Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again.
Once more in a seemingly annual effort, The Hub is calling for a statutory holiday during this current unacceptably holiday-free section of the calendar.
We have often made the case before, but nothing has happened. It is actually starting to make us question the power of an editorial in The Hub to shape society to our own wishes.
The only thing we can figure is that the appropriate men who hold high places have not read these persuasive editorials. So we'll try again.
We take our inspiration for such persistence from a story that can provide much guidance in a person's life.
We are not talking about the great works to which many people turn – The Bible, or Tao Te Ching, or The Collected Works of Shakespeare.
We, of course, look to The Shawshank Redemption for our inspiration.
Everybody must know – or they should know – the Stephen King story told in the 1994 movie. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is falsely convicted of murder and sent to Shawshank Prison.
However, Andy's spirit is not broken, and his determination and patience triumph in the end. If you recall, he wrote letters to politicians for years to get new books for the prison library until they finally got tired of the letters and sent him some books.
And, in the triumphant scene of the movie – spoiler alert – Andy escapes Shawshank Prison after years of digging through the walls with a small rock hammer.
Sometimes when we feel that it is useless to make a case for a statutory holiday in February – or any time really between New Year's Day and Good Friday/Easter – we think of Andy Dufresne and keep going.
If it takes 20 years to finally get a holiday at this time of year that will make the triumph all the more rewarding.
Unlike Andy Dufresne, a one-day statutory holiday won't give us time to head to a beach in Mexico, but it will give us a break in the middle of a Northern winter, which many people find unforgiving in its darkness and bleakness.
Some people think there can't be a statutory holiday at this time of year because there is no obvious anniversary to observe with a day off.
We really don't care what day is selected. Valentine's Day would be quite fine.
And today, Feb. 21, has plenty of notable days in history. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto. And a hundred years later in 1948 NASCAR was incorporated.
We're guessing that a more appropriate event could be found to commemorate, but we'll take anything.
Since this is basically a case being made to the territorial government, we could even suggest a statutory holiday with a northern theme. There could be Trapping Day, or Snowmobile Day, or simply Snow Day.
As we said, at this point we really don't care what the holiday is called, as long as one is created to give us all a break.
Andy Dufresne Day would be perfectly acceptable.