Monday, February 18, 2013

Presidents Day

Is it Presidents Day today? Officially we are celebrationg George Washington's birthday, which was February 22, 1732. So is it President's Day with or without the apostrophe? Common usage says its OK not to use the apostrophe, since we now use nouns as adjectives anyway. But the dictionary and word historians say it should be Presidents' Day, even though legally and officially it is only Washington's birthday. Lincoln's Birthday was never a federal holiday, though many states celebrated it and all the car dealerships have commercials with both Lincoln and Washington. Four US presidents have birthdays in February: Lincoln, Feb. 12, Washington, Feb. 22, William Henry Harrison, Feb. 9, and Ronald Reagan, Feb. 6. So I conclude that Macy's is correct when the advertise their sale as
Presidents' Day One Day Sale.

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