American Chess Day. A noble game — the Game of Kings. A game of strategy, of concentration, of being able to think multiple moves ahead and to outthink your opponent. And far beyond my capabilities. On the other hand, give me a Scrabble board and my killer instincts come to life.

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World Letter Writing Day. Good luck with that one. I remember the days of writing — in longhand — pages and pages of heartfelt sentiments, my deepest personal thoughts, and a whole lot of utter drivel. And always on beautiful stationery, boxes and boxes of stationery. Then carefully folded, placed in the matching envelope, sealed, addressed, and the postage stamp placed just so in the upper right corner. And when it was dropped into the mailbox the next morning, the wait began for a reply, watching for the postman’s arrival each day until at last . . . there it was!

That is now a thing of the past, except perhaps for the occasional birthday or condolence note, and then more often than not it’s a Hallmark card with a few words scribbled at the bottom. And the rest of the time, it’s an email or a text, written in some sort of code . . .

R U OK? IMHO. LMAO. TTFN. FU.

And that’s what’s called mail. Well, no . . . it isn’t. It’s a poor substitute, like shopping online instead of browsing through the stores; or reading an e-book instead of holding a leather-bound volume in your hands. Sometimes new is just new, and not necessarily better.

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National Chicken Month starts today, and it is just what you think it is: a celebration of the noble bird as it is meant to be enjoyed: roasted, fried, baked, broiled, barbecued, fricasseed, cordon bleu-ed, turned into nuggets, strips, soup, etc., etc., etc.

My grandmother once fed three of us from one chicken for three days, a different recipe each time, and never tasting like leftovers. For a really stupid animal, it does provide a lot of pleasure.

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And then there is . . .

Emma M. Nutt Day. Okay, go ahead and ask: “Who the hell is Emma M. Nutt?

Well, she was a telephone operator. But not just any telephone operator; she was the first female to hold that position when, on September 1, 1878, she began working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Despatch [sic] Company in Boston, Massachusetts. The company had had bad luck with the young boys they had hired — behavioral problems, for the most part — and so they hired Emma and later some other women, including her sister.

Emma stayed on the job for somewhere between 33 and 37 years (the dates are uncertain). Since she died in 1915 at the age of 54 or 55, she spent most of her life at that switchboard.

It is said that she was paid a salary of $10 per month (!) for a 54-hour week. Her Wikipedia bio doesn’t give a cause of death, but I’m guessing it was either overwork or insanity — it was reported that she had memorized every number in the New England Telephone Company’s telephone directory.

And with that, we look forward to tomorrow, September 2nd — which this year is Labor Day.

Enjoy,

Brendochka
9/1/24