Comments on: Holiday

By: John Germaine

John Germaine — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:13:34 +0000

I well remember the neighborhood children referring to missed spots in mowing the yard as “holidays”, I thought because one took a short holiday from the task.

By: Pablito de Arizona

Pablito de Arizona — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:50:06 +0000

This is interesting. I painted for a living in the last century (but only for 22 years). The first time I ever heard the term “holiday,” referring to my poor workmanship, I knew exactly what was meant. Of course, that my boss was pointing at it helped. It never occurred to me, though, to find out the source of a painter’s “holiday.” Thank you–now that I don’t really need to know it anymore.

By: Steve Dunham

Steve Dunham — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:43:47 +0000

The sardonic meaning of “holiday” eludes me, of all people, generally regarded as a virtuoso of sarcasm. Does the nautical “holiday” for a missed spot mean that the person caulking the seam was not working when he should have been (if only momentarily)?

By: Charlie Nunzio

Charlie Nunzio — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:43:30 +0000

Comment on “Holiday” — My engineering job, included working with a machinist to design and build test fixtures made from aluminum alloy plate. Sometimes, due to an error in my design drawing or a slip my the machinist, a hole was drilled in the wrong location. The machinist could fill in such mistakes with an aluminum weld. He called this cosmetic fix “Hollywooding.” So if a missed spot is a “holiday,” perhaps it can be fixed by “Hollywooding.”