I Made the Office Work on Labor Day So That I Could Take August 29th Off to Celebrate Michael Jackson's Birthday

Exclusive to I Thought a Think by Not Tom McCabe, not the Chief Executive Officer, not the Freedom Foundation

Labor Day will be another day at the office for employees of the Freedom Foundation.

Rather than taking a day off on Sept. 1 to honor organized labor, we will mark the final weekend of the summer on the previous Friday, Aug. 29.

We're calling it Right-to-Work Day.

That's what I'm making them call it, anyhow.

The real reason that I closed everything down on Friday, August 29th and made everyone come in on Monday, September 1st, is because I am really, really into Michael Jackson.

August 29th would have been his 56th birthday.  Can you imagine the kind of music that The King of Pop would be putting out now?  Tina and Aretha were releasing #1 albums in their 50s, and neither one of them could hold a candle to what Michael was capable of doing.  13 Grammy Awards, my goodness!  Thriller, the best selling album OF ALL TIME!  This is a man who doesn't just deserve our respect, he damned well demands it!

I've been to something like 25 Michael Jackson concerts, and one by Tito because why the hell not.  I drove up to Vancouver in 1984 to see two shows on the Victory tour, and that really was the highlight of my life.  Sorry, honey.  A close second would be beating Senator Jim West in a moonwalking contest in 1987.  The secret was that I used the granite floors, and I can't believe to this day that he didn't figure that one out.

Brendan Williams called me a criminal once.  I choose to believe that I'm a smooth criminal.  Really, I am kind of awesome.  Not as awesome as the music video for "Scream", obviously, but still pretty darned good.

So sure, right to work yadda yadda unions are the root of all evil yadda yadda transparency yadda yadda #eyeroll #jagoffhandgesture.  I spent Friday on my porch listening to the entire freaking discography, and it was a great, great day.  Monday, while the rest of the town is shut down, me and Trent will write something bizarre about about labor and call it a good day's work.  Friday, though, was all about the music.  RIP, Michael.