Editor's Blog Jun 19th 2012
Circus Maximus
Long weekends are the little nuggets of respite given to the working classes to break up what is potentially an all work no play situation. The summer festivities were in full swing and there was contentment in the air.
The Romans were really good at this, so good that they even developed it as a policy. Juvenal, a Roman Poet with a name that would never mature well, noted this in his satires, Panem et Circenses Bread and Circuses, a reference to the pacification of the Roman people through food and entertainment.
Keep the people fat, happy and feed any dissidents to the lions (killing two birds with one stone, as animal husbandry, especially for large felines can be expensive) a winning formula for any Government if you asked me.
No matter how much we like our long weekends; there are implications for the small business owners. Productivity drops right after a long weekend as people try and shake off the post holiday blues.