[CQ-Contest] CQWW CW vs. Thanksgiving: A Work-Around Proposal

[Jeff Maass]

CQ-Contest Folk:

This year, as in many years, the CQWW CW Contest falls
on the (US) Thanksgiving Day weekend. This is traditionally
a family holiday in the USA, and so many of my Caribbean 
Contesting Consortium cohorts do not feel able to leave
their families and join us for the contest at Signal Point 
on Curacao (PJ2T). 

The following is a Plan which could provide a "work-around"
for CQ's crummy scheduling. It requires a modicum of deceit,
but that's par for the course in most family interactions.


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Letter Follows:
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Homer:

I was distressed to hear that you won't be joining us for CQWW 
CW!

I understand your desire to stay close to family for Thanksgiving,
so I have a suggested plan that will allow you to do both, with  a bit
of advanced preparation and by using your position as Patriarch
of your family!

Send a very nice, ornate 2003 calendar to each of the households
that form your family.  Maybe something with a nice photo of you
and your spouse, or of the Family Homestead: something that will
make it a favorite centerpiece of life in each family household, 
something they'll each put up in their kitchen and use on a daily 
basis.

You should have these calendars prepared to your order at the local
Kinkos. Mark holidays in the appropriate days *except* have them put 
"Thanksgiving" on November 20th rather than November 27th. This
is rather key to the plan!

In the "November 27" box, put something like "Canadian Thanksgiving"
or "Armenian Thanksgiving". That way, if family members hear on the
TV or radio that "Thanksgiving is on November 27", they'll all think it's
referring to that *other* Thanksgiving, and disregard it (unless some
of them are Canadian or Armenian, in which case you should
substitute "Brazilian Thanksgiving").

Call each household every week or so starting in early October, 
telling them how much you are looking forward to your Thanksgiving
celebration "...on November 20", and remind them to bring your
favorite cranberry sauce or several cans of Cheese Whiz.  

Find a friend with video tapes of last year's Thanksgiving football
games, and on November 20 have them playing all day in the VCR: 
no one will notice the difference (trust me!). Celebrate Thanksgiving 
on November 20 with all your hoodwinked (but sated) family. 

In this way, you can celebrate Thanksgiving with your family *and* 
still come down into the sun and eat whatever we do for our Curacao 
Thanksgiving on November 27 (we can hang some "Happy Canadian
Thanksgiving" banners at the station for photo backgrounds). You
can then participate in the CQWW CW Contest from Paradise!

Problem solved (for this year)!

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Letter Ends
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BTW, if  any among the contest community have any pull with the 
broadcast or print media and can have them start publicizing the date
of Thanksgiving as November 20 and suppressing mentions of the 
November 27 date, please do so! Retail businesses will get an extra
week of shoppers for the Christmas season, and contesters will be 
better able to justify to their families travel for their participation in
CQWW CW this year!

73,
 Jeff Maass       jmaass at columbus.rr.com     Located near Columbus Ohio
         USPSA # L-1192       NROI/CRO    Amateur Radio K8ND
Maass' IPSC Resources:  http://home.columbus.rr.com/jmaass/index.html
Circleville USPSA/IPSC: http://home.columbus.rr.com/jmaass/pcsiipsc.htm