Labor Day Trivia

Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow. - Douglas Pagels

Happy Labor Day! In keeping with the holiday spirit, I thought I’d post some Labor Day Trivia which I picked up from the Department of Labor’s site for you to use to impress your family and friends during your activities today.

Labor Day, a creation of the labor movement, is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers and their contribution to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

I thought our country kept better records, but the most curious thing I discovered is that no one knows who to acknowledge for this end of the summer holiday. It seems we owe our gratitude to either a Mr. McGuire or a Mr. Maguire. Similar names, but two different people.

According to the site: “Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

"But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.”

The first observance was a parade in New York City on Tuesday, Sept, 5, 1882, in which 10,000 workers took an unpaid day off in order to participate.

Oregon was the first state to declare Labor Day a law in 1887.

In 1894, Congress passed a bill which was signed by President Grover Cleveland designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day.

Canada celebrates Labour Day on the same day.

Other large industrialized nations celebrate a similar concept, though sometimes the celebration is combined with May Day.

One last major tidbit—according to several sites I visited while researching the day—it’s no longer a faux pas to wear white after Labor Day.

To find out more details about the day, visit the Department of Labor . To see a photo of a circa 1900s Labor Day Parade in Buffalo New York, visit the Library of Congress. And for the latest statistics about our workers, visit the U.S. Census Bureau.

I hope everyone who has the day off today is able to enjoy the holiday with friends and family or in whatever version of sliding down the rainbow that makes your day a good one.

How will you be celebrating?

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope to see you again next Monday.

Tags: Pagels, Labor Day Trivia, Labor movement, Peter McGuire, Matthew Maguire, Department of Labor,

The Changing Dictionary

“Dictionaries are always fun, but not always reassuring.” – M.F.K. Fisher

According to a recent article, "Twitter and Gourmet Sex: They’re in the Dictionary Now," on time.com, the 30th Anniversary of the Collins English Dictionary was published on September 3, with over 260 new entries.

“To qualify for inclusion in the esteemed lexicon, a word had to have, over the past two years, six quality citations in Collins' digital corpus, a computerized database that scans 2.5 billion words across a number of print and online resources.”

Among the new words this year, I picked out a few of my favorites:

carborexics - those obsessed with reducing their carbon footprint
ecotarian - a person who only eats food that has been produced in an environmentally friendly manner
frugalista - a person who tries to stay fashionably dressed on a budget
glamping - glamorous camping
ponzimonium - financial turmoil in the wake of uncovering Ponzi schemes

I guess because I'm such a fuddy-duddy (is that still a word?), I don’t believe that OMG (oh my god), WTF (what the f__) are words. However, they have been included in the dictionary along with the sounds of hmm, heh and mwah (exaggerated kiss). According to Duncan Black, editor of the dictionary, “They’re part of the language of microblogging.”

Of course, to add new words, they first had to make room by deleting others.
Another article, "24 Words the CED Wants to Exuviate (Shed)," also on time.com, lists some of the words that may have been cut. Had I know they were words to begin with, I may have used them and saved their jobs. Now I guess it’s too late. It’s too bad, because some of them seem like such good words. For instance:

compossible - possible in coexistence with something else
embrangle - to confuse
fubsy - squat
malison - a curse
muliebrity - the condition of being a woman
niddering - cowardly
skirr - a whirring sound, as of the wings of birds in flight

On a different topic, I hope everyone is enjoying their long Labor Day weekend. Here’s a little trivia about the day to impress those around you. The first Labor Day observance was in New York City on September 5, 1882. By 1884 other cities observed the holiday honoring working people and in 1894 it became a Federal Holiday.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Nancy Sharpe from Realms of Thought on Fantasy, Writing & Children’s Literature for the One Lovely Blog Award. Her blog is always interesting and fun to read and I’m honored to have received this from her. Though I know there are lots of deserving blogs, many of the sites I frequent have already received this award or I’ve already passed another award to them recently. In other words I’m at a loss of who to pass this along to. I guess this is a sign I need to get busy and explore more blogs. I hope I’ll be forgiven for keeping this one for myself – at least for a while. I also hope you’ll visit Nancy’s blog and the other blogs she’s passed awards on to.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: Fisher, Dictionary, One Lovely Blog Award, Nancy Sharpe, Labor Day,