A: Not as smart as I’d like to think..
The other day I came across a folder in Dr. Lovett’s papers that I’d seen before but never roused myself to look in. For whatever reason this time the title struck me as funny: “Announcements — Official.” Official announcements, you say?! I must know what these are!
They turned out to be quite revealing, notices that got posted on the bulletin board in the Sallyport, where they would be sure to be seen and seen quickly. The date range was wide, from the teens all the way through the 1940s. Many of them had holes in their corners where they’d been pinned.
Most of them, even those with new information, were easy to understand but I was befuddled by this one:
Wh–? This makes no sense. Everybody knows that Texas Independence Day is March 2 and San Jacinto Day is April 21st! In my wonderment I showed it to a much brighter colleague who just looked at it and said: “Easter Monday.” And indeed, Easter Sunday in 1934 was on April 1st.
On the plus side, I have room for improvement.
Bonus:
If it had been posted on April 1, it could have been an ‘April Fool’ ha-ha.
Perhaps I should have typed
:… an April Fool Ha-Ha” to show my intent.
Easter Monday was my first guess too. For most of the last century, students were not rewarded with a full week spring break where they could jet to Vail or Cancun with their friends. They were given five days off over Easter weekend to be with their families. Thursday and Monday were often used as travel days.
Actually, you give yourself too little credit. Seems like it would be incredibly easy to create an official-looking notice like that for anyone with access to a similar typewriter, and that would have been a very plausible Rice-ish April Fool’s prank. But Steve’s post above makes me wonder — were Thursday and Friday already announced as holidays? Or was the only day off Monday? Rice has certainly not always had Good Friday as a holiday in my time here.