Time for a Bold New Holiday: National Day of Service 🌟🎉
Plus . . . the secrets of creativity and my go-to hotel hack
Welcome to The Pink Report, which reaches 115k+ subscribers every other week.
1. WHY NOT? Let’s move Memorial Day, scrap Columbus Day, and invent some better national holidays. 🇺🇸🫱🏽🫲🏽🛠️ 📅
As Americans stumble toward another national holiday this weekend, maybe it’s time to rethink the whole exercise.
In my latest Washington Post Why Not? column — already generating amber waves of hate mail! — I offer a few ideas for moving Memorial Day, eliminating two other commemorations, and inventing a brand new holiday.
Share your thoughts:
Let us know what you think. Leave a comment beneath the article or send me an email.
Tell us which holidays you’d eliminate and which you’d create in this new Washington Post online poll.
Discover more about Why Not?":
Read some previous columns.
Contribute your own Why Not? idea. Readers have already submitted more than 3,200 ideas. Share yours by using this Washington Post link or emailing me directly at whynot@danielpink.com.
PINK RECOMMENDS. How to think like an artist, joke like a comedian, and rock like a hardy fuchsia. 📚🎧🌿📸
READ: In The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing, magazine editor Adam Moss interviewed 43 artists — poets, playwrights, sculptors, filmmakers, chefs, TV showrunners, and more — about how they create. Then he assembled their stories into a single volume, stuffed with artifacts and images that document each person’s creative process. One of the best books I’ve read this year.
LISTEN: For more insights on the mechanics of creativity (and the majesty of Pop Tarts), listen to this New Yorker Radio Hour interview with Jerry Seinfeld. "Comedy is like sculpting,” Jerry says. “It’s about removing everything that isn’t funny."
WATCH: An 8th grade teacher reads her students’ comments — and somehow manages to keep a straight face — in this hilarious 2-minute video that will trigger flashbacks to middle school and empathy for educators.
TRY: I’ve become slightly obsessed with a feature I just discovered on my iPhone. Snap a photo of a plant, a tree, or a flower. Tap the Info button beneath the image. And — voilà — the AI gods will identify the flora for you.
3. FINAL THOUGHTS. Do this as soon as you arrive in your hotel room.
Want to stay organized when you’re on the road?
Check out this perennially popular Pinkcast video — which describes the first thing I do when I arrive in a new hotel room to avoid losing my keys, my phone, and my sanity.
You can watch the 168-second video by clicking the image below.
