Tuesday — I think — is like the black sheep in the family when it comes to the days of the week. At least Monday has the epic title as being the “weekend crusher,” the “back-to-the-grind” day. But Tuesday, sits there weeping, waiting for everyone just to show up.
Prior to “Taco Tuesday,” it had no notoriety at all.
The name is derived from many different sources, all of which are pretty boring. Tuesday gets its English name from the Old English Tiwesdæg. That turns into the Middle English Tewesday. And that mean’s “Tiw’s Day.”
Tiw was the Norse God of combat. Go, fight, win.
In some Slavic languages, Tuesday originates from an Old Church Slavonic word literally meaning “the second.” I won’t go into all the rest. They talk about Mars, and fire, and other planetary concepts. As a name, Tuesday is not very interesting either.
Yes, Tuesdays are blah days. If you were born on a Tuesday, I am sorry about that. But wait. They say Tuesday’s child is “full of grace.” I’m not sure how they mean that. Grace, like holy-grace? Or grace, like you don’t-trip-over-chairs grace? Either way, grace is a good thing for Tuesday.
You know. More job applications are submitted on Tuesdays than any other day of the week. I attribute this to two things, unfounded in any fact at all. My guesses. 1. The unemployed people partied way too hard on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and couldn’t their acts together on Monday to get their applications in. And 2. The currently-employed had such a crappy day on Monday that by Tuesday, they are looking for new jobs.
Some cultures think Tuesdays are unlucky. The bad day of the week. For instance, the Greeks. They consider Tuesday to be an unlucky day, as this was the day that Constantinople Fell. I won’t get into the reasons why Constantinople fell, but I’d say it wasn’t watching where it was going.
Those Greeks may be on to something here. October 29, 1929 was a Tuesday. It is one of the world’s most infamous days, known as Black Tuesday. This is the day of the Great Stock Market Crash. The crash that started the Great Depression, something both of my parents would talk about, in great length. A terrible time in history.
This next item can be seen as either lucky or unlucky, but Super Tuesday is the day on which many U.S. states choose to hold their Presidential primary elections. Take it for what you will.
There are some little oddities about Tuesdays, afloat in our culture. For instance, there was recently a nationwide study done about “cooking out,” or as some say, “barbecuing.” They found that Californian people are less likely to barbecue on a Tuesday than any other day of the week. California. No Burger Tuesdays.
And if anyone knows Bill Gates, we might want to ask him about this one. The second Tuesday of every month is commonly known as Patch Tuesday in Microsoft Land. This is the day of the month when the software mogul releases its technical fixes.
The Rolling Stones came out with the song Ruby Tuesday in 1967. The restaurant, Ruby Tuesday, was formed in 1996. I don’t know why they named the restaurant for the song, but the name was suggested to founder Sandy Beall, by Bob Hope. I never knew Bob Hope to be a big Stones fan. Go figure.
Tuesdays seem down-trodden if you ask me. I mean, let’s talk about Shrove Tuesday, the day that precedes the first day of Lent. People are supposed to confess their sins on Shrove Tuesday. But. More importantly, this day is also commonly known as Pancake Day. Tell your sins. Eat a pancake. Pass the syrup.
Truthfully, I’m not sure it could get any worse, until this.
Uranus was first discovered on a Tuesday by William Herschel on March 13, 1781.
You made it through Monday. Happy Tuesday.
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“We mark some days as fair, some as foul, because we do not see that the character of every day as identical”
― Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain
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“If a man has a great deal to put in them, a day will have a hundred pockets.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
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“My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks.”
― Henry David Thoreau
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