
By Dorothy Rosby
By Dorothy Rosby
National Thank a Mail Carrier Day is February 4, Childcare Provider Day is May 10 and International Sword Swallowers Day is February 28—really. I found all three on a lengthy list of profession-related holidays. And why not? There are days set aside to honor, among many other things, penguins, ugly sweaters and oatmeal nut waffles so it’s only fair that hardworking people have a day too.
Incidentally, it makes perfect sense that International Sword Swallowers Day lands in February because February is National Swallowing Disorders Month. If a sword down the throat isn’t a disorder, I don’t know what is. I was relieved to read that the events associated with the day help raise money for the treatment of sword swallowers who’ve been injured in the course of their work. Maybe they can’t claim worker’s compensation.
Forgive me. I’m getting off track. The holiday I really want to focus on is National Columnists’ Day which is coming up on April 18. We columnists definitely deserve a day of our own even if writing a column isn’t quite as risky as being a sword swallower or a childcare provider.
It does take courage to write a column though. Not so much for me. I mainly write about my own faults and foibles and nobody ever disagrees with me about those. Actually I wouldn’t mind if they did sometimes.
But some columnists face hostility for writing things others disagree with or don’t want made public. Now that I think about it, I may have come down a little hard on oligarchs and big pharma CEOs in the past, but that wasn’t too risky since they probably don’t read my column anyway.
By the way, there’s no special day set aside for oligarchs and big pharma CEOs. That’s probably because every day is their day. But they do bring to mind another profession-related holiday I saw on the list. Rat-Catcher’s Day is June 26. I swear I’m not making that up.
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