Tag Archives: Work

Shameless Self-Promotion

This morning I filled out a www.buzzfeed.com survey, “What Career Should You Actually Have?” I was pleased with the answer, Writer. I also took the survey, “What Kind of Dog Are You? and discovered I’m a Great Dane, and lastly, according to buzzfeed.com, I should live in Portland, Oregon. Overall, it’s pretty accurate, I write, I’m a big gal (though short in stature compared to a Great Dane) and my personality commands attention when I enter a room. Lastly, I live in Madison, Wisconsin which shares many similarities to Portland.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Signs of the Times

Friday night, I had the pleasure to attend Madison Central Library’s new Night Light free monthly event, this month’s program the film Sign Painters, produced, written and directed by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon.  Doors opened at 8:00 on the library’s third floor, home to a lobby gallery space and the community room, transformed into a 250 seat theater. Madison’s culinary star, Forequarter, served refreshments while the filmmakers signed copies of their book with the same title. The film was shown at 8:00, and the filmmakers and authors remained for a Q & A afterwards. In the audience were Madison’s own sign painters, commenting during the film in call and response form. Continue reading

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Labor Day: May Day in September

Today is Labor Day, the first Monday in September, the day President Grover Cleveland declared a national holiday in 1894. The Knights of Labor and the Central Labor Union organized the first labor parade in New York City in 1887 prior to the national holiday.  There had been efforts before to commemorate May 1st as a national holiday to celebrate American workers, but the tragic outcome of the Haymarket Massacre in 1886 made that date too volatile and controversial. On Tuesday, May 4, 1886 a peaceful rally by workers striking in support of an eight-hour workday was disrupted by a dynamite bomb thrown at police officers as they attempted to disperse the demonstrators.  Seven police officers, four civilians and dozens of protesters and bystanders were injured.  Again in 1894, following the Pullman Strike in Chicago with the death of workers by the U.S. Military and U.S. Marshals, Congress rushed legislation to make Labor Day in September a national holiday, a tribute to American workers.

Continue reading

Tagged , , , , ,