”Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” So crooned the Carpenters in 1971, capturing a sentiment of centuries that hasn`t changed in the ensuing decades.
Why has Monday gotten such a bad rap? Does it truly have no redeeming value? We delved into the day-its lore, its history, its lunacy (it`s the ancient day of the moon)-and found that, yes, it has little redeeming value. Its chief attribute may be taking the pressure off Tuesday.
Here`s what we found. Enjoy. Or, at least, commiserate:
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Dropping dead of a heart attack is more common on Monday morning than any other time.
The phenomenon is caused by the psychological stress of returning to work after a weekend off, according to heart specialists at Harvard University. Our pulse rates and blood pressure increase each morning as we haul ourselves out of bed and prepare to do battle. If the day happens to be a Monday, coming after two days` respite, the prospect can be even more stressful. One-quarter or more of heart attacks occur on Monday.
Want to know the next most frequent time? Saturday mornings. Researchers suggest that removing your nose from the grindstone can be almost as stressful as resuming the position.
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508.32 points-that`s how much the Dow Jones industrial average fell on Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987.
Monday`s child is fair of face: Mick Jagger, born July 26, 1943.
Mondays they should have stayed in bed:
Jesse James was shot and killed by a fellow gang member in league with the law while dusting a picture in his home in St. Joseph, Mo.
President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by John Hinckley Jr. outside the Washington Hilton.
John Davis, vice president of sales for Ford Motor Co., presented a proposal for a new car called the Edsel.
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There`s a physical reason for the Monday morning blahs.
People`s internal clocks follow a 25-hour cycle rather than the 24-hour one geared to the rising and setting of the sun, say specialists in chronobiology, a field of study that investigates time patterns of various biological functions. (The 25-hour cycle was discovered by putting people in caves or isolation chambers where they couldn`t see the sun rise or set, and observing when they would sleep and awaken.)
It`s not too difficult to reconcile this one-hour difference during the week, but on weekends, people tend to follow their internal clocks, sleeping a little longer and waking up a little later.
”They do this on Saturday and Sunday, and by the time Monday rolls around, it becomes the day of reckoning,” said Dr. Thomas Wehr, a research psychiatrist with the National Institute of Mental Health. ”When the alarm rings on Monday, people feel it`s not time to get up yet. It`s like waking up in the middle of the sleep period.”
Gimmesomecoffee.
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Mondays that will live in infamy:
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany.
The first contingent of Japanese-Americans was evacuated from the West Coast and incarcerated in the California desert.
President John Kennedy announced there was ”unmistakable evidence” that the Soviet Union was building offensive missile sites in Cuba.
The Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt began.
John Dean, former counsel to Richard Nixon, told Senate hearings that Nixon, his staff and campaign aides, and the Justice Department all had conspired to cover up the facts behind the Watergate break-in.
The Soviet Union acknowledged that an accident had occurred at its Chernobyl nuclear plant after high radiation levels were reported over Scandinavia.
The Titanic sank.
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A Monday morning quarterback, by definition, is the football devotee who reads about Saturday`s football games in Monday`s newspapers, then gives his detailed opinion as to what plays the quarterback should have made.
In practice, it`s the person at Monday`s staff meeting who knew what decisions could have staved off last week`s massive layoffs. ”But no one asked me.”
”Feeling Mondayish” was the affliction of church ministers in the 19th Century after a hard Sunday of sermonizing.
Likewise, it`s the traditional day that galleries and museums are closed, a day to spiff up after the weekend crowds. One exception is the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which is closed Wednesdays. Why? ”I have no idea,” a spokesman said.
The U.S. Supreme Court convenes on the first Monday in October.
OK, OK. Something Elvis did on a Monday: married Priscilla Beaulieu.
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If you`re depressed, Mondays can be treacherous.
”Mondays by themselves are not enough to make someone commit suicide,”
said Dr. J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., director of the Affective Disorders Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
”But you look at people who are down to their last breath as far as hopelessness for the future, and the prospect of going back to work on Monday can be too much.”
But, he added, if you truly dread Mondays-beyond the normal reluctance to get back to a workday schedule-”maybe this is nature`s way of telling you you don`t like your job.”
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Keeping saint Monday was the 19th Century practice of staying home on Monday after a Sunday of celebrating (read drinking), as the prosperity spawned by the Industrial Revolution enabled workers to indulge themselves on their day of rest, though they worked long hours at week`s end to catch up.
Social historian Witold Rybczynski, in his examination of leisure time,
”Waiting for the Weekend,” found that religious groups campaigned against the tradition, linking it to drinking and revelry on the Sabbath.
Middle-class social reformers joined them. ”By the end of the century, many shops and factories began closing on Saturday afternoons, leaving a half- holiday for household chores and social activities-an evening at the dance hall or the pub-and permitting Sunday to be used exclusively for prayer and sober recreation.”
Thus the weekend was born.
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Mondays to note:
Boston Harbor was the scene for a tea party when tax protesters boarded ships and dumped bales of the tender leaf into the water.
”Sesame Street” went on the air, and the ABCs were never the same.
Gold was discovered in California. Eureka!
Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm and proved that lightning was an electrical phenomenon. Also, that he lived a charmed existence.
Ireland became a republic.
Robert Fulton launched ”Fulton`s Folly,” and it wasn`t, going on to become the first commercially successful steamboat.
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Mondays to mourn:
About 200 American Indian men, women and children, and 29 U.S. soldiers were killed at the Wounded Knee massacre in South Dakota.
Four students were killed when National Guardsmen fired into a crowd at Kent State University.
Activist Steven Biko died in Pretoria, South Africa, of massive head injuries inflicted while in police custody.
John Lennon was shot and killed.
Sylvia Plath committed suicide.
An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
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Great Mondays in history:
”Monday Night Football” made its debut Sept. 28, 1970 on ABC, attracting a whopping 33 percent of the viewing audience that saw the Browns beat the Jets, 31-21.
The sport`s first prime-time venture prompted Newsweek columnist Pete Axthelm to observe that it assured ”the really dedicated fan that his pro football could now begin early Sunday and, with only a token interruption for sleep-and possibly a perfunctory day`s work-conclude sometime after midnight Monday.” Bookies cheered.
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Monday morning syndrome is what emergency-room doctors call it when a child is brought in by a parent involved in a bitter divorce or custody battle after the child has spent a weekend with the other spouse.
The parents harbor genuine fears about abuse or, in rare instances, are building a false case against the other parent.
Doctors rarely find evidence of physical or sexual abuse in these cases, but child-abuse experts say the experience of being caught in the cross-fire of parents` anger can be devastating for the children.
Children of rancorous divorces often exhibit the same physical and emotional symptoms of physically abused children, according to Dr. Carole Jenny, a child-abuse specialist in Colorado. ”That makes it hard for the parents to sort out.”
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Among hobos, a Monday man is one who steals clothing from clotheslines, Monday being the traditional washday.
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Let Pollyanna, the girl who was always glad no matter what, have the last word, as related by Nancy, the kitchen maid:
”I know it does sound nutty, ma`am. But let me tell ye. That blessed lamb found out I hated Monday mornin` somethin` awful; an` what does she up an` tell me one day but this: `Well, anyhow, Nancy, I should think you could be gladder on Monday mornin` than on any other day in the week, because
`twould be a whole week before you`d have another one.` An` I`m blest if I hain`t thought of it ev`ry Monday mornin` since-an` it has helped, ma`am.”
