Labor Day is a U.S. national holiday held the first Monday every September. Unlike most U.S. holidays, it is a strange celebration without rituals, except for shopping and barbecuing. For most people it simply marks the last weekend of summer and the start of the school year.
The holiday’s founders in the late 1800s envisioned something very different from what the day has become. The founders were looking for two things: a means of unifying union workers and a reduction in work time.
History of Labor Day
The first Labor Day occurred in 1882 in New York City under the direction of that city’s Central Labor Union.
In the 1800s, unions covered only a small fraction of workers and were balkanized and relatively weak. The goal of organizations like the Central Labor Union and more modern-day counterparts like the AFL-CIO was to bring many small unions together to achieve a critical mass and power. The organizers of the first Labor Day were interested in creating an event that brought different types of workers together to meet each other and recognize their common interests.
However, the organizers had a large problem: No government or company recognized the first Monday in September as a day off work. The issue was solved temporarily by declaring a one-day strike in the city. All striking workers were expected to march in a parade and then eat and drink at a giant picnic afterwards.
Too bad no parade any more.
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No Unions left to carry on the tradition.
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Paul Krugman was good today.
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Elect the Loony, Reagan, Bush, Trump? *GAG*
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You know how Moms do stuff for their kid’s? We lived in Westchester, the little burg that encompasses LAX.
When I was 12, she went to work for TWA. Free flights for the family.
She worked hard, five nights a week in the commisary. One early morning she fell asleep on the turnoff from Sepulveda to Century Blvd and crashed through a chain link fence, dropping a couple of feet to the tarmac…
And headed toward a parked Western Airlines 727!
By this time she had awakened from her slumber, reversed course and drove though an automatic gate, and continued home. That was my Mom, Florence Rhea Hitchcock.
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The nut does not fall far from the tree.
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My Mom left me in an Orphanage cuz I was too young to take to the bar.
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Say WHAT?
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Labored on Labor Day. Holy soxs went into the trash.
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Say WHAT? Holy, or holey?
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Out to the community garden was but 41 minutes and directly back up the p. stairs to the Hillside Cafe for a total of 65 minutes today. Thought I glimpsed a chukkar hen out by the City Playfields. If so, a first for me in Pullman. Usually they stay out at the edge of the farm fields.
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There is a 16 second video of Donald Trump being at the by a bald eagle. Seems appropriate.
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Not at.
Attacked.
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Another CFL gave up the ghost. This one is hard to reach and Brandon got up on the ladder to screw it in for mean 3 years ago.
Somehow I’ll replace it with a LED.
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If and when you are shopping for an LED bulb, Ecosmart is a good brand, nice bright light in 40 or 60 watt versions, buy a dozen and dump the incandescent’s you have too.
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UFO or fly by shooter?
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The Holiday weekend comes to a close and it is back to the grind Tuesday for most, others like myself treat it as any other Saturday.
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Snow bums:
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