Finding your groove

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. A 100 years later, is the two-day weekend due for a makeover; there’s a new approach for treating arthritis; and Liverpool expands the Beatles museum 👀

Let’s get into it!

The two-day weekend has now officially been around for 100 years. While it was likely first adopted by Henry Ford at the Ford Motor Company, it wasn’t officially implemented in Canada and the United States until the mid-1920s, thanks in large part to the efforts of organized labour groups.

At first, Saturdays were reduced to half a workday before officially becoming part of workers’ weekly time off the job. But until the early 20th century, the standard work week was much longer and plenty more grueling—six days and ten hours per day, to be specific.

Since the five-day week was imposed, workdays have actually been getting longer and, though the weekend is still officially two days, the boundaries that once stood clearly between work and “not work” have been eroded by the hyper connectivity of modern society.

Recently some countries have tested a 4 day work week, but removing a day from the work calendar could be more difficult than first imagined.

"That could mean that you need to restructure your meetings; that could mean that you need to ensure that everybody has heads-down time,” said Grace Tallon, co-founder of Work Time Revolution, a Toronto-based consultancy group that helps employers adopt shorter work hours.

A study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases found the treat-to-target (T2T) approach had significant levels of success for participants suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

T2T is a method of treatment in which the patient and physician agree on a specific goal, and treatment is carried out until it’s achieved.

For RA, that target is usually clinical remission or low disease activity, and the study found those who went through T2T often entered clinical remission after two years of physical therapy, and demonstrated better physical function after ten years.

Specifically, of the 230 study participants, 218 were alive after ten years, and 82% demonstrated a “disease activity score” remission, along with an improved health-related quality of life.

"The results support current treatment recommendations for RA and offer reassurance to patients newly diagnosed with RA that clinical remission, preserved function, and favorable long-term survival are realistic long-term outcomes," the authors wrote.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a type of arthritis in which the patient’s immune system mistakes the body’s joints for a threat to the person’s health, thereby attacking and weakening them.

The Beatles Museum in Liverpool is certainly a place of historical significance, but when you think of it, it doesn’t necessarily give off the same vibe as places like Graceland or Dollywood.

That’s what Apple Corps Ltd. (the Beatles’ business manager) thought when it committed to beefing up the museum, which will move from Liverpool’s docklands to the heart of the city at a 100,000-square-foot site at the old St. John’s Market across from Lime Street train station.

Apple Corps expects global interest in the original rock ‘n roll band to shoot through the roof over the next couple of years in response to Sam Mendes’ ambitious project that will produce four separate films, each chronicling the life of one of the band’s four members, all to be released at the same time.

The museum will open in 2028, taking visitors on a trip through the lives of each Beatle, from postwar Liverpool to Hamburg to the meteoric global rise of Beatlemania.

“Just like Graceland or Dollywood, it’s fitting that The Beatles will have a world class destination for fans to visit in the center of the city where the story started,” said Apple Corps chief executive, Tom Greene.

’88…goes to your head?

Well, we certainly hope so…but in a good way because everything happening this week in 1988 is the theme for today’s trivia!