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May Day May Day May Day
Thursday, 1 May 2014 08:31It's the First of May. 2014. We've managed to get through an odd April, only to have May weather start out equally unsettled.
Anniversaries
It's Amtrak's 40th birthday. The result of RAILPAX, the National Rail Passenger Act, Amtrak took over the intercity passenger trains on 1 May 1971. About half the trains disappeared, either duplicates of the core system or too far gone in financial terms. Though in many ways things are much better, Amtrak is still plagued by being at the mercy of the host freight railroads.
It's the 30th anniversary of my last shave.*** On 1 May 1981 I started a new job at the Northwestern University Library and decided I'd had it in terms of irritating my face. The previous couple if years I had grown a beard during the winter and shaved it in March or so. No more.
*** Please note that _I_ did not shave my beard off in June 2013. It was done in the ICU at Holland Hospital so the mask for my intubation would fit better. But I didn't do it. And it only happened once. It computer terms, if it only happened once, it didn't happen.
Workers' Day
In a nod to the other use of May Day, I should mention that workers are increasingly given the short shrift. State legislatures are attacking unions and the minimum wage hasn't kept up with classically defined inflation, nor the increased costs of doing business. Cellphone and computers and Internet access weren't considered necessary tools of the trade or critical for job hunts until recently.
Sorry. Don't have any maypoles or ribbons to dance with. And anyway, dancing around a maypole with canes or a walker isn't very practical. As if any dancing around a maypole is practical.
Enjoy your first day of the fifth month of the year.
Dr. Phil
Anniversaries
It's Amtrak's 40th birthday. The result of RAILPAX, the National Rail Passenger Act, Amtrak took over the intercity passenger trains on 1 May 1971. About half the trains disappeared, either duplicates of the core system or too far gone in financial terms. Though in many ways things are much better, Amtrak is still plagued by being at the mercy of the host freight railroads.
It's the 30th anniversary of my last shave.*** On 1 May 1981 I started a new job at the Northwestern University Library and decided I'd had it in terms of irritating my face. The previous couple if years I had grown a beard during the winter and shaved it in March or so. No more.
*** Please note that _I_ did not shave my beard off in June 2013. It was done in the ICU at Holland Hospital so the mask for my intubation would fit better. But I didn't do it. And it only happened once. It computer terms, if it only happened once, it didn't happen.
Workers' Day
In a nod to the other use of May Day, I should mention that workers are increasingly given the short shrift. State legislatures are attacking unions and the minimum wage hasn't kept up with classically defined inflation, nor the increased costs of doing business. Cellphone and computers and Internet access weren't considered necessary tools of the trade or critical for job hunts until recently.
Sorry. Don't have any maypoles or ribbons to dance with. And anyway, dancing around a maypole with canes or a walker isn't very practical. As if any dancing around a maypole is practical.
Enjoy your first day of the fifth month of the year.
Dr. Phil
