Veterans Day gives Americans the opportunity to celebrate the bravery and sacrifice of all U.S. veterans. However, many Americans confuse this holiday with Memorial Day.
A Brief History of Veterans Day
Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.'” As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.
In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress — at the urging of the veterans service organizations — amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
In 1968, the Uniform Holiday Act ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.
Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.
Redwood logging in 1946. Dangerous work. [Found here.]
Hypnotizing art “installations.”
Maxim Zhestkov (b.1985, Russia) is a media artist and director whose practice centres around the influence of digital media on shifting the boundaries of visual language.
He grew up in a small town on the Volga river named Ulyanovsk. From childhood, Maxim was fascinated by art, physics and computers which led him to university, where he studied architecture and fine art.
I’m kinda in an odd mood, change of the seasons, sun angles and all, so let’s roll with it.
“Psychotic Reaction” by The Count Five, peaked at No. 5 in 1966 on the Billboard Hot 100. Classic garage band / early psychedelic rock. Since then it’s been covered by a number of indy/punk/rock bands, including this one by The Cramps in 1983:
Meh. I can do without that, but this one’s not too bad:
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers probably did the best cover of ‘”Psychotic Reaction” in 1991, preserved the soul of the original.
The intro is cool, song starts at 2:20.
Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more stuff and stuff.
“I saw a sign that said, ‘NEXT REST AREA 25 MILES.’ I said, “That’s pretty big.”
Steven Wright was/is/will be pure awesome, and your pastor never has to block Wright’s commentaries from his 12 year old daughter either. Heavy duty clean comedy.
Ten Years After was (is) one of my favorite blues-rock bands before I knew what blues-rock was. Those English whiteboys played it nasty.
Next up is Edgar Winter, one of the whitest of the white boys, playing one of the biggest instrumental rock hits ever. Personally I liked his brother Johnny‘s stuff better, but so what.
Now about Rick Derringer…
Okay, I’m going to roll the dice and ask you loyal followers an honest question. What was your favorite song / band when you were 20 years old? Leave your answers in the comments below. I’ll try not to cringe.
Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll do more stuff tomorrow.
Amazing. The contents of clay cylinders found during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800BC, and these guys in Nablus are still doing it the ancient way, by hand. Why?
Nice animation that must have taken a while to make [via].
Fishing with John (with Japanese subtitles). From the Utoobage comments: “The problem with other fishing shows is that they are too polished, too normal. And they don’t have enough Tom Waits.”
I don’t know what Fishbone was yammering about here, but I like the vibe.
As long as a tune was good, I never paid much attention to lyrics, but sometimes, years later, I found that the songs I liked a lot weren’t about what I thought they were about at all.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for stuff.
