Citizenship Day

Today is Citizenship Day according to my pal, Big Mick.

If Big Mick is the source of any information then it's a good idea to check the facts. He's a big-shot, know-it-all Pittsburgh lawyer with a questionable political compass, and he's most famous for endless tirades of trivia that put me right to sleep. The only reason I talk to him at all is he usually buys my drinks - and he's definitely buying now after all this free advertising.

Big Mick's Citizenship Day announcement was almost more useless bar trivia: a federal holiday with no parade, the banks were open, mail was delivered - what's the big deal? But the beauty of this day is the simplicity. It's merely a time to acknowledge American citizenship, be it by birth or naturalization.

The images to the left are from my great-grandmother's copy of "Federal Textbook on Citizenship - On the Way to Democracy". I know it's her book because she wrote her name in pencil on the cover, just like any child in school would do. Except she was a 64 year old grandmother in 1942.  The workbook is comprised of one page chapters on topics such as The Right to Govern and The Convention of 1787, and then a series of simple questions about the information in the chapter. It would be almost impossible for a student not to ace the questions because the answers are at the top of each page. Pretty easy, right?

Great-grandmother Angelina never learned English - she could have been taking the LSATs for all she knew. My guess is one or more of her children helped her cheat her way through the test so she could get the dang naturalization certificate and hang it on her wall. It was WWII, for cryin' out loud. No time to be an Italian citizen in America.

So today, in addition to my own citizenship, I'm taking time to remind myself about Angelina's path.

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School

Rabbit, rabbit

I have a friend, I'll call her Karen*. On the first day of every month she plays a game with her sister and brother on Facebook where one posts "rabbit, rabbit" very early in the morning, and then is immediately cussed out by the other two. The whole game appears to be over before 6 am, forgotten until the first day of the next month when the sibling rivalry is born again.

I don't get it either.

In my family we play for something more than just bragging rights. Like money. I just figured Karen's* game was some sort of small town weirdness. But today I remembered that I really dig small town weirdness and took to the interwebs to figure out what the heck was going on. Turns out "rabbit, rabbit" is a superstition of unknown English origin, possibly dating back to the 1800's. If a person says "rabbit, rabbit" first thing in the morning, on the first day of the month, he will have good luck for the rest of the month. There are variations of the charm: saying "white rabbit" or the speaker must still be in bed. Not much else to report - vague beginning, middle and end, which is pretty much want you want out of a good superstition.

Poor Karen*. I fear she will never win Rabbit, rabbit - and if her unladylike language after her loss this morning is any indication she also has doubts.

* You can call her Karen, too. Her name really is Karen.

What's so Lucky About A Four-Leaf Clover?
Claudia De Lys

Lightning Never Strikes Twice (If You Own a Feather Bed : and 1904 Other American Superstitions from the Ordinary to the Eccentric)
Vergilius Ferm

Favorite Folktales from Around the World (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library)
Jane Yolen