Many Americans will not be at work or school on February 18, due to something called "Presidents' Day." Back in my school days, we observed George Washington's birthday, although I don't recall that we had a day off school in observance.
(In those harsh and primitive times, of course, school holidays were few and far-between: a full day off for Christmas, early dismissal on Thanksgiving, after a special luncheon of turkey log and cranberry Jell-o with celery bits. That was it!)
It is tempting to beat the dead horse here about the prevalence of national holidays and the attendant opportunities for bargain shopping. And to sour grape about how unfair it is to those of us who will be going to work rather than to red tag sales.
Instead, let me suggest a new national holiday, Citizen's Day, when the president and Congress -- heck, let's just make it all elected and appointed officials -- work for us while we take the day off. Including, especially, those employed in retail.
George Washington's Birthday Mixtape . . . someone on the radio this morning was talking about Washington's favorite music, and mentioned something along the lines of Successful Campaign or Independence Cotillion or How Great O Thou Republic!
Anyone who's ever been asked to put together a "desert island" list of favorite music, books, or films, though, has to wonder if those aren't just the songs our first U.S. president felt that he had to cite as preferred or superior.
What about the "guilty pleasures"? Shouldn't one's favorite works of art also be those that elicit pleasure? (Why must we be "guilty" if they are "pleasures"? Discuss.)
Think about it. Do you truly believe that every top rock music critic considers The Velvet Underground & Nico, Neutral Milk Hotel's In An Aeroplane Over the Sea, and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica to be indispensable castaway listening?
Maybe.
Had every critic who claimed to need Big Star's Third l.p. to live actually owned it, Alex Chilton wouldn't be playing Box Tops medleys at Holiday Inns these days; as it is, you could barely build a raft with the copies sold. Or so it seems to me.
There's certainly nothing wrong with having sophisticated tastes or preferences in popular arts that are unconventional, and you would not be the first to suggest that my skepticism is due to my inability to appreciate challenging art. Perhaps I can only appreciate junk culture and enjoy trying to bring others down to my level.
Still, I think that most pop music critics, if they were being honest, facing an existence of splitting coconuts and conversing with a volleyball, would choose top ten Motown over proto-fusion Miles Davis.
And I'd like to think George Washington cut loose to The Brandywine and Lord Howe's Jig once in a while.*
* All the song titles mentioned in connection with our first president, above, come
from George Washington: A Biography in Social Dance, by Kate Van Winkle Keller
and Charles Cyril Hendrickson, not from my imagination. No, it is not on my
desert island list.
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