A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS IS THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA: Happy Patriots Day, Bay Staters. As Bill Simmons explained in 2003, a date which justifies a reference I'm deliberately leaving in:

There are hundreds of reasons to hate living in Massachusetts. The weather stinks. City living is ridiculously expensive. The accents and fashion senses are just plain humiliating. Every time you walk into Store 24 or 7-11 to purchase a newspaper, you end up waiting in line for 20 minutes while losers load up on scratch cards in front of you. You can't find good Red Sox tickets, you can't afford Celtics tickets and you don't want Bruins tickets. Our football team was forced to build its stadium 30 miles outside of downtown (and we almost lost them to Hartford).

Wait, there's more: The Never-Ending Big Dig makes it impossible to go from one side of Boston to the other in less than 30 minutes (will that thing ever be finished?). You need to drive almost an hour out of the city to see a good concert. You can't find a good slice of pizza unless you're in the North End. The bar scene crawls with big-haired chicks and beefy guys looking to sucker-punch someone. The list goes on. Believe me.

And yet Bostonians have this one thing that nobody else in the country has -- a random day off in the middle of April, when it's finally getting warm and we can spend a guilt-free afternoon outside. Maybe the only day of the year when everyone in Boston is having fun at once. Well, except for the people running the damned [marathon].

Forecast is for 60 degrees and sunny. Wikipedia (who else?) has compiled a list of state- and city-specific holidays. Von Steuben Day!