A bunch of furloughed government workers, willing themselves to make lemonade from lemons, have been hosting shutdown parties to cheer themselves up. The New York Times ran a piece about the trend, which extends to restaurants and cafes offering deals to anyone who shows a government ID.
(Photo credit: Rep. Keith Ellison / Flickr)
One furloughed employee hosted a “Survive the Shutdown” party, asking her friends to bring their favorite bargain food and show up clad in thrift store finds, the NYT piece says. The soundtrack featured songs about money.
Though it’s no joke that 800,000 federal employees have been on forced unpaid leave, many are trying to make a bad situation tolerable. And lots of others in the community have stepped up to help them along.
Others have offered free coffee to anyone with a government ID while demanding twice the regular price for members of Congress. Some bars have extended happy hours for every day of the government shutdown.
Parade Magazine ran a list of shutdown freebies for the furloughed. Free sandwiches. Free movie. Free lunch. Free museum admissions. Free skydiving.
It’s not all fun and games, but the solidarity keeps some of these workers going in the face of uncertainty, the NYT article illustrates.
“We are going to keep going: we’re not going to take a break,” 47-year-old Lenny Burridge, who works in the safety office of Washington’s Air Route Travel Control Center, tells the NYT.adding that the shutdown is “really bumming some people out.”
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