MLK

I received - actually, won in a game of Greed - a 2010 calendar from Despair, Inc. The truth is that no else else wanted it which was fine by me because I'm a big fan.

I wanted it for the office. I have a number of electronic calendars but just for ease of reference I like to have one on my wall. (My apologies to environmentalists.)

As it turns out, however, I'm going to miss the entire month of January at the office so I thought I had better crack open my new calendar so I could enjoy it at home during the last few weeks of the month.

It didn't fail to disappoint, right from the outset, to the point where I thought it might have been intentional. A few of the pages were stuck together as if someone had spilled something on it before it got shrink-wrapped.

After getting November un-stuck from December I turned the page to January where the caption reads,

Economics
The Science of Explaining Tomorrow Why The Predictions
You Made Yesterday Didn't Come True Today

I might mention here that I was an Economics major. Then again, I might not.

My second disappointment came when a little slip of paper fell from the calendar. It reads,

It should be no surprise that we at Despair, Inc. made a mistake in our calendar layout. Please accept our apologies and correct the placement of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January by applying this sticker over the appropriate date grids. The responsible parties at Despair were promptly fired upon the discovery of this error.

Turns out that was the reverse side of a sticker, the front side of which was a portion of the January calendar correctly laid out so that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day appears on the 18th not the 13th as was printed on the calendar.

So there you go. I'm thoroughly disappointed with the calendar.

Regarding Martin Luther King, Jr., I just saw the film Talk to Me about Petey Green, a radio personality in the DC area during the late 1960's and early 1970's. It's a good movie and would highly recommend it. The assassination of Dr. King is a poignant moment in the film. It captures the profound sorrow (as well as many other emotions) that people felt that day and the days that followed.


I think I remember the day he died. But I was only five so I was completely unaware of the significance.

I am now.