Which I believe it has done every year.

You would complain just as much if they put up a logo that showed a cookout, two kids in swim suits, and a flag. You know that's what it would be. That's what it means to a great many Americans anyway.

Why, just three days ago, a woman asked if I was doing something "fun" for Memorial Day. The question took my breath away. I told her I was going to the parade (very short: no clowns or miniature cars) and then to the memorial service in the park, the way we do every year. She was disappointed.

Headstones are not good for merchandising, except at Hallowe'en, when we're referring to ghost stories instead of real deaths. Personally, I think that this is not a particularly upbeat holiday, and I resent the sales events that trivialize it. "Happy Memorial Day" is a dumb thing to say, too, if one thinks about what it's about, but we say it reflexively.

Google has an international audience. I would rather have this day returned to the more solemn occasion that it is than have it packaged for the world to consume like one more American product.