I Didn't Know This . . .

Way back when I was still in high school, the U.S. Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed, and I've always thought that the holiday we celebrate on the third Monday in February was to honor the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln and called Presidents Day. Not so. Officially, the federal holiday is Washington's Birthday. About a dozen states have officially renamed the holiday Presidents Day or Washington and Lincoln Day, a few others have a separate state holiday for Lincoln (California will frequently move it to the Friday before the federal holiday so they get a 4-day weekend), and the oddballs in Alabama take the holiday for George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Birthday - even though TJ was actually born on April 13. In New Mexico President's Day (with an apostrophe) is celebrated the Friday after Thanksgiving. It's all too confusing.

Mr. Washington also had a healthy respect for science and knowledge that somebody of late with the same first name who held that office seemed to be lacking:

Nor am I less persuaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. -- 1st Inaugural Address

There's a similar quote in his 2nd Inaugural address, also. On the positive side, we now have someone in the Oval Office who thinks more like Washington (and Jefferson, among a few others) in that regard. Given that U.S. students rank pretty poorly compared to the other "industrialized" countries, maybe we'll start to move up.