Bugger Off!!

Is there is a committee which sanctions special days of the year? I mean, who decided that today is National Grouch Day? Not that I disagree with the intention, but I don't remember being consulted, nor did I ever read about anyone else being consulted on this.

If it is simply a matter of someone coming up with the idea and ipso facto it becomes, say, National Esperanto Day or National Smile Month, why not create our own observances, the more bizarre the better?

Here, due to a 1920s-style prohibition policy or our stultified municipal council, the year 2007 has official become the de facto Year of the Bootlegger. I'd imagine it would have a contest to see who can bid the most ludicrous amount of money for a hip flask (12 fl. oz or 375 ml) of booze. I wonder if they could outdo the outlandish $500 vodka was fetching this summer, and that for a bottle which retails for under $12.

In one of his more grouchy moments, Einstein observed that you can't use the same thinking to solve a problem as caused the problem in the first place. But here, as Marx predicted, history is repeating itself, only as farce.

Anyone notice how easily I've adopted the spirit of the day?