A Disgruntled Federal Employee’s 1980s Desk Calendar

June 14, 2018 10:29 AM

"It is not entirely clear what the Kansas scribe was trying to achieve with his nonstop writing—or why it survived. But deep within the deep state, he found a voice."
posted by jjray (81 comments total)

What's going on with July 31?
posted by PMdixon at 10:37 AM on June 14, 2018

It's his birthday I think.
posted by jjray at 10:39 AM on June 14, 2018

Is it just me or does he not seem that disgruntled? People did odd things to stay busy at desk jobs before the internet.
posted by Automocar at 10:42 AM on June 14, 2018 [49 favorites]

He celebrates Life Day!
posted by ian1977 at 10:44 AM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Well, not on the Wookie orthodox calendar of 11/17.
posted by ian1977 at 10:46 AM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Is it just me or does he not seem that disgruntled?

Federal employee. QED.

quod erat disgruntlandum
posted by Etrigan at 10:47 AM on June 14, 2018 [13 favorites]

This is pretty awesome as a historical document. I've only just started digging into it, but this guys seems like he'd do pretty well as a political blogger or cartoonist these days. He's so plugged in and so good at pulling relevant data together in his pithy little squares.

He does seem to get more and more disenchanted with Reagan, Bush, and Meese as the months wear on.
posted by es_de_bah at 10:51 AM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

This is bullet journalling, before it was a thing! (Ok, not technically a bullet journal, I'm using that to mean the time-consuming, creative planner decorations). Very cool, it makes me want to document my mundane activities for future reminiscing. I particularly liked August 16, where he spent his Sunday building a fence for Shunky the dog.
posted by Fig at 10:54 AM on June 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

I assume this is what people did at work PM (pre-metafilter)
posted by ian1977 at 10:54 AM on June 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

I like the story of Liz told in those pages. Good on her for finishing that big history paper. And also for beating cancer, I think.
posted by dazed_one at 10:57 AM on June 14, 2018 [18 favorites]

"Yeah I DO need another 16 color fine point marker set! None of your business why!"
posted by ian1977 at 10:57 AM on June 14, 2018 [34 favorites]

A Disgruntled Federal Employee’s 1980s Desk Calendar

This is almost the plot of David Foster Wallace's The Pale King
posted by chavenet at 11:02 AM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

This is fascinating. I can imagine the amount of drudgery at a regional DoD outpost that would result in this sort of creativity.
posted by me3dia at 11:03 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

The July 31 entry is for an Eisteddfod, which is a Welsh traditional arts and poetry competition and exhibition. Swansea is a city in Wales. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for the National Eisteddfod of Wales, 1982's National was in Swansea (Wales), but it had been going on for much more than 30 years, so he's probably not referring to that one.
posted by amtho at 11:16 AM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

I like the story of Liz told in those pages. Good on her for finishing that big history paper. And also for beating cancer, I think.

Sadly, it turns out she was *spoilers* a spy.
posted by drezdn at 11:28 AM on June 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Wow. The moment I saw the black border around "Death of Clarence Carter" and I realized I was going to like this person. That, and the little celebrations of feminist milestones that pop up here and there.
posted by phooky at 11:30 AM on June 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Please, someone buy them and donate them to the Smithsonian! Perhaps a Jayhawks fan can step up here.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:31 AM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

I love this. Now I'm fantasizing about doing it myself, but I doubt I'd be able to stick with it for anything close to so long.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:36 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Granted I haven't read the entire thing, but is there a particular reason it's assumed the calendar was done by a man rather than a woman? (I really hope so, otherwise I will be depressed, yet again, at gendered assumptions.)
posted by fraula at 11:39 AM on June 14, 2018 [21 favorites]

All I'm saying is that once, in the days before the internet, a co-worker and I spent about thirty minutes carefully cutting up and then re-assembling different-colored Post-Its to make patchwork stapler-cozies.

(NB: I was fresh from an ugly break-up, anxious, squirrelly, and not at all sure about how being out as bisexual was going to work, and said coworker was about 11 years older, polished, and way out of my league, and I was trying s-u-p-e-r hard not to have a crush on her, or at least, not to let any crush-signs show, so, therefore: stapler-cozies.)
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:43 AM on June 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

deep within the deep state

I really don't think we should normalize the usage of "deep state" to mean "average bureaucrat."
posted by Chrysostom at 11:53 AM on June 14, 2018 [53 favorites]

I think the deep state here is Kansas
posted by chavenet at 12:05 PM on June 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

I really don't think we should normalize the usage of "deep state" to mean "average bureaucrat."

also, no one should use the term "fake news" , which should be entirely a tell that the speaker is a Trumpist
posted by thelonius at 12:13 PM on June 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

It's so sad that his 'annual leave' is all of 5 days.
posted by signal at 12:14 PM on June 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

I wondered that too, fraula.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:17 PM on June 14, 2018

> Is it just me or does he not seem that disgruntled?

Practically the first note shown is about Reagan’s breaking up PATCO, with further dates on the repurcussions. It was a shot across the bow of unions generally and of rank-and-file workers in the government specifically. If the calendar writer had recently started their job in 1981, it was probably pretty demoralizing.
posted by ardgedee at 12:20 PM on June 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

I was a little confused by "Gulf War Flares Again" on February 9, 1983, until I realized that the writer was referring to what is usually referred to in the West as the "Iran-Iraq War", which Wikipedia helpfully tells us was called the Gulf War until the Persian Gulf War of 90-91.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:35 PM on June 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

This is amazing. (And yeah, there seems to be no internal evidence that the creator was a man, and some hints to the contrary.) Also, this made me laugh: "Jenny Atwood's last day. True to form, she punts her last afternoon." 🔥
posted by enn at 12:35 PM on June 14, 2018 [15 favorites]

And yeah, there seems to be no internal evidence that the creator was a man, and some hints to the contrary.
Agreed. I'm not 100% that the creator wasn't female.

This is a beautiful historical document and is something that we should all have access to.
posted by teleri025 at 12:46 PM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I love that they went on vacation to Aberystwyth. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

What, no Welsh flag? How rude.
posted by elsietheeel at 12:48 PM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was also wondering why people were assuming male. As someone whose mother was a long-term DoD civilian employee, a *lot* of them were female because they were mostly considered clerical or secretarial jobs, or because the entry level jobs that led to them were considered such. Also, I'd bet pretty damn high odds that a pagan in Kansas working for the federal government would be female. At least my experience of 80s paganism was that it skewed heavily female, and what males were into it were much more outwardly weird or eccentric and less likely to be crypto enough.
posted by tavella at 12:48 PM on June 14, 2018 [14 favorites]

Also, in regards to annual leave; that doesn't mean that was their one leave that year, just that it was a week that they were using some of their annual leave in. At least in the 80s, annual leave for long-term federal employees was quite generous. People often hoarded it, though, because there was no limit to carryover, and so you could easily cash out months or even years when you retired.
posted by tavella at 12:50 PM on June 14, 2018 [7 favorites]

This is cool, but it is nothing compared to my high school diary. We were all given these day planner things, we were supposed to write our homework down in them or something. It just became my doodle pad in boring classes.

Y'know I miss that? Like those notepads people would keep by the phone, when people used landlines. They'd fill with crazy doodles. You look and see that someone was on hold for ages, an address or number, an eggplant for some reason.

Smartphones are better, but I miss the doodles.
posted by adept256 at 12:52 PM on June 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

As much as the day-by-day artful recording of world history is fascinating, I kind of like the personal stuff even better: the ongoing story of Shunky the thirteen-year-old Elkhound, "EVERYBODY SICK", "Mary Theresa does Rhythmic Aerobics for Heart Assn, 50¢ a session 'til she drops"
posted by jeudi at 12:56 PM on June 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah I'm not going to say there couldn't have existed a male government employee in the 80s who tracked feminist milestones & pagan holidays -- along with things like Home Association potlucks & Susan's birthday which have long been cognitive responsibilities society assigns to women to care about -- but nameless female government employee seems way more likely.

help what does "sub-zero cold sidelines the bunny" mean though
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:58 PM on June 14, 2018 [21 favorites]

I love everything about this and want to see the full set!!

sub-zero cold sidelines the bunny - VW Rabbit?
posted by meinvt at 1:01 PM on June 14, 2018 [11 favorites]

Also, I love to imagine the sheer amount of boredom that must have gone into drawing 72 candles to commemorate Reagan's 72nd birthday.
posted by jeudi at 1:03 PM on June 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

April 15 1982 (a personally significant date for me):

(doodle of DPRK flag)

Kim Il Sung's 70th birthday (self imposed date to reunite Koreas)

HAIG ON THE ROAD AGAIN

TAX DAY
posted by adept256 at 1:05 PM on June 14, 2018

I'm also quite invested in the actual gender of the writer. I'm curious about what the queer norms would have been, since they took a week off for their wedding to Liz, and celebrated their wedding anniversary with the heteronormative engagement rings. It doesn't preclude the writer from being a woman. My bias is that the 80s in Kansas would have been more discreet, but I realize each generation overestimates the extent to which they created the resistance.
posted by politikitty at 1:17 PM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh, I didn't see a wedding entry -- that does make it more likely to be male. Not that lesbian couples didn't sometimes get symbolically married in the 80s, but unlikely to have recorded it somewhere as potentially visible as a work calendar.
posted by tavella at 1:30 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

On the other hand, given the dissing of Reagan and other officials, it seems unlikely this particular work calendar was left out for anyone to see, so who knows?
posted by tavella at 1:31 PM on June 14, 2018

The bookstore offering this for sale is using he/him to refer to the maker.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 1:36 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm resisting going on a deep internet dive to try to identify the artist. There cannot be a whole lot of pagan career DoD guys with ties to both the Willamette valley and Kansas who were married to women named Liz and who died recently (presumably.)
posted by tavella at 1:44 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

since they took a week off for their wedding

I think "The Wedding" might refer to The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 1:53 PM on June 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

I think "The Wedding" might refer to The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981.

I think you're right. There is no mention of a wedding anniversary on July 29 in 1982 or 1984 (the only other years for which that date is shown), even though they carefully note the anniversary of the date they met Liz on January 21 every year that date is shown (1981, 1982, and 1984).
posted by enn at 2:02 PM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

The wedding anniversary appears to be 5 May, per the last image (May 1987), so seemingly the writer met Liz in Jan 1978 and they were married in May 1979.
posted by Pink Frost at 2:19 PM on June 14, 2018

Looking at the Wikipedia entry for the National Eisteddfod of Wales, 1982's National was in Swansea (Wales), but it had been going on for much more than 30 years, so he's probably not referring to that one.

Hm -- maybe? They were in Aberystwyth a week before, and Swansea isn't terribly far away. The X's look like they could also be a railroad trestle, although that is definitely reaching:)

For August 7th 1981 -- does anyone know why Int'l Air Controllers declared US Airspace unsafe? Was it a protest to support strikers, like the action by the Portuguese Air Controllers a week or so later?
posted by kalimac at 2:49 PM on June 14, 2018

Is the DoD likely to be upset about this, I wonder? It's an item of art and beauty but I imagine they take a dim view of celebrating the non-work productivity (using government resources!) of a former employee.

I think it's kick-ass and hope they make a coffee table book of it.
posted by emjaybee at 2:56 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

This is amazing, and beautiful. And even inspiring. Thank you for sharing.
posted by seyirci at 3:03 PM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is marvelous and I would love a coffee table book production of this with commentary chapters.
posted by congen at 3:05 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

How would one search for "similar items?"
Man, I wish I could see all of it too now.

This is cool, but it is nothing compared to my high school diary. We were all given these day planner things, we were supposed to write our homework down in them or something. It just became my doodle pad in boring classes.

That's exactly what I was thinking of too: my middle and high school day planners covered in neon pen graffiti everywhere I didn't have to have actual facts.

I kind of want to do this at my job now (oh hey, that day planner you guys offered? now I want one) but hoooooooo boy the explosions if anyone found it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:19 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Granted I haven't read the entire thing, but is there a particular reason it's assumed the calendar was done by a man rather than a woman? (I really hope so, otherwise I will be depressed, yet again, at gendered assumptions.)
posted by fraula at 13:39 on June 14

The seller, who appears to know something about the artist, refers to said artist as male: https://bostonraremaps.com/inventory/1980s-illustrated-cold-war-calendars/

That is enough for me not to question the assumption; I try to never make a depressing gendered assumption in the post regardless of what the original content assumes.
posted by jjray at 3:38 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

Fair enough, jjray.
posted by tavella at 3:55 PM on June 14, 2018

Totally absorbing! An annotated version would probably keep me under for days!

The world news events side-by-side with the diarist's dog fences and family birthdays are what make it really special; it always feels like history means more when we think about the individuals living through it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:01 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

We see both July 82 and July 84 in the article. July 31, 1982 says 'XXX' while July 31, 1984 says, faintly, "You are 32". Eisteddfod or not, I'm guessing the DoD worker was born 31 July, 1952.
posted by hanov3r at 4:05 PM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm disappointed my birthday is not included in these calendar pages, despite being smack dab in the middle of the time period.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:28 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

> For August 7th 1981 -- does anyone know why Int'l Air Controllers declared US Airspace unsafe? Was it a protest to support strikers, like the action by the Portuguese Air Controllers a week or so later?

When PATCO was broken up, all air traffic controllers who refused to work as scabs were fired. Within a day the US had literally lost 90% of its active certified air traffic controllers. It took over a decade for the US to return to full staffing capacity.
posted by ardgedee at 5:31 PM on June 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

> Is the DoD likely to be upset about this, I wonder? It's an item of art and beauty but I imagine they take a dim view of celebrating the non-work productivity (using government resources!) of a former employee.

I doubt this concerns them as much as whether there are any security clearance issues involved in an appointment calendar being taken offsite and publicly displayed.
posted by ardgedee at 5:32 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Looking these over before watching The Americans would be more fun than Wikipedia.
posted by Beardman at 5:36 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

I doubt this concerns them as much as whether there are any security clearance issues involved in an appointment calendar being taken offsite and publicly displayed.

I bet that's why 1988 is missing.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:40 PM on June 14, 2018

I too would like a coffee table book of this! I could see reading it for hours.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:59 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

When PATCO was broken up, all air traffic controllers who refused to work as scabs were fired. Within a day the US had literally lost 90% of its active certified air traffic controllers. It took over a decade for the US to return to full staffing capacity.

And that's why we still can't have nice things.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:11 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

I doubt this concerns them as much as whether there are any security clearance issues involved in an appointment calendar being taken offsite and publicly displayed.

Anyone who put remotely sensitive info on those old paper desktop calendars wouldn't last a month. Security people love doing desk sweeps, and it's all but impossible to lock one of those things up.
posted by Etrigan at 6:14 PM on June 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Love love love this and all things like it. Mingering Mike, anyone?
posted by Bob Regular at 6:48 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

Within a day the US had literally lost 90% of its active certified air traffic controllers. It took over a decade for the US to return to full staffing capacity.

Holy shit. (I just read some quick articles about this. I am shocked but not surprised that this is the first I'm hearing about this.)

Sign me up for a coffeetable book too, with annotations. I was born in 82 so basically have no first-hand memories, but I want to know it all!
posted by kalimac at 7:05 PM on June 14, 2018

I like the story of Liz told in those pages. Good on her for finishing that big history paper
And getting the Anne Stewart Higham Book Award from the University of Kansas..
posted by unliteral at 7:43 PM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

The July 31 entry is for an Eisteddfod
Kansas Eisteddfod
posted by unliteral at 10:36 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

showbiz_liz: “I love this. Now I'm fantasizing about doing it myself, but I doubt I'd be able to stick with it for anything close to so long.”

I bought a book with 368 pages in it. I made it maybe two weeks with the "bullet journaling" and fancy banners and drawing pictures and whatnot. I made it to April recording something every day. I skipped the last month or so. At least partially it's because the dates at the top of the page are just too small for me, and it annoys me. Next year I'll get something different.

posted by ob1quixote at 10:40 PM on June 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

This absolutely made me wistful for my days as a Jayhawk. It also kind of reminded me in certain regards of how Lawrence is a pleasant, liberal town. May Day was a big deal back then and I'm not really certain why. I kind of remember May baskets being a thing.
posted by Dillionaire at 9:12 AM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is very much my jam. I really hope that whoever buys this donates it to a library or museum. Leavenworth Special Collections, anyone?
posted by Monochrome at 12:45 PM on June 15, 2018

Uteva Powers referenced in the calendar on 7/17/84 "Birthday of Uteva Powers (63)"
So Uteva Powers date of birth should be 7/17/21.
Found a listing under her name. Sadly for her funeral information.
Liz Powers Wilkerson, her daughter, is in the information. Liz passed away on 3/12/01. That makes me sad.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30208482/uteva-edna-powers
posted by narancia at 12:46 PM on June 15, 2018 [7 favorites]

Typo, it's actually Wilderson. I actually have not found an obituary, so I won't post the full name, but he seems to have stopped posting last year so seems likely he passed. On the other hand, by that standard if you looked my Facebook you'd also think I was dead, so.

(I'm not very good at resisting temptation, am I?)
posted by tavella at 2:55 PM on June 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

And in fact the cached version on Google of the Boston Rare Maps site confirms the name, but given it was later elided it's possible the gentleman is still alive, so er, sorry dude! if he happens to come across this. Cool calendars, though!
posted by tavella at 3:43 PM on June 15, 2018

I finally got around to reading this today (blowing up the calendars because man, the text is tiny) and I wondered if anyone could track him down given the one full name I saw mentioned, "Birth of Rachelle May Powers." Is that his kid? Looks like there are many with that name online though.

Why is this THAT much money? Where was the cost listed before they sold out (I'm guessing)?

I think this guy did Homework For Life.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:44 PM on June 15, 2018

The Reagan era covered my uni days and first year or so of gainful employment. I remember the air traffic controllers thing vividly. It was absolutely nuts. I also remember the Religious Right excusing everything that dotard did in office, and the fact that he thought AIDS was like catching a cold until his ol' buddy Rock Hudson passed away.
posted by oheso at 5:48 PM on June 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

No, Rachelle is a niece, I believe.

It appears it was originally consigned to a local Portland gallery early last year, not as I thought as an estate sale but apparently in preparation for a move to Hawaii. At that point it was selling for $700, and then it was brought and resold by the second gallery for $5500.
posted by tavella at 12:16 AM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

This thread finally got me to pitch in my $5 in order to join in the discussion. My impression is that this is the mother of Rachelle (who probably would have taken leave to bear a child, hence the note on July 2). I think Liz is a friend. The family seems pretty close knit, so I suspect one of them will turn up IRL to make a comment. I'd like to hear what they make of the attention this is getting.
posted by rustipi at 3:57 PM on June 17, 2018 [3 favorites]

No, Liz was definitely his wife, there's a transcription of her lovely memorial service that explains the Life Day -- it was the anniversary of the day she was diagnosed with leukemia, with essentially zero platelet count, and yet didn't die.
posted by tavella at 8:01 PM on June 17, 2018 [7 favorites]

Hi, rustipi! Yeah, this story would probably have pulled me out of lurking too!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:13 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ahh, that does make a better fit. I don't suppose there's an edit function for old posts... :)
posted by rustipi at 2:17 PM on June 18, 2018

tavella, Thank you for posting the link to the memorial service. It really backs up many of the guesses people had about the beliefs of the artist and also shows the deep love he had for Liz.
posted by narancia at 2:45 PM on June 27, 2018