After an evening of visiting with old friends and crashing at their house, I wake up Sunday morning rather late. Oh! Bad houseguest! When I go downstairs I find Siegfried and Roy watching CNN.
They say, "Good morning! We're glad you got some sleep. Reagan died."
"Really?"
"Yeah. We might get a day off!" They are awfully cheery.
"Why?" I ask.
"Well, when Nixon died they closed the federal government on the day of his funeral. For mourning," Roy explains. Both of them are federal employees, I should add.
"Oh yeah, like you guys mourned for Nixon. You probably mourned that he couldn't die twice so you'd get a second day off."
"Hey, you might get a day off too since you're interning with a federal agency."
Now that gets my attention. The boys spend the rest of the day obsessively checking their civil servant "What's New" site to see when this hypothetical day off will occur and reminding themselves that the site won't be updated till Monday.
I hear on the news this morning that Bush has declared a federal day of mourning. Unsatisfied with one day off, the Congress decides to spend the rest of the week "eulogizing Reagan," which I take to mean "blowing off work except to show up for a couple hours and make a speech." But at least Siegfried and Roy get their day off and it is announced during the internship orientation that even we lowly microbes in the federal system get a paid day off too.
Your tax dollars at work. Only not.
261 words | June 7, 2004 08:20 PM | Real true story