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Today is a public holiday in Rhode Island, commemorating the end of World War Two. People sometimes say (incorrectly) that it is Victory Over Japan Day and make snide remarks about how Rhode Island defeated the Japanese Empire. Actually, the date was set when Japan did surrender, but that was because since Germany had already surrendered so the Japanese defeat effectively ended the war. At some point the state legislature set Victory Day as being the second Monday in August. A number of states once celebrated the end of WW-II but Rhode Island is the only one left to retain it as a public holiday. (I guess it's the equivalent of what they call a bank holiday in the U.K.?) It's in the summer, so schools are closed anyway, so about the only things affected by it are state offices and banks. A few years ago some attempts were made to get rid of it but angry veterans soon put a stop to that. Some state officials seem embarassed by it; after all, the war was over many years ago and it isn't politically correct to honor American victories. (This fits into the current debate over a missle defense system where much of the opposition seems to come from people who feel the only dangerous nuclear missiles are the ones that belong to America.) I stayed home from work today, but not because of the state holiday; I had a headache when I went to bed last night and woke up this morning in pain. Sort of a sinus-initiated migraine. Got up, used some nasal spray, took some aspirin, had some coffee and breakfast, took some more aspirin and went back to bed. There was no way I could have driven a car. Got up around ten or eleven, used more spray, took more aspirin... Finally, early afternoon, I was receiving some relief but still had a headache, so I went out for a run (three and a half miles) in hopes that the exercise, the increased bloodflow and increased oxygen to the brain, the sweating, etc. would help to finish off the headache. That did help a lot, followed by a long hot shower and some more aspirin. Someone emailed me to ask if I have a notify list. I don't although I have thought about it. Since my updating is a bit irregular, sometimes I post two or three or four in a row and then I may skip a day or two or three or even four... So I can see where it is a nuisance to visit a site only to discover it's not been updated... I belong to a bunch of notify lists myself; in fact, that's the way I visit many of the journals I read regularly... just go to my mail and click on the hot link from within the notify message. I suppose I should look into it, have to consider just doing it as a mailing list I maintain in my yahoo.com mail account (jimsjournal@yahoo.com) vs. setting it up using egroups. Most notify lists that I've joined seem to be on egroups, just a couple are journaler-maintained. Any advice and/or suggestions? |