It’s Tuesday AND it’s November 4th

For the past 3 weeks Tuesday has held a special place in my heart. Why? Because Tuesday is the day of the week that I designated to write my blog. However, Tuesday is special to millions for so many other reasons. Tuesday marks Apple’s New Music Tuesday. DVDs are released on Tuesdays 99% of the time. The closeout retailer Tuesday Morning receives their weekly product shipment on Tuesday (morning).

But this Tuesday—today—is special for an entirely different reason. It is special because it’s Tuesday AND it’s November 4th.

Happy Birthday!
Let me take a brief moment to give a shout out to a few people who are celebrating their birthday today. Happy birthday to Alfred Heineken! (I know you won’t read this because you died in 2002 but your legacy of Dutch brew will be remembered by those whose disease has not progressed past the stage of irreversable cell damage and short-term memory loss.)

Happy birthday 1970s teen-aged heartthrob and martial art inspiration, Ralph Macchio, born in 1961.

And finally, Happy birthday to surfer-maverick extraordinaire, Matthew McConaughey. If this gloriously sweaty and half-naked specimin of a man isn’t enough to make you love Tuesdays that are also November 4th I don’t know what else will.

No Tuesdays Necessary
November 4th stands on its own, achieving historical greatness regardless of the day of the week. On November 4, 1922, the tomb of Tutankhamen was discovered in Egypt. On November 4, 1873, San Francisco dentist John Beers patented the gold crown. Thank you Dr. Beers! Twenty-eight years earlier in 1845 the first nationally observed uniform election day was held in the US. And in 1924 on this day, Nellie Tayloe Ross elected first US female governor in the state of Wyoming.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008
OK the real reason why today is so awesome is because today is election day! But it’s not just any election day. This is the first election in US history that an African American is a presidential nominee for a major party. One hundred and thirty eight YEARS after the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution granting blacks the “right to vote”* America is excited about the possibility of a black president. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “If polls prove correct, more white men will support this black Democrat [Barack Obama] than will have supported any of the white men who’ve been the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in three decades – even more than Bill Clinton, whom Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called the ‘first black president.’”

And that makes this day, Tuesday, November 4th, regardless of the election outcome, COMPLETELY AWESOME.

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One of the topics trending on Twitter right now (11-4-08, 2pm PST): Happy Obama Day!

*Despite the 15th Amendment, African Americans weren’t freely able to vote until the passing of the National Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which southern states had prevented African-Americans from exercising their right to vote. The Act also requires municipalities that receive requests for ballots in other languages to comply with the request, thereby protecting non-English speaking citizens.