Jul 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Three Day Weekend Reform
Let me say that I’ve really enjoyed this rare Friday-off three day weekend. I think it’s been a lot more fun than your traditional Monday-off three dayer. I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays. But whatever the reason, I think we should formalize the switch, eliminate our “observed on Monday” national holidays and shift them to Fridays.
37 Responses to “Three Day Weekend Reform”
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July 5th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I will take this under consideration when forming the policies put forth by my new political party, the Holiday Party which will be founded on the promise of a lot more holidays.
Kidding aside few realize that in 1960, in the Midwest anyway, you could not go shopping on Sunday. Virtually no stores were open on Sunday. Gas stations, before C stores, and perhaps small groceries in urban hell holes were open. That’s it, along with some restaurants. Sunday was the Christian day of rest and people took it seriously and make no mistake about it, there was a religious aspect to it. There was a strong ethic against working and making money on the Lord’s Day.
The fading of the strictures against Sunday work and Sunday commerce was a significant social and economic shift which for some reason has be totally forgotten. Not the least among our Christians. Weird.
July 5th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
This may be the best post Matt has ever written.
July 5th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
You might be obsessing about about a relatively easy job. I recommend you kiss a girl. And why doesn’t your bullshit detector go off when you write about how we all “psychologically feel”? Do you really want to write this sentence over and over again for the rest of eternity: I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.I think it’s the difference between a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Saturdays and a weekend that psychologically feels like it has two Sundays.
You’re a nice guy. Go out for coq au vin and get drunk. Being light isn’t being funny. Have you read Kharms?
July 5th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
And though I live in New York where almost everything is open, I still feel the boredom of Sundays weighing down on me in a 3-day week-end.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
The fading of the strictures against Sunday work and Sunday commerce was a significant social and economic shift which for some reason has be totally forgotten. Not the least among our Christians. Weird.
OT: In case you haven’t noticed, the practice of Christianity has become as postmodern as everything else. That is to say, the importance of displaying the signifiers (e.g., calling oneself a Christian) far outweighs the dedication to the things signified (following the teachings of Jesus.)
July 5th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
“OT: In case you haven’t noticed, the practice of Christianity has become as postmodern as everything else.”
Off-topic even to your comment, but I’d argue that the practice of Christianity got postmodern quite a few years ago…
July 5th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I don’t disagree, but I also like having the 4-day workweek after the holiday instead of before– makes getting back on track a bit more bearable.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I could not disagree more. If I have a three day weekend that has a Monday off, I get to enjoy the week leading up to the three day weekend (yay! a three day weekend is coming up) and the following week (yay! a 4 day week). If it’s on a Friday the week leading up to it is still nice (better) of course, but the next week kinda sucks.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Friday holidays rule. Who do we have to talk to, to make this happen? Let’s move that silly Thursday one in November, too.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Those who have to spend time cleaning up after drunks would disagree.
Although there are some people who have no qualms about getting blackout drunk on Sundays, the Thursday night/Fri/Sat/ drunkfest is much worse than that Friday night/Sat/Sun bender.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Re: Off-topic even to your comment, but I’d argue that the practice of Christianity got postmodern quite a few years ago…
Petey,
Just what do you mean? The First Council of Nicaea was guided by the Spirit, and was necessary in order to refute Arianism. It had solid roots in scripture, tradition, and reason. As it is said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So I say again, just what was postmodern about Nicaea? The fact that assorted people from Muhammed to Jefferson have seen fit to resurrect the hoary error of Arius does not make it correct.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I came here to say exactly what Eamon said.
July 5th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Actually, I feel cheated of a rareholiday. We’ve summer hours, so Friday afternoon off. Factor in a little time wasted in the morning either at home or office, and poof: holiday made zero difference, except for thankfully clearing out New York, but it would do that anyway.
July 5th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
“Petey, Just what do you mean? The First Council of Nicaea was guided by the Spirit, and was necessary in order to refute Arianism. It had solid roots in scripture, tradition, and reason.”
The Nicene Creed is a quite postmodern solution to the problems that developed during the evolution of the Christian myth.
Jesus is simultaneously both god and god’s son? Monotheism with multiple gods? That’s some tasty postmodernism. The First Council of Nicaea created the first religion that was actually swallowed up by its own meta-ness.
It’s pretty impressive stuff. It’s half real postmodernism and half Sokol-style gibberish postmodernism.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Petey,
Just because a concept is too complex to be grasped by human reason does not make that concept ‘postmodern’. The human reason can’t fully grasp how light can be simultaneously a wave and a particle. But it’s a fact, for all that. Nothing postmodern about it.
The Trinity is literal truth, as summed up in the Creed of St. Athanasius.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Horrible idea, as Eamon (#8) explains perfectly. Sorry to be so dismissive, but really Matt you should know better.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Felt more like two Thursdays to me.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
“The human reason can’t fully grasp how light can be simultaneously a wave and a particle. But it’s a fact, for all that. Nothing postmodern about it.”
The postmodernism moment is, reasonably directly, a response to Einstein.
And the Nicene Creed nicely anticipates that moment.
“The Trinity is literal truth”
As stated, the trinity is actually a pretty elegant solution to the basically insoluble problems that developed during the evolution of the Christian myth, albeit at the cost of plunging the religion down a path of obscurantism.
But “literal truth”? You religious nuts really don’t understand religion very well.
Books written by the children of god aren’t the word of god. They are the words of the children of god. There is a big difference between the two. If you read the Christian myth, you’ll note that Jesus gets confused a lot and changes his mind a lot. That’s how it works for us children of god. The stuff we write isn’t the “literal truth” of the word of god.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Friday vs Monday is kind of immaterial compared to the real issue: Independence Day should be the first Monday in July instead of arbitrarily fixed on July 4. That way it would be a 3 day weekend every year instead of only 2/7.
That goes double for Christmas.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Actually its not the psychology its that you had a four day work week followed by a 3 day weekend rather than a 5 day week followed by a 3 day weekend. The bad news is that it will be folloed by a 5 day week rather than a 4 day one. Tell us if you still feel this way on friday.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
You can do the same thing with Friday off, just in the reverse order: “Yay, a 4 day week!” followed by “Yay, a 3 day weekend!”.
Granted you have to keep a Monday, but when you have a Monday off Tuesday just becomes de facto Monday anyway, so it’s not really an issue.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Not to worry. We’ll have the 4-day workweek soon. Oh, excuse me, I have to get to this work email.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Also Friday off is better at breaking expectations, and breaking expectations is what makes holidays fun. Many workplaces let people out early on work days before holidays for the same reason. If they just let people come in later on the workday following the holiday it just wouldn’t be the same.
July 5th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Petey,
We aren’t the children of God, we are His creatures. Made (in this specific case, through the long process of biological evolution) as opposed to begotten. And I believe that when St. John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” he was inspired by the Holy Spirit and we can trust what he had to say. Likewise for the bishops at Nicaea. God really is One Godhead in Three Persons. No postmodernism about it.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
“We aren’t the children of God”
You’re going to get excommunicated if you keep talking like that, Hector.
“when St. John said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” he was inspired by the Holy Spirit”
Sure. I agree with you that he was inspired by the holy spirit when he said that. The problem is that when Matthew says Michael Bay is a good director, he is also inspired by the holy spirit. In fact, everything any one of us humans says is inspired by the holy spirit. But lots of the things we say disagree with the lots of the other things we say.
This is the circle that the Council of Nicaea was making a valiant effort to square. It’s an elegant deconstruction, but it doesn’t really solve much.
(And FWIW, I think John was less confused about the word than Matthew is about Michael Bay.)
July 5th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
John Haber is right that for many New Yorkers, and others, a Friday holiday in Summer is redundant. I too am a member of the Summer-Fridays Class, though most New Yorkers, and most Americans, are not.
But there’s something Civicky [sic] about a statutory holiday that minimizes rather than accentuates class differences (I know, the Summer-Friday does not map precisely to economic/social class, but it’s not a blue collar/working-poor phenomenon).
Members of the Summer-Fridays Class (and their secretaries and production assistants, but rarely the janitors who clean their offices) lose out a bit with Friday off instead of Monday. But an extra dollap of egalitarianism for Independence Day is probably a good thing on balance.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I wonder how to explicate “and the Word was God” without at least 2 persons in the godhead. The Holy Spirit’s a tricky addition conceptually, but there’s nothing post-modern about any of it. You’ve expanded “post-modern” to mean anything inexplicable. Our own time isn’t the first to be baffled by the universe.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Petey,
Who the F*ck is Michael Bay?
July 5th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
“Who the F*ck is Michael Bay?”
Wikipedia is your friend, Hector.
July 5th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Jesus is simultaneously both god and god’s son? Monotheism with multiple gods? That’s some tasty postmodernism. The First Council of Nicaea created the first religion that was actually swallowed up by its own meta-ness. – Petey
I dear friend of mine is a conservative Catholic who is also an academic reasonably down with post-modernism. I think I might share this with him: he’ll probably say something about this being why Christianity is the one true faith — how many other faiths have been swallowed up by their own meta-ness?
July 5th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
God really is One Godhead in Three Persons. No postmodernism about it. – Hector
I’d think you were one or other of my Catholic friends/colleagues from the non-virtual world, except instead of saying “No postmodernism about it”, they’d say something to the effect of “see, the post-modernists who think they are all novel are not: so-called post-modernism is really over 1000 years old. As Koheleth said, ‘there is nothing new under the sun’”
July 5th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Three-day weekends suck. They just make it all that much harder to go back to work, whether on a Monday or Tuesday. Having a Wednesday off, now that’s the life. It breaks up the workweek very nicely.
July 5th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
This is why moderate Dems like Yglesias and his ilk suck. They spend their time thinking about the relative psychological value and relative effeciency of Monday vs Friday holiday.
Liberals spend their time trying to get the rest of us additional mandated holidays and more paid vacation.
July 6th, 2009 at 6:36 am
Re: That way it would be a 3 day weekend every year instead of only 2/7.
Actually, that’s 4/7 because when the holiday falls on Saturday or Sunday we still get a three day weekend with Friday or Monday off.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:17 am
In addition to the fine points raised in #8, I’d like to add that having Friday off screws you out of the casual dress day for the week. While I’d certainly rather be off than at work in jeans, I’d also rather be at work in jeans on Friday knowing that I don’t have to come back until next Tuesday.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:18 am
@Peter: “Having a Wednesday off, now that’s the life. It breaks up the workweek very nicely.”
Why do you hate America, Peter?
July 6th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Now I happen to like Monday off (not that I have anything against Friday off). When I have Monday off, Saturday feels like Saturday, Sunday feels like Sunday, and Monday is just an absolute gift of ANOTHER DAY OFF!
Yes, on Sunday it feels like I have to work Monday, but then Monday comes and WHAM! no work!
At one job we worked a 9/80 schedule – 9 hrs/day for 8 days of the two week cycle, one 8 hr day, and either every other Monday or every other Friday off. My coworker loved taking Fridays off for the same reason you gave. I liked Monday. It worked for both of us.
I recommend more research be done. I hereby volunteer to take one Friday and one Monday off each month for the next 18 years. I will dutifully document how I feel each day off for the researchers to review. One problem – a population of one will not make for a good study. We may need other volunteers.