It is too bad for many it is just another day off. To AutoNationFordKaty.com’s ad in the Chron today it is the “Memorial Day Sale.” Same for HoustonJewelry.com on the front page of the Chron. I’ll give it to HEB for their full page ad on page A5 titled “Honoring Our Nations Heroes on Memorial Day” that includes a moving photo. Check out from Gray Matters today on page A2 from today’s Chron with the headline and the first part on Memorial Day here:
Is Memorial Day about grief, glory or hot dogs?
Memorial Day is one of America’s most confusing holidays. Depending on the celebrant, it can be a day of grief, glory—or backyard barbecues.
It’s not a bad thing to have such disparate takes on a day of remembrance. And don’t worry: You’re not a bad person if you choose to sit back and enjoy your day off. But sometimes it pays to think about why we get the day off in the first place and ponder the mysterious forces that bind hot dogs, tears, and flags all together.
Decoration Day, as the holiday was once known, arose in the years after the Civil War as a way to grieve for the 750,000 soldiers who had perished over four bloody years. Families who stifled their mourning during wartime sought public ways to pay tribute to the fallen in peacetime. Understandably, graves become a focus for the bereaved, and mourners took flowers to cemeteries to decorate them.
This practice first received semi-official sanction in 1868 when General John Alexander Logan, the head of a large fraternal organization of Union veterans, designated a day each year “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” Southerners didn’t take too kindly to this initial effort, but by 1890 all the Northern states had recognized the holiday.
Here is the entire article: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Is-Memorial-Day-about-grief-glory-or-hot-dogs-7948030.php.
I am skipping the MLB question today.
It is the Memorial Day weekend and the Chron E-Board decided to address the Heights’ wet/dry issue. Cheers to this huge public policy issue. Here is a part:
Still, we hope this proposal for a limited rollback of Prohibition in the Heights succeeds, because this area’s booze ban has pointlessly shackled retailers and inconvenienced consumers who don’t even drink.
These antiquated restrictions on alcoholic beverage sales are a major reason why some people who live in the Heights have to drive out of their way to buy groceries. Beer and wine sales are a crucial source of income for grocers, an industry scraping by – according to data from the New York University Stern School of Business – on net profit margins of less than 2 percent. Although a comparatively small Kroger store survives in the Heights without beer and wine sales, expanding supermarket chains have conspicuously opened new stores outside the boundaries of the Heights.
The people lobbying to change these restrictions have 60 days to gather 1,500 signatures from Heights residents. If they succeed, the referendum would appear on the same ballot as the upcoming presidential election, which would pretty much guarantee a high voter turnout and raise the likelihood the proposition would pass.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Raise-a-glass-7950466.php.
I wonder if the Chron is going to assign a reporter to cover this issue between now and November?
I didn’t know they could do this. Check this from the Chron:
Kirby Ice House has been open for only a few months but has recently decided to restrict service to those 23 years of age and up.
“We have received feedback from clientele over the past month and a half and over much deliberation, decided that this was the best decision for Kirby Ice House and our patrons moving forward,” the bar wrote on its official Facebook page.
And:
“We fully understand that this may cause some backlash and that everyone will not be on board, but we ask that you take into consideration how much we value our customers and aim to be a neighborhood bar for many years to come,” the business added in its post.
It’s not unheard of for drinking establishments to restrict younger, inexperienced drinkers from bellying up to the bar. Some bars are of the mind that those who have just turned legal drinking age can be disruptive to other patrons.
Oh, well.
The good news is that it was worth watching nearly five hours of ‘Stros baseball yesterday as we pulled one out in 13 innings. The bad news is that Carlos Gomez is likely to rejoin the team tomorrow. I sure hope he has his game back. Stay tuned!
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