No, it's not Boxing Day today. The holiday hasn't raced past you while you glanced in the other direction (though it will, that's how time works). It is merely the due date for books checked out today.
So when I check anything out to anyone today at the library I say "These will be due on Boxing Day."
Why do I do this? This is Minnesota. We don't celebrate Boxing Day around here!
Well, my (early) Boxing Day gift to you is a beautiful, curated list of reasons why I am telling everyone their due date is Boxing Day.
Strap in, it's an amazingly long list (as measured against the amount of meaningful content it possesses).
Why I tell people their items are due on Boxing Day:
1. It's memorably quirky, and so perhaps my utterance will spark a recollection or two down the line at a crucial holiday moment that someone's library books are now due.
2. Out of curiosity. I'm testing the local community on how many people know what Boxing Day is. (Judging from the reaction, anywhere for 30 to 80% have heard of it, but I'm working tirelessly to narrow down my information on this some more- so far people's expressions aren't always as telling as one might think).
3. I just really have a thing for Boxing Day (See: http://www.clerkmanifesto.com/2019/12/boxing-day-2019.html).
4. You don't like the needy?
5. You don't like the British?
6. I just find something irresistibly humorous about how Boxing Day makes one picture two sweaty people sportingly punching each other, ala the sport of Boxing, even though it's really about simply giving people stuff (or, from the other point of view, getting stuff, occasionally sometimes in boxes).
7. I am pathetically desperate to extend the Christmas season in any way I can. (See: http://www.clerkmanifesto.com/2018/12/final-christmas-reflections.html).
8. It is an opening for discussing with library patrons the lore and history around Boxing Day, which, and this is probably for the best, isn't very long or complicated.
9. I love to hear people say "What?"
10. Because that is the date their books are due.
11. It's just another satisfying jab at those damn "War on Boxing Day" people! Am I even allowed to say "Happy Boxing Day" anymore?
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you were wondering, yes, you should comment. Not only does it remind me that I must write in intelligible English because someone is actually reading what I write, but it is also a pleasure for me since I am interested in anything you have to say.
I respond to pretty much every comment. It's like a free personalized blog post!
One last detail: If you are commenting on a post more than two weeks old I have to go in and approve it. It's sort of a spam protection device. Also, rarely, a comment will go to spam on its own. Give either of those a day or two and your comment will show up on the blog.