What are you wearing?


Y’all know it is Orange Shirt Day, right?

It doesn’t change much, but at the very least I can make a statement that I’m aware of the injustice in how we Europeans treated the native people of this land. Get your orange shirt on!

By the way, I discovered several years ago that I had nothing that was orange in my closet — it’s a less common color for everyday apparel. You may have to go shopping for it.

Comments

  1. medicated says

    It’s only a federal holiday though, so almost everything is still open. So far as I know, none of the provinces have chosen to make it a holiday, sadly, so it pretty much only affects government employees and companies regulated by the federal government, like banks.

  2. PaulBC says

    I have a Kidney Walk T-shirt that would work. Though I just switched to long sleeves yesterday because Autumn (or what passes for it in the Bay Area) is settling in.

  3. PaulBC says

    I’m holding out for “orange jumpsuit day” for a few choice people… yeah, I’m not super-optimistic about that.

  4. blf says

    Orange, as it turns. Well, reddish-orange… both shirts and trousers, because the pile of dirty clothing is both large and growling, though safely locked in awa…CRASH!er, make that making a determined slithering flapping crawl thoug…CRASH!ah, through another wall. (So in answer to the question, I didn’t know there even was such a day! — Thanks for pointing it out.)

    Based on past experience, the pile of dirty clothes will probably dissolve the street and sink towards the centre of the Earth. It won’t get there, becoming nicely neutered, neutralised, and sterilised by the heat en-route. The up-welling lava will return it to the surface, where, after a brief rinse and rebuilding the village, all will be fine.

  5. Tethys says

    I am currently wearing a lot of dust and popcorn ceiling texture on a purple work shirt. I will don my favorite orange top in honor of the holiday after I shower and wash all this grit out of my hair.

  6. NitricAcid says

    It’s federally mandated in Canada, but I believe all the schools and colleges are closed in BC (the University of Alberta is similarly marking the day), despite education being a provincial thing.

    When the feds announced it, I immediately emailed my dean to find out if we had to schedule around it. He assured me that, as provincial employees, we’d be working as usual. I scheduled around it anyway, just in case, and they announced that I was right two weeks before the start of the semester.

  7. NitricAcid says

    I did wear my orangest shirt on Tuesday to mark the week, though- on Monday I wore my lab coat, and Wednesday I kept my video camera off.

  8. timmyson says

    Cool. I thought it was just a Canadian thing. I didn’t realize it was spreading to the US too. A lot of indigenous vendors were caught by surprise and are backordered into December now.

  9. Ed Seedhouse says

    British Columbia, where I live, is indeed observing Sept. 30 as a full Provincial holiday. We’re all off work unless it’s an essential service. Well, I’m not off work because I’m 77 and a pensioner.

  10. jrkrideau says

    @ 4 medicated
    It’s only a federal holiday though, so almost everything is still open.

    So I discovered when I walked downtown. My credit union, provincial jurisdiction, was closed but all retail was open. Trust Premier Ford to be his normal jackass self.

  11. birgerjohansson says

    I have an orange light coat, because if I am taking it off outdoors I can easily find it again among trees and bushes.
    Also, good for marking your chair in a big restaurant.
    .
    I am curious about the linguistic roots. Did it start as “an orange” or as “a norange ” and mutate?

  12. JoeBuddha says

    I wore my orangest shirt. Well, it’s kinda pink, but it’s the thought that counts. Says, “It’s not beer if you can see through it.”

  13. quotetheunquote says

    @Jrkrideau #13
    Yeah. Also live in Ontario, just another normal day at work.

    ‘Course, with COVID, it’s kind of hard to tell, I hardly ever shop, and do all my banking on-line etc. (were the Big 5 closed? They seem to close for anything). I’ve lived here all my life, and had no idea the feds where having a holiday today… I note that the PM did take the day off, though (in BC).

    I did manage to wear orange yesterday, I went running in one of my orange t-shirts (GREAT for visibility).

  14. PaulBC says

    My son left for college recently and it seems he took my Kidney Walk shirt by mistake (that’s a pretty lame excuse but I don’t have a dog I can blame for eating it). I actually have some others from other Kidney Walks but at that point I just felt I was overthinking the whole thing. My only interaction outside the house was over Zoom anyway.

  15. birgerjohansson says

    BTW, no reason the Orange Order should have a monopoly on the colour in Ireland. Take it back! Out-Orange them on behalf of all non-believers.

  16. PaulBC says

    birgerjohansson@19 Among other things, there is the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. And there’s even orange on the Republic of Ireland flag, so that suggests some acceptance (or perhaps compromise).

    I’d still probably avoid it except if I got the orange shirt as swag (descended from very green Irish Catholics going way back).

  17. birgerjohansson says

    PaulBC@ 20
    When designing posters in the 1970s, I learned that light green and yellow/orange is a very eye-catching combination :-)

  18. Derek Vandivere says

    PaulBC@20: I can only assume you’ve never been in the Netherlands for King’s Day…