General Nonsense of a Semi-Mad Scientist
By Keillan on 12-27-2007
Today is one of those odd holidays that no one knows about. It is Pearl Bailey Day, named for the renowned singer and actress. This is the twentieth anniversary of its creation.
The origin of this most peculiar of holidays came in 1988. On September 7 of that year, Vice-President George H.W. Bush, the Republican nominee for President, was giving a speech before a group of veterans, probably a VFW group. In his speech he mentioned that it was on this date in 1941 that Pearl Harbour was attacked by the Japanese. As himself a veteran of World War II, perhaps he was attempting to promote his service before the electorate in comparison to his opponent’s peacetime military record.
Well, as anyone who managed to stay awake long enough in history class knows, the attack on Pearl Harbour was on December 7, not September 7. I suspect that the vice-president’s audience was rather confused by his remarks. Perhaps his speech-writer was an idiot or the like.
When Vice-President Bush was pointed out of his error, he was up to the task by stating that instead of Pearl Harbour, he meant Pearl Bailey! Now I suspect that he simply make a calendar error, but still it’s something that expect someone who could invade other countries to have better control of. In this context, perhaps his selection of Dan Quayle as his running mate was actually a stroke of genius, as Quayle’s far greater thrashing of logic and language would overwhelm anything that Bush might err in media-wise.
What I find interesting is that I can find almost nothing on-line about this. I remember seeing this on televised news, yet Google searches turn out nothing on this. In order to make sure this wasn’t a figment of my imagination, I posed a question about this on Yahoo Answers, receiving a response that recalls this as well. (Interesting that Google doesn’t point to this, although Yahoo does, which makes sense as it’s pointing to their own site!)
The Wikipedia article on Pearl Bailey doesn’t reference September 7 as any important day in her life, but a month later she did receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I wonder it there is more to the timing than coincidence. Regardless, by Vice-Presidential proclamation, a holiday was thus born, so to one and all, Happy Pearl Bailey Day!
