Monday, February 20, 2012

Presidents' Day, Family Day

In the United States it is Presidents' Day*. In parts of Canada, it is Family Day**. What would Mary think? She preferred presidents to monarchs, and family to both. She made her own family in Newington Green, with gentle Frances and rescued sister.

Does anyone want to start a campaign for a Mary Wollstonecraft Day? It doesn't have to start off as a worldwide paid day off. It could be like Apple Day, which is not sponsored by the Apple Marketing Board, or Apple Corp. (Aside: I saw a "Sent from my iPhone" at the end of a message, except it was space-curtailed. The truncated version said "Sent from my iPho". For a second my brain misfired. "What? Steve Jobs's ghost is serving Vietnamese soup? Someone has to tell them when to stop!")

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*Wikipedia has two whole paragraphs about the apostrophe issue. 
I decree a LOVE YOUR PEDANTS DAY.

**Same day, different name in Manitoba: Louis Riel Day. 
Best Tshirt spotted in Toronto: portrait of the rabble-rouser, captioned Keepin' it Riel. 

Photo of Riel is in the public domain, see here.

4 comments:

  1. A Mary Wollstonecraft Day is a great idea. Her birthday?

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    1. Sure, why not! April 27 is fine by me. Will you start the campaign?

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  2. I would love to support such a campaign and help to start it. Where I live I and a few others established a 'day' over the years (www.denpoezie.cz - begun in 1999 and over time taken hold)so I know it can be done with much fervour and little or no money. But I am rather distant and could only support virtually, plus this year's birthday is looming and around it a clot of commitments for me (am helping to organise some events at a book fair just then e.g. to say nothing of the end of term exams). So, in short, I am enthusiastic, but not able to spearhead anything beyond supporting a twitter campaign or similar this year. Would the Mary on the Green campaign be interested? It could be a nice campaign, even if it were only on the twitter level for the first year - and maybe connected to the anniversary of the publication of A Vindication. April 27th is also South Africa's Freedom Day and Togo and Sierra Leone have their Independence Day also, so an auspicious day.

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  3. Well, I used to know one of the people who created Apple Day -- not the Apple & Pear Farmers' Association, not the Steve Jobs Geek Fest, not the Beatles Fan Club, but Common Ground, a small British charity devoted to finding and appreciating the special in the local. Now Apple Day is celebrated all over the country (and even in Afghanistan). So I quite take your point, that it can be done, a day can be cut out of whole cloth, as it were.
    I think a lot can be done virtually -- maybe the whole idea of the day can be virtual, for the first year. Can you tell us a little about denpoezie? How did it arise, how did it evolve over the years, what is it now?

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