off, you may do so, either because you have extraordinary regard for Harry Truman or simply because you want an extra day off in May. For planning purposes, we might require that people select their holidays in advance (perhaps at the beginning of the year).

Of course, I’m also in favor of staggering “weekends”; every business and school would be open 7 days a week, with the same hours of operation every day, but on any given day two-sevenths of the employees would be absent.

I don’t think any president should be honored individually because it is usually just P.R.- B.S. Some could say that Washington was an idiot glory hound and Lincoln was a tyrant that did nothing other than hand over the McClellan trained army to the drunken butcher Grant. Remeber he did not free the slaves but did make tariffs possible.

How many votes for a FDR, or JFK day?.How many today could fight both the Great Depression, and World War II and win?

There is – the first Monday in August is a civic holiday but, since it is not mandated by the federal government, only some provinces observe it. Not everyone in the province observes it either so many businesses are still open.

I believe Presidents Day is a holiday to honor ALL our presidents.

How about Benjamin Harrison Day? He only served a month, did the least damage of any president.

Harry Truman Day is a State holiday in Missouri!

Rusty, that was William Henry Harrison. Benjamin was his grandson. And yes, Presidents’ Day was originated to conflate Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays. Most states celebrated Washington’s birthday before the change, but Illinois observed Lincoln’s for obvious reasons. So my brother and I got Lincoln’s birthday off from school, but my mother, who worked in St. Louis, and my father, who worked for the federal gov’t in IL until I was 9th grade, got Washington’s birthday off. Of course, afterward, IL still chose to honor Lincoln’s birthday instead of President’s Day, so the argument is neither here nor there.

zedman: Same one. Some, if not all the other provinces decided it was a good idea too and so it was no longer just BC and the name was changed. Different provinces pioneer different things – Saskatchewan for health, BC for loafing.

Gotta say I like the floating holiday idea, mine all happen to occur for 8 consecutive business days 5 months from now, kind of like Hanukkah in July, I would imagine, sorry, no offense meant.

William Henry Harrison: He died in 30 days!

Right about now even George W. looks better than old carrot head.

What we need is a federal holiday in August.