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Brian Williams Forgot That Monday Was a Holiday
by Joel Keller, posted Jul 6th 2010 11:31AM
Don't you just hate having to go into work when it's a holiday? Either you have to come in because you are supposed to, or you used up all your off time on that whirlwind trip to Graceland and can't spare the day. It's a sucky feeling, to tell you that much; no one's on the street, your favorite coffee shop and/or lunch spot are closed, and the office sounds as quiet as a church.But what if you don't remember it's a holiday and come into work anyway? Think that can't happen, that people mark these holidays on their calendars in January and hold them so precious that the day is embedded in their brains?
Well, it happened to Brian Williams. If you were surprised to see him manning the desk on 'NBC Nightly News' last night, he was equally surprised that Monday was a holiday and that he was supposed to take the night off.
As he wrote in his blog yesterday, he miscalculated, figuring that since July 4 was on a Sunday, that there was no holiday on Monday:
"I guess I didn't think it through. I saw that July 4th fell on a Sunday this year, and figured Monday would be a standard workday," he wrote. "I tore myself away from my beloved Jersey Shore (where my son reports it's one of the all-time great beach days) and came into work today, only to find: it was as if someone made an announcement that the last person left in New York City would have cooties."
Either that's a man who's supremely dedicated to his job, or a guy who doesn't seem to get the concept of how American holidays work. But, since BriWi has given us so many laughs on 'SNL,' 'The Daily Show' and elsewhere, and because he's such a good guy -- he and I swapped New Jersey diner picks at last winter's NBC press tour party -- here's a few tips for him on how to tell it's a holiday:
1. You go for the mailbox, looking for your residual check from '30 Rock,' your copy of Us Weekly and the weekly Stop & Shop circular, and it's not there.
2. You go to the bank, looking to cash that two-dollar printer paper refund check from Staples, and it's closed for the day.
3. Your bag full of spent fireworks and Topps hamburger patty boxes (bought and frozen before their massive recall a couple of years back) goes uncollected.
4. You tune in to the 'Today' show and you see Lester Holt, Amy Robach, and someone from The Weather Channel you've never heard of.
5. You go to work and the aforementioned Holt is in your makeup chair, reading from a news script and drinking out of your 'Firemen Like It Hot And Smoky' mug.
Here's how Williams opened the broadcast last night:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Do you have any other tips for BriWi so he doesn't make this mistake again?
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