work

Monday is Wednesday, yet still Monday

I’m taking a four-day weekend starting this Thursday, so I tried to convince myself that today was actually Wednesday. The real Wednesday will be my Friday, so it’s almost, kind of true, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that it was still Monday.

Lots of work to do, which is both good and bad, but I think I’m at a spot with this current project where it’s mostly good. Just a lot of things to wrangle, while also continuing to work on unrelated projects. I spent a large part of the day consolidating reviews, weighing the necessity of sharing some of the comments with the authors — that kind of thing. I’ll probably do more of the same, only different, tomorrow.

Which I think I might have a little more luck convincing myself is Thursday, but we’ll see.

Third Satur…okay, Sunday

Not an especially exciting day here today, despite the once again obscenely nice weather. It cooled down considerably this evening, but for most of the day it was no-jacket-required.

Beyond finishing the Sunday crossword — a cakewalk compared to, say, Thursday’s puzzle — I didn’t do a whole lot. I joined my friend Maurice for our weekly writing group, although we managed to spend several hours actively not writing, but instead talking. We talked about writing some, which has got to count for something, but we also talked about television and plagiarism and all sorts of fun topics.

And that’s really about it for today. I have a short week starting tomorrow, working just Monday through Wednesday, and then I have the same thing the week after thanks to Thanksgiving. After that, I will have to go back to my regular work schedule for several weeks…until the last two weeks of December, which I’m taking off in their entirety.

Next year, maybe I’ll use my vacation days to go somewhere. This year, they’re pretty much just getting turned into long weekends and an extended end-of-the-year break.

A day of doubtful etymology

The Forgotten English word for today is “dowlk,” which is “a word of doubtful etymology, but signifying the downy plumage of a bird.”

Of course, as everybody knows, the plumage doesn’t enter into it.

I had to work, despite the Veteran’s Day holiday, but I’m taking tomorrow off as part of a just-for-the-heck-of-it three-day weekend. Our office is just a block from 5th Avenue (and the New York Public Library), so we’re pretty close to every holiday’s parade route — today’s included. The photo up above is actually from a few blocks further uptown, maybe around 50th and 5th, but it was a beautiful day for a parade.

And, honestly, if anyone’s deserving of it, it’s certainly our veterans.

French dog?

According to my Forgotten English desk calendar, today is Lord Mayor’s Day, which

is a great holiday in [London]. The populace is particularly rowdy, turning into lawless freedom the great liberty it enjoys. At these times it is almost dangerous for an honest man, and more particularly for a foreigner, if at all well dressed to walk in the streets, for he runs a great risk of being insulted by the vulgar populace. He is sure of not only being jeered at, but as likely as not dead dogs and cats will be thrown at him…When the people see a well-dressed person in the streets, especially if he is wearing a braided coat, a plume in his hat, or his hair tied in a bow, he will without doubt be called “French dog” twenty times perhaps before he reaches his destination.

It’s almost a relief, then, that practically nothing happened here today. Mostly just work, and lots of it.