Like anybody else, we appreciate the sentiment of the Presidents' Day long weekend--well, for those of us who have that day off or are able to take it. It provided us the perfect opportunity to temporarily ex-patriate ourselves and pump money into Canada's economy. That's what it's all aboot, anyway. This so-named Presidents' Day has become just a reason for the commercial sector to entice us with Fabulous Savings. Nobody thinks about Washington or Lincoln anymore, much less Millard Fillmore, say, or Grover Cleveland if we are to buy into this doubletalk about the inclusivity of the day. But--ZOMG--holy crap! Fry's has HDTVs on sale!

So take a post-Uniform Monday Holiday moment today to think about George Washington who was born on this day so long ago. Take another moment to think about our state, too, which will be celebrating birthdays of sorts very shortly. According to HistoryLink, 27 patriarchal dudes met in August 1851 to try to get Congress to break us free from that smelly Oregon Territory. They wanted to name this place the Columbia Territory. We have mixed feelings about that, linguistically. On the one hand, the State of Columbia sounds really sexy. On the other, though, Seattle, Columbia doesn't sound nearly as vigorous as Seattle, Washington. Then there's the aural problem of Olympia, Columbia or Tacoma, Columbia.

On February 10th, 1853, Congress approved the new territory, changing the name to Washington Territory. Millard Fillmore--an actual President and not a name we just made up--signed the bill on March 2nd, 1853. Appropriately, on February 22nd, 1889 (during the first Grover Cleveland administration), the Enabling Act paved the way for statehood. As a result of some internal wrangling, territorial capital Oly got the state capital, Seattle got the university, and Walla Walla got a sweet consolation prize. Also, who the hell knew that we had a state tartan? It's pictured above.

Anyway, happy upcoming birthday(s), Territory and eventual State of Washington! And, hey, cheers to you, George, you bad-ass, hippo-tusk-toothed, malaria/smallpox/pleurisy/dysentery-surviving, cock-fighting, hound-dog-breeding, bad-speeling, cream-of-peanut-soup-eating, hair-powdering motherlover!

Thanks to Bridget for the Writer's Almanac tip and to Jess for the YouTube tip!