Quarter Life Crisis

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White Shoes

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Apparently it's labour day over in the U.S. And raining in places. Here, labour day is on the first of May, so why do they have a different date? OK, I don't really care about that, but there's a much more pressing question on this issue: Why shouldn't you wear white shoes after labour day as is suggested by the Serial Mom? A quick search only suggests this rule is out of fashion.

Dave also points to their president's speech for the occasion. For good measure the speech writers threw in a couple of extra random topics

America needs legal reform, because junk lawsuits can destroy a business and they're making health care coverage less affordable for employers and workers. And Congress must restrain government spending so that we can bring the deficit down by half within the next five years.
in addition to bad spirit and lies:
We must negotiate trade agreements with other nations. My administration will be vigilant in making sure our agreements are followed by all our trading partners. With free trade and a level playing field, American workers can successfully compete with any workers in the world.
Of course forcing agreements onto the rest of the world is important because there is no way American or European workers can compete with workers in low-tech areas on a level playing field.

There's a workshop running in our department these days and I went to listen to a couple of the talks. One of them – though rather basic and not too interesting – was very good. The speaker managed to be rather swift in presenting the material but at the same time wasn't hectic at all and managed to stress the crucial points. Hopefully he can keep up that style once he gets to talk about the hard topics.

September 1, 2003, 20:51

Comments

Comment by d.w.: User icon

I’m not sure exactly where the US Labor Day date comes from, but it ends up being pretty convenient. It pairs up quite nicely with our Memorial Day, which is celebrated on the last Monday of May. What that then gives you is two bank holidays exactly 4 months apart, bookending summer.

Anyone who knows my politics realizes that my linking to a Bush speech is the sort of thing I’d do with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek. His speechwriters are flailing a bit because this week the press published polls showing that slight majority of Americans now favor replacing him when his term is up. It’s a huge joke for him to talk about reducing the budget deficit, considering there was a comfortable surplus when he took office.

September 1, 2003, 22:46

Comment by ssp: User icon

Actually I thought the beginning of the speech looked pretty standard. They just lost track a little towards the end. Apart from the topics touched the juxtaposition of topics results in a bunch of incoherent gibberish.

A ‘Less is more’ motto may have helped here.

Really no clue about the white shoes? I mean, did people just go there and make such a rule up?

September 2, 2003, 14:21

Comment by ssp: User icon

Actually I thought the beginning of the speech looked pretty standard. They just lost track a little towards the end. Apart from the topics touched the juxtaposition of topics results in a bunch of incoherent gibberish.

A ‘Less is more’ motto may have helped here.

Really no clue about the white shoes? I mean, did people just go there and make such a rule up?

September 2, 2003, 14:43

Comment by d.w.: User icon

I don’t know about the official origin of the white shoes thing — it just happens to be one of those “etiquette advisories” that used to run in that sort of newspaper column that are so far out of fashion these days (I imagine there’s a German equivalent to the US’ “Miss Manners”)

September 3, 2003, 5:46

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