It’s A Holiday Weekend. Take The Early Slide.

Many years ago, when I worked at The Washington Post, I overheard one of our national reporters griping on a Friday afternoon.

I wasn’t eavesdropping. You could hear him across the canyon of a newsroom.

“No one in the effing federal government answers their phones on Friday,” he shouted, slamming down his phone and adding a few more descriptive expletives about the goldbricking official he was trying to reach.

(Note to those under 40, picture this: There was a time when office workers were tethered to actual telephones with spiral cords. These communication contrivances rested on desks and were equipped with heavy receivers that made a most satisfying noise when smashed back into their cradles in anger. )

Some time after that outburst, probably at the end of a slow-news week, a group of us simultaneously tried to reach several dozen government officials at 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon for a quick metro story. We wanted to see who was working. Besides us.

If memory serves, the answer was no one. I can’t find a copy of the feature story. We thought it was highly amusing. It’s doubtful the federal workers on the receiving end felt the same way.

This story would be impossible to do today with cell phones. An official could be on the beach and unless a seagull started squawking, the reporter would never know.

People still take what we used to call “the early slide,” but they can mask it through the miracle of cellphones.

I thought about that on Thursday morning as I left the high-rise Norfolk parking garage we use at the radio station. There were so few cars that tumbleweeds were blowing around several levels.

I was puzzled until I remembered that this is a holiday weekend. Shoot, the offices on the other floors usually full of lawyers and accountant types, were mostly empty on Thursday.

Today will be even quieter. The tower will be a tall ghost town.

Memorial Day is Monday. If you’re not an ER doc, a firefighter or police officer, chances are you’re giving yourself an extra long weekend.

Go ahead, take the early slide today.

Don’t forget your phone.