As with most running jokes between my group of friends, this one started with a shitty movie. During the execrable "The Chronicles of Riddick," the evil tyrant (played by the immortal Colm Feore) at one point mentions that the day of his seemingly inevitable triumph would be a 'day of days.'
Later, after Vin Diesel has ruined things,* Feore angrily shouts, "This was supposed to be a day of days!" The random callback just cracked us all up, and as a result, the day-of-days quote has been used roughly a zillion times over the last five years. It was probably the most memorable thing from the film, aside from all of our wisecracks pretending that Feore was actually reprising his most famous role as Pierre Trudeau. Highlights included, "Man, Riddick is harder to deal with than the FLQ," and "Trudeau just took a long ass-kicking in the snow."
* = technically, I should've noted this as a spoiler alert, but now I've saved you from ever having to watch Chronicles of Riddick. You're welcome.
But, getting back on topic, it was the 'day of days' quote that stood the test of time, though its meaning has changed over the years. It has now gone from being just a random movie reference to being the Day Of Days --- the officially-recognized title for the day of the year when the weather gets warm enough for women to start wearing attractive springwear in public. Back at university, on a campus of roughly 16.000 women, this was basically a national holiday. It was...an occasion. I actually ate outside on those days, rather than shoving food into my mouth while crouched Gollum-style in a corner of University College pouring over study notes.
Today, in London, our decent weather of late finally gave birth to the Day Of Days. The temperature shot up to 17 degrees. Local businesses the city over suffered huge man-hour losses due to a bizarre increase in sick days. Local golf courses, on an unrelated note, reported record business. The weather was so warm and gorgeous that I even felt confident enough to put away my enormous winter coat (a.k.a. Big Red) for the season. If it blizzards tomorrow, well, I guess you have me to blame for pushing fate like that.
So what did I do on the Day Of Days? I....spent it first packing, and then commuting from London to Toronto. There were surprisingly few women, in springwear or otherwise, walking down the side of the 403, so I feel like I missed out. Sigh. I'm getting so old. What was once a day of mirth and joy is now a day of making sure my clean socks are in the upper flap of my suitcase and picking which CDs to listen to during the ride.** Geez, I just realized that listening to CDs rather than mp3s is in itself a sign of age. Yikes.
**= Help, Rubber Soul, and the back-end of a Fatboy Slim greatest hits disc I was listening to the other day.
Then again, it's not like I had plans to go up to campus and sit around ogling. That's just creepy at any age. Maybe I'm just lamenting the fact that, women aside, the first proper day of spring is just generally awesome that should be enjoyed no matter what's on the schedule. Hindsight being 20-20, I should've stayed in London an extra day and hit the golf course, sat out on the deck or just gone on a walk or something to take in the warm showiness of nature. By the time I actually got to Toronto, it was late afternoon and a chilly breeze had just begun to pick up, somewhat ruining the whole D-of-D effect. C'est la vie. C'est la vie.
Bonus link: an editorial written by the UWO Gazette in 2005 (by a friend of mine) further chronicling this same Day of Days phenomenon. I really need to start working "add a few buckets of sexy" to my regular rotation of sayings.
Later, after Vin Diesel has ruined things,* Feore angrily shouts, "This was supposed to be a day of days!" The random callback just cracked us all up, and as a result, the day-of-days quote has been used roughly a zillion times over the last five years. It was probably the most memorable thing from the film, aside from all of our wisecracks pretending that Feore was actually reprising his most famous role as Pierre Trudeau. Highlights included, "Man, Riddick is harder to deal with than the FLQ," and "Trudeau just took a long ass-kicking in the snow."
* = technically, I should've noted this as a spoiler alert, but now I've saved you from ever having to watch Chronicles of Riddick. You're welcome.
But, getting back on topic, it was the 'day of days' quote that stood the test of time, though its meaning has changed over the years. It has now gone from being just a random movie reference to being the Day Of Days --- the officially-recognized title for the day of the year when the weather gets warm enough for women to start wearing attractive springwear in public. Back at university, on a campus of roughly 16.000 women, this was basically a national holiday. It was...an occasion. I actually ate outside on those days, rather than shoving food into my mouth while crouched Gollum-style in a corner of University College pouring over study notes.
Today, in London, our decent weather of late finally gave birth to the Day Of Days. The temperature shot up to 17 degrees. Local businesses the city over suffered huge man-hour losses due to a bizarre increase in sick days. Local golf courses, on an unrelated note, reported record business. The weather was so warm and gorgeous that I even felt confident enough to put away my enormous winter coat (a.k.a. Big Red) for the season. If it blizzards tomorrow, well, I guess you have me to blame for pushing fate like that.
So what did I do on the Day Of Days? I....spent it first packing, and then commuting from London to Toronto. There were surprisingly few women, in springwear or otherwise, walking down the side of the 403, so I feel like I missed out. Sigh. I'm getting so old. What was once a day of mirth and joy is now a day of making sure my clean socks are in the upper flap of my suitcase and picking which CDs to listen to during the ride.** Geez, I just realized that listening to CDs rather than mp3s is in itself a sign of age. Yikes.
**= Help, Rubber Soul, and the back-end of a Fatboy Slim greatest hits disc I was listening to the other day.
Then again, it's not like I had plans to go up to campus and sit around ogling. That's just creepy at any age. Maybe I'm just lamenting the fact that, women aside, the first proper day of spring is just generally awesome that should be enjoyed no matter what's on the schedule. Hindsight being 20-20, I should've stayed in London an extra day and hit the golf course, sat out on the deck or just gone on a walk or something to take in the warm showiness of nature. By the time I actually got to Toronto, it was late afternoon and a chilly breeze had just begun to pick up, somewhat ruining the whole D-of-D effect. C'est la vie. C'est la vie.
Bonus link: an editorial written by the UWO Gazette in 2005 (by a friend of mine) further chronicling this same Day of Days phenomenon. I really need to start working "add a few buckets of sexy" to my regular rotation of sayings.
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