Esprit de corps

Happy Labor Day to all of you who are celebrating the national holiday today. Or to all of you, I should say, who even know why they've got a day off. In order to be self-righteous and make a comment like that, I needed to get my own Labor Day facts straight. So I looked the holiday up on Wikipedia--[the only source for information that is produced by your fellow layman, making it full of room for error, but truly democratic, and isn't that what counts]--and learned that the holiday was originally intended to celebrate "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" and was to be "followed by a festival for the workers and their families." Nowadays, of course, we generally celebrate with a pool party where those who really need the day off are treated to a day of serving us mojitos and emptying our ashtrays. But as long as we celebrate their strength and spirit as they move lounge chairs away from the barbeque smoke, I guess we've retained the dignity of the holiday. So, enjoy the remaining few hours of your day off, the last hoorahs of summer.