April 18 - National Lineman Appreciation Day

Happy National Lineman Appreciation Day! On April 18, today honors the men and women who work around the clock to keep the power going. If the power is on where you are reading this article, you likely have a lineman to thank.   

From the power plant, the grid crisscrossing the country both above and underground and right up to the meters on our homes, these men and women build and maintain the system that keeps our nation running. 

Regardless of the source, the electricity has to be transported by employing transformers and other equipment. Due to the dangerous conditions power poses, safety is of utmost importance for both the lineman and the consumer. 

When mother nature destroys what our linemen have built up, they are on call to build it back up again as quickly as possible. These men and women work tirelessly to get emergency systems back in working order and urgently return service to remaining areas. 

Even when there is no crisis, they work under dangerous conditions on a daily basis. Whether they are working in trenches, near water or on high towers, the risks are extreme. 

HOW TO OBSERVE 

You don’t have to know a lineman to celebrate this day. Give a shoutout on social media to lineman everywhere. 

You can celebrate the day by thanking your local linemen by using #NationalLinemanAppreciationDay and #thankalineman on social media. 

HISTORY 

On April 10, 2013, U.S. Senate Resolution 95 recognized linemen across the country by setting April 18 as National Lineman Appreciation Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8P_xTBpAcY 

#NationalLinemanAppreciationDay 

#thankalineman 

@SenateFloor
@GlenCampbell 

@nichecinema 

April 18 - National Columnists' Day

Happy National Columnists' Day! On April 18, today honors any and all newspaper columnists and their contributions to the truth in black and white...and read all over.  

Columnists have the ability to inspire a plethora of emotions that often result in action. What many may not realize is that it is their intent.  If their readers are not moved by their column, they have not done their job. 

With their own flavor of humor or satire, some columnists lighten the mood or play a role. Others strictly provide us with a different perspective, hard facts and solid research. Whatever their style or approach, each columnist’s hard work connects them to the world. 

Well-known columnists have certainly inspired ire and laughter at many a breakfast table. They poke fun and holes at political leaders while commenting on today’s gossip.  

Depending on their area of expertise, they may also share a little bit of gossip.  

Whether it’s about fashion, movies, politics, sports, business or family matters, columnists like Walter Winchell, Molly Ivins, Maureen Dowd, William Safire, Dave Barry and Ernie Pyle engaged readers with their wit and insight. Columnists spur debate and cause us to consider our positions. 

HOW TO OBSERVE 

Celebrate by acknowledging all the people who do the research and write the columns that we rely on reading each day. Share your favorite columnist or newspaper writer on social media by using #NationalColumnistDay. 

HISTORY 

Founded in 1977, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, sponsors and promotes National Columnists’ Day annually on April 18.  

On this same day in 1945, American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and war correspondent Ernie Pyle, died while on assignment in Ie Island, Okinawa, Japan. He was 44. 

#NationalColumnistDay 

@columnists 

@erniepylefoundation 

@nichecinema 

April 18 - Gabriel Axel

Happy Birthday, Gabriel Axel! Born today in 1918 as Axel Gabriel Erik Mørch, this Danish actor, writer, producer and film director is best known for his 1987 Danish drama/romance film 'Babettes Gæstebud' ('Babette's Feast'). 

The film was the pinnacle of Axel's long career and marked the beginning of a resurgence of Danish cinema. 

  

'Babette's Feast' was adapted from a story by Danish author Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countries). 

She is best known for writing her 1937 biographical memoir Out of Africa, an account of her life while living in Kenya. 

Beautiful but pious sisters Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer) grow to spinsterhood under the wrathful eye of their strict pastor father on the forbidding and desolate coast of Jutland. 

The story then flashes back forty-nine years, showing the sisters in their youth n late nineteenth-century Denmark. 

Philippa's former suitor sends Parisian refugee and housekeeper Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran) to serve as the family cook. 

However, her lavish celebratory banquet tempts the family's dwindling congregation, who abjure such fleshly pleasures as fine foods and wines. 

It is through Babette, the woman with a mysterious past, who ultimately brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers. 

At once a rousing paean to artistic creation, a delicate evocation of divine grace, and the ultimate film about food, 'Babette’s Feast' is a deeply beloved treasure of cinema. 

The film combines earthiness and reverence in an indescribably moving depiction of sensual pleasure that goes to your head like fine champagne. 

'Babette's Feast' premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 40th Cannes Film Festival in May of that same year. 

The following year, 'Babette's Feast' won an Oscar for Best International Feature Film. The occurred at the 60th Academy Awards in April 1988. It was also the first Danish film to win this award. 

Axel passed in his sleep in Bagsværd (near Copenhagen), Denmark on February 9, 2014. He was 95. 

#borntodirect 

@BAFTA
@Criterion 

@DanishFilm 

@guardian 

@Britannica