mayday may day!

It depends on who you ask, but the first of May is a day that involves either dancing around a pole or celebrating the proles.

I didn't even know -- until I checked the above Wikipedia entry -- that this day is purportedly observed as Loyalty Day here in the USA. Granted, you can't trust anything on Wikipedia (the article also said that the number of "endangered" African elephants has actually been doubling every year) but the explanation sounded reasonable enough:

The holiday was first observed in 1921[1] as "Americanization Day,"[2] and was intended to counterbalance the celebration of the Labour Day on May Day — May 1, which was perceived as communist.

Looks like the Commie pinkos wanted to have their day for the working class (the whole thing apparently started as a pre-Christian European pagan holiday anyway). I suppose this kind of fervent nationalism was still en vogue back then, especially shortly after the first World War. Although, for a modern reader, there is something a bit unsettling about a Loyalty Day "for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom".

You have to wonder how many folks were still celebrating Loyalty Day on May 1st, 1930 -- after feeling the wrath of a free market.

Incidentally, this logo will have a second part tomorrow that should encompass all the lessons of an introductory poli-sci class. I suspect this series will find its way into classroom texts for generations to come.

(And yes, I know the Cyrillic is fake. I never professed to know Russian, it just looks prettier this way.)