Saturday, February 16: Do a Grouch a Favor Day

It's not necessarily easy to do a grouch a favor. One is not always highly motivated to be nice to grouches, and grouches are not always receptive even to acts of kindness. Nevertheless, most of the Usual Suspects agree that Saturday, February 16 is Do a Grouch a Favor Day.

Proceed at your own risk.

Usual Suspect Brownielocks.com is among those who offers Innovation Day as an alternative microminiholidayette for Saturday. We didn't know innovation could be scheduled, but someone thinks so.

Saturday is also the 110th anniversary of the birth of legendary ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (born in Chicago on February 16, 1903). Radio was the perfect medium for Bergen: You couldn't see his lips move when Charlie McCarthy or Mortimer Snerd talked. But, whatever his technical shortcomings as a ventriloquist, Bergen's characters, especially Charlie McCarthy, became real enough to millions of Americans. If Bergen's lips moved, who cared? He made Charlie talk, and we loved to listen.

Charlie McCarthy, Marilyn Monroe and Edgar Bergen. Photo obtained here.

And, since you are reading this online, you probably ought to know that Saturday is a red-letter day in the development of the technology we so take for granted today. On February 16, 1978, 35 years ago, in Chicago, Illinois, the very first computer bulletin board service, CBBS, was established. Originally "a computerized answering machine and message center, which would allow members to call in with their then-new modems and leave announcements for upcoming meetings," computer bulletin boards developed into all the team productivity tools and time wasting blogs we enjoy today.