AgoraBoard

Striking lack of "Neutral Day" in all those Valentine's Day shenanigans.

Magloire wrote:

Striking lack of "Neutral Day" in all those Valentine's Day shenanigans.

Morocco mole wrote:

Say the word and Neutral Day goes onto the Agora calendar of events.

*Raises pen precariously over the parchment fraying at the edges*

Iescech wrote:

And happy belated to those billions under the tyrann--BENEVOLENCE of Gettenfeld :D

Let's not forget the upcoming Annia d'Iescech on Dimitria 19th (Iescech's Birthday). Many happy returns, my friends.

Morocco mole wrote:

If anyone has a date that they'd like to have remembered by the people of Agora, please let us know and Iescech will graciously add it to the Agoran Calendar and Holidays dispatch.

August 14th sounds like a very blah day, let's make it Neutral Day.

(If someone's birthday is then on here, my most humble apologies.)

How's everyone been doing lately?

Iescech wrote:

Hanging in there, honestly can't wait for the end of this semester and enter summer!

Good to hear! I've been looking forward to the summer too. Hopefully, things are a bit more normal then.

Gates of horn and ivory wrote:

Also "hanging in there" -- like that poster with the cat:

https://i.imgur.com/l4bsvFr.jpg

What a strange time to be living through, though... I hear folks saying the lockdown will be only a couple more weeks, but I find that hard to believe. What's the situation like where you're all at?

The state next door is looking to reopen in May, I can't imagine why when it's led by a Democratic governor, a Democratic legislature, but I don't live there soooo...beats me. Here, we're basically confined for who knows how long?

Happy flower day

Gates of horn and ivory wrote:

Also, at least we would be able to see the threat. Combating invisible germs is quite stressful.

Quite true. It's much easier to downplay the severity of the situation without a physical prop like an invading horde.

Gates of horn and ivory wrote:

I'm now remembering one of the later George Romero movies, I think it was Land of the Dead, where the dead are around so long they begin returning to their jobs out of some sort of muscle memory and performing pale imitations of their duties there.

It was Day of the Dead, or at least that's the earliest one I remember. I honestly didn't care much for it because a zombie fired a gun and I didn't find it plausible that zombies' muscle coordination was that good.

Brocklandia wrote:

When Valentine's Day was imported into Japan, it was tweaked a bit to match their culture, and it became a day when a woman could express her interest in a man without having to say so out loud, simply by giving him chocolates. Nice!.

But there's also a culture of reciprocal gifts in Japan. That caused Valentine's Day celebrations to evolve into March 14 being "White Day"--the color of purity and sugar--during which men who were given chocolates by women can then return the favor by giving them an even better gift in exchange. Does that mean Valentine's Day in Japan and parts of Asia now spans two months from start to finish? Well, technically yes.

But South Korea goes even further. And if you're asking yourself, "Why? And how?" then I'm happy to explain. April 14 is "Black Day," the day during which all the lonely single men who didn't get Valentine's chocolates go out and eat black noodles together and commiserate. Yes, indeed!--That's a quarter of the year spent dealing with Valentine's Day and its fallout. And, no, I'm not making this up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Day_(South_Korea)

So happy Black Day Eve to all the desperately lonely people. Woo-hoo! Please identify yourselves publicly tomorrow by eating out.

I love White Day because it makes Valentine's Day so optimistic. Then White Day comes along and you see how disappointed women are. Then they're easy pickings. ;)

Haven't heard of Black Day though. Interesting.

Morocco mole wrote:

I feel sorry for all the octopuses that have to die to make those black noodles.

They're disgusting. The ink, that is. I'm sure octopuses are quite nice, though probably less so once they learn to speak to us. I think they'd probably chew us out for all the sushi.

Gates of horn and ivory wrote:

What a strange time to be living through, though... I hear folks saying the lockdown will be only a couple more weeks, but I find that hard to believe. What's the situation like where you're all at?

They've already lifted it in my city. Now we wait...

At least my job is being more careful and isn't mandating that we return yet. Now I just have to suspiciously watch my neighbors (who petitioned that we reopen the pool in the middle of the lockdown) and everyone at the grocery store.

Occasionally, Max Barry's book shows up on the side with snippets from reviewers. I don't really pay attention to it, but every once in a while I swear I see one that says "Jeffrey Dahmer" and I've already clicked to another page before it registers in my mind to look.

Mother's Day! It's a day when we can celebrate our moms, which a substantial proportion of the world would consider a pretty good holiday. Anna Jarvis thought so too. She invented the day. Her own mom had wanted everyone to take a day off to celebrate motherhood, and Anna loved her so much that when Momma passed away in 1908, Anna began lobbying for a national holiday for mothers, as a tribute to her own. And in 1914, she got her wish, when the President named the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day. Success! But, turns out, only briefly.

Turns out, Anna hated how commercial Mother's Day immediately became: the flowers, the cards, the chocolates ... Oops! She got really cranky about all of that, saying things like: "A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment." She declared that those who commercialized it were charlatans, bandits, racketeers, and "termites." Then she was removed from an American War Mothers meeting for raging against their Mother's Day fundraising carnations. After that, she tried to have the whole holiday cancelled.

She went broke and was committed to a sanitarium, where she eventually died, never knowing the bill for her stay was covered by a grateful Florists Exchange.

So, yeah--wow. Happy Mother's Day, everybody!