Good morning and thanks for joining us again, ladies and gentlemen.
Monday is over, Tuesday is here, and you know what that means: It’s Adair Drug Tuesday on The County Line.
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Of course, it would not be Tuesday—and this wouldn’t be Tuesday’s morning post—if we didn’t have a ridiculous holiday to share some of the Adair Drug Spotlight. The ridiculousness is at peak levels today, because we’re showcasing a holiday that not only lacks the “National” or “International” modifier, but isn’t even properly capitalized.
Happy hashtag Day.
For the uninitiated, hashtags were a straight-up social media phenomenon about a decade ago. The concept is a little strange to explain, but basically, a “hashtag” is a tag that is included in a social media post. The goal is that the tag allows said post to be viewed with other posts featuring the same hashtag. Searching “#election” for example, would show only posts with that hashtag, so one could scroll through the recent election-related posts on a given social media platform.
Here’s an example from my personal Twitter account, posted on July 10, 2012, back when I still used Twitter, hashtags, and delusion:
Billy Hamilton moving on to double A. Good news for the future #Reds shortstop. Can’t wait to see him swipe some bases in Great American BP.
Of course, Billy would go on to swipe a lot of bases in Cincy, but he didn’t play shortstop or do much else of note. Over five season from 2014 until 2018, plus 13 games in 2013, Hamilton flashed plenty of speed and played a solid centerfield, but was otherwise minor-league caliber. He never drew walks, never learned to hit for average or power, and never learned to bunt. The lesson is twofold: 1. Don’t believe in the Reds, ever, and 2. I’m an idiot.
Hashtags are still around, but have mostly fallen out of favor. I don’t think the younger generation has much use for them at all. Apparently, they’re still kind of a big deal on Instagram, but I’m very old and don’t have an IG account, so I cannot personally attest.
The only notable interest or opinion I have about hashtags is in the name. The hashtag icon, #, is now ubiquitous, but that wasn’t always what it was called. It was formerly the “pound sign” and was used in automated phone responses—think “Please enter your card number followed by the pound sign.” When I was a kid, we called it the “number sign,” an obligatory inclusion for signing John Adair yearbooks, e.g. “Wes Feese #10.”
Whatever you know the # icon as, younger people probably only know it as a “hashtag.” To someone younger than 25, the term is probably already viewed as outdated, a product of another time. It goes to show just how fast language can change, and how quickly technology can necessitate new words or word meanings entering and exiting our collective vocabulary.
hashtag Day is undoubtedly silly and wholly unnecessary, but that’s part of the charm of the fake holidays we love to celebrate and mock on this website. We hope your hashtag Day is the best possible, so tag a tweet or Facebook post to honor this day.
Let’s check in with the intern for today’s weather report:
Just a few minutes before 7 a.m., it’s 63 degrees and cloudy across The County Line coverage area. The cloud cover is expected to remain throughout the morning and into early afternoon, giving way to sunny skies for the last few hours of daylight. Expect mild, comfortable conditions, with a high topping out in the low 80s.
That’s all for now. Check back throughout the day for more fresh content headed your way, always from local voices.
This post is brought to you as part of Adair Drug Tuesday.
