My mom did the same kind of thing in Baskin Robbins. My sister and I were arguing, and she turned to everyone in the store and belted out the lyrics to “Black Velvet” at the top of her lungs. No joke, all it took from then on was saying “knock it off or I’ll start singing.” We never acted up in public again.

That is some of the best parenting advice I have ever read.

My aunt would put her napkin on her head when her kids would act up in a restaurant. I only witnessed it one time at a nice restaurant in New Orleans. It was mortifying. We immediately shut the fuck up and started acting right.

I love your mum.

Keep fighting the good fight!

I work at it everyday as my life depends on it.

Brilliant strategy, Mum. Just brilliant.

It’s pretty much the job of every parent to be perilously mortifying to their kids, isn’t it? Some kind of law of nature?

Slight correction. We don’t wear pants since it’s a non-family event holiday. So we can’t put hands down said pants.

I believe there is some sort of Italian-American parade in New York.
When I was in school a hundred years ago, Columbus Day was an excuse to spend the Friday preceding learning about “the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria,” and then of course we got the day off on Monday. The fact that Columbus didn’t actually…

People from Corsica say he was Corsican. He also apparently came from Genoa, Greece and Catalunia. And also American too. Busy man.

As a kid, Columbus Day was the one day a year when I had to go to school, but my mom had the day off from work, kind of weird.

Yeah it’s just a three day weekend that most people don’t think about. Denver is an AIM (Amercan Indian Movement) headquarters so there’s usually a protest every year. It’s disappointing that Denver wasn’t one of the cities.

I think it honestly depends on the place. I lived in a small village that had an enormous Italian population and it was a huge deal. Everywhere else I’ve lived treated it like a free long weekend.

As far as I know, it’s time off work and unhealthy food and booze, like most holidays. It’s like that in Canada, too, only we don’t have Columbus Day. Our Thanksgiving is held on the same weekend, though.

Americans: is the Columbus Day weekend one of the big shopping mayhem ones or not? I forget. You have a few of…

yeah, def doritos and touching self. ugh i wish it was indigenous people’s day RIGHT NOW.

We were treating Italians pretty poorly then so you can guess how much we cared for the natives at that point

But Italian food!

Who would you choose? I’d go with Amerigo Vespucci, if it were up to me. Which is one of the many good reasons it isn’t.

Don’t forget getting stuck in traffic, too.