Jews fast on Yom Kippur, and eat unleavened bread during Passover. Muslims fast for the month of Ramadan. Catholics give up something for Lent.
America officially recognizes none of these holidays. Our truly "American" holiday is Thanksgiving, where we stuff ourselves to the gills.
I think America needs a holiday of self deprivation. I think it's a good idea to remember what it's like to go without the luxuries that we take for granted.
Therefore I suggest we celebrate Blackout Day every August 15 by shutting down the entire power grid for the entire U.S. Everyone should celebrate by staying at home, having a cookout on charcoal (or campfire) maybe with the neighbors, and looking at the stars at night.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: I think America needs a holiday of self deprivation.
Isn't that why we work the first four months of the year for the government paying those pesky taxes? Sheesh, you want to take away the one holiday we get to finally feed ourselves? I mean, besides the Fourth of July picnic, the Memorial and Labor Day picnics, the Halloween candy fest, the Christmas dinner tradition, the New Year's Eve appetizer bonanza and don't forget those damned chocolate hearts on Valentine's Day. I mean, other than those, when do we really get to eat a ton of food? And there's football, too!
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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He wasn't suggesting not eating. He specifically told us to eat-- just without the use of our microwaves. And electric fireplaces is cheating.
Posts: 165 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote: Therefore I suggest we celebrate Blackout Day every August 15 by shutting down the entire power grid for the entire U.S.
That's not gonna work. Too many people (including my father) are dependent on medical equipment to live. I don't see cutting off power to the entire country would be a particularly good idea. Also, I don't like the idea of being forced to celebrate a holiday, which is essentially what you propose by cutting off power.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Yeah, all the holidays you mentioned above are voluntary holidays. I think that's how they all would have to be.
I don't know that it would be possible to declare an "American" holiday...I know of many Americans that don't observe Thanksgiving. And isn't the word "Holiday" derived from "Holy Day" or am I crazy? I know that we've declared "Federal Holidays" etc, but most of the ones that people observe have some personal significance to them. I fast on a regular basis as part of my religion, so I probably wouldn't participate in nation-wide self deprivation day that didn't mean something important to me.
edit= I also knew that this was tongue in cheek Glenn, even before your above post. I just felt like 'splaining my thoughts.
posted
I've celebrated "a holiday of self deprivation", you guys call it "Thanksgiving", i call it "eat lots of food in front of the wrestler who hasn't eaten in days day"... luckily I'm not wrestling anymore, this thanksgiving is the first one in 6 years that i'll be eating at.
[ November 22, 2004, 08:49 PM: Message edited by: J T Stryker ]
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I want to know when the day after Thanksgiving became a holiday? I'm getting paid double-time to work that day, and the reasoning for it is because our HR department is staying closed that day and celebrating it as a holiday. Is it because of the massive sales? Is it because everyone will be waiting, at Wal-Mart for them to open their doors at 6 AM, their eyes sparkling with excitement and bellies full from yesterdays' dinner. Is it because of the multitudes that, if it were not declared a holiday, would be driving to work with a hang-over? Is it because, unbeknownst to us, the pilgrims spent the day after Thanksgiving doing absolutely nothing because they were too busy eating leftovers?
I'm so confused!
Posts: 44 | Registered: Mar 2004
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It's actually NOT a holiday in most areas, but a lot of businesses permit it because otherwise people would take the day off anyway due to travel.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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August 15 2003 was the blackout where all the politicians got indignant and pointed the finger at each other, as if electrical systems must be absolutely perfect all the time or it's clearly somebody's fault (must be the democrats).
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I actually agree on this. August fifteenth is unlikley to be cold and it's an excellent reminder that there is a life outside of electronics...
It could be just a voluntary thing on a family by family basis. Street lights might be dangerous to take out but I'd bet if everyone turned off all their own lights it would make a difference.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Can I leave the AC and fridge on and just turn the tv off? I'm not sure what I'd do with all my food for the day, and my apartment would become an oven in a few hours.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Nope, that's the point. You gotta turn off the AC. And the fridge. (maybe the day before you have a party where you purge your perishables.)
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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How about you do that while I sit in my air-conditioned house and have a cold drink from the fridge? Posts: 1658 | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote: The report said that a generating plant in the Cleveland, Ohio area went off-line amid high electrical demand and strained high-voltage power lines later went out of service when they came in contact with "overgrown trees". It also found that FirstEnergy did not warn other control centers until it was too late because of faulty monitoring equipment and inadequate staff. The cascading effect that resulted ultimately forced the shutdown of more than 100 power plants. [2]
Attributing a massive cascade failure of an overloaded electrical system to "overgrown trees" is ridiculous. The overgrown trees were merely the switch that started the cascade. The overload of the system (the real cause) was due primarily to air conditioner load, which peaks in the afternoons during the heat of the summer months.
90 degrees is a very tolerable temperature. Unless you have diabetes, a heart condition or some other physical ailment, an air conditioner is pure luxury. If you believe otherwise, you are simply a spoiled brat.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Yeah, we celebrate it here too, which is why I thought of it. I've never understood the people who act like a power outage is a sign of the apocalypse.
We get out the camping equipment and go on with our lives.
As far as air conditioning goes, my Aunt Katie died during a heat wave. She had diabetes. She was found sitting in a chair with all her windows closed. She should have had an air conditioner on. The temperature had been over 100 degrees for several days.
I also have a former neighbor who has Cystic Fibrosis. He also needs an air conditioner when it gets hot.
So I have a tendency to notice when a heat wave makes the news and they start talking about how old or sick people are likely victims of heat. It doesn't happen at 90 degrees folks.
If you're healthy, you'd be amazed at what temperatures you can get used to. I used to work in combustion research. My lab furnace was 15 feet long and 4 feet in diameter. When we ran it, it's skin temperature was about 600 degrees. We often ran on the hotter days of the year. What amazed me was that although I got used to those temperatures, I would go into glass factories and watch the workers there, who thought I was a wimp, because I wasn't used to the temperatures in between the furnace and the regenerators. They kept fans blowing through the corridor, but the air heated so fast it felt like a huge hair dryer, rather than a cooling breeze. Those guys could go in their and work for hours at a time, I could barely stand a few minutes.
Yet I know people that set their heat at 74 degrees in the winter and their air conditioning at 68 degrees in the summer. People have lost touch with the normal temperature swing from summer to winter.
So for Risuena, whose father needs medical support, that's part of my thinking with regard to this whole thing. The very fact that there are some people who actually NEED electricity is part of my argument: Those of us who don't actually need air conditioning need to be prepared to turn the stupid thing off when the system gets overloaded, so that the people who do need it don't have to suffer through a blackout.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I would like to point out that Florida was considered largely inhabitable until the 1920's when air conditioning became affordable. Now that central air is standard, very few homes are built to be self cooling. Plus, you have the humidity; if the sweat doesn't evaporate, your body loses it's ability to cool itself.
Maybe where you live AC is a luxury, but don't speak for those of us down here in the swamp, thank you very much.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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There is something criminally wrong with sitting around in an air-conditioned house in the middle of summer. Summer is about leaving your doors open in a desperate and futile attempt at creating a cross breeze and sticking to whatever surface you touch. It's about waking up in pools of your own sweat and shaving your head in an attempt to cool off. I complain about it, but I like it.
Anyway, back to the opening post. To heck with America! Canadians get even fewer days off than Americans do! 10 days a year (excluding vacations and weekends). That's it! That's the lowest of any industrialized nation and it has got to stop. It's inexcusable to not have a holiday between New Year's and Easter; I don't care if it's Celine Dion Day brought to you by Hallmark so long as I don't have to show up at work/school.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote: I would like to point out that Florida was considered largely inhabitable until the 1920's when air conditioning became affordable.
Uhhm, I assume you mean UNinhabitable.
So, if it was uninhabitable, then how did they secede from the union?
Also, how did the Seminoles survive?
Yeah, I've been to Florida in August. Working on a furnace, as usual. It was really hot, so I wore a sweat shirt to protect me from the heat. The fact that I was in Florida was irrelevent.
You should try living in Brazil.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Oh, listen to all you manly... um... well, maybe your not all men, but still. Puffing your chest because you can withstand a trifling 90 degrees without pissing and moaning about it. Wupty do! Try growing up in Northern Maine. You think heats' incapacitating. When it gets to be about -20 and you dont have any electricity because the ice brought down the station, and you're huddled next to kerosene heater with your blanket and your dogs, and the chickens need feeding, now thats inconvienent. But you dont see us bitchin' and moanin' about it, do you? Nope. So, all you proud Floridians with your wussy AC and your muggy days, try coming up here and freezing your half baked balls off. Then we'll start talking about real men.
Posts: 499 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Oh yeah, and I think we should rename Thanksgiving. I think it should be called homicidal nationalism day. And to commemorate it, maybe we should pass out smallpoxed riddled blankets to people with no immune systems, and maybe give whiskey to alcoholics, instead of mass killing turkeys. I really think that would better represent what the holiday really means to Americans.
Posts: 499 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Glenn, as evidenced by the complaints in this thread, some people will object to your holiday. However, I'm quite fond of the idea. This could of course stem from my total hatred of Thanksgiving, which I consider to be a sham. I loathe it every year, and not just because I'm a vegetarian who misses out on turkey. For a holiday that's supposed to be about giving thanks I've found that most people spend more time stuffing their faces with as much food as possible rather than reflecting on and discussing their blessings. I figure on a typical Thanksgiving the average person spends about (tops) 20 minutes being grateful versus 6 hours eating and watching football. I told Mr. Opera next year I'm working in a soup kitchen.
I do think we need to be more aware of what truly are luxuries in life, and I think your proposed holiday is a nice reminder of that. Blackout Day all the way, baby.
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