“Shunday” is a drinking slang name for a day of the week. “Shunday” is a day when drinks are shunned. The term “Shunday” was listed as a day of an alcoholic’s week in 1968 newspapers.
Other slang names for days of the week include Sober Sunday, Margarita Monday, Messed-up Monday, Mojito Monday, Moonshine Monday, Boozeday Tuesday, Taco Tuesday, Tanked Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tequila Tuesday, Tipsy Tuesday, Trashed Tuesday, Twisted Tuesday, Wasted Wednesday, Whiskey Wednesday, Wiener Wednesday, Wine Wednesday, Winesday Wednesday, Wing Wednesday, Thirsday, Thirstday, Thirsty Thursday, Fajita Friday, Fucked-up Friday, Shit-faced Saturday, Sloppy Saturday, Sloshed Saturday and Smashed Saturday.
13 March 1968, Iowa City (IA) Press-Citizen, “A Chat With Pat,” pg. 9A, col. 8:
THIS IS AN Alcoholic’s week: Rumday, Boozeday, Winesday, Thirstday, Ryeday, and Shatterday. He makes no observance of Shunday.
26 April 1968, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), “Highway Deaths Increase” by Clayton Rand, sec. 3, pg. 4, col. 5:
Frank Filley suggests for alcoholics’ week: Rumday, Boozeday, Winesday, Thirstday, Ryeday, Shatterday, and Shunday.
21 January 1973, Big Spring (TX) Herald, “Around the Rim” by Walt Finley, pg. 12, col. 7:
My drinking cousin, Bobby Harris, sent me “The Alcoholics Week.”
RUMDAY, BOOZEDAY, Winesday, Thirstday, Ryeday, Shatterday and, of course, Shunday.
Google Books
The Origins of English Words:
A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots
By Joseph Twadell Shipley
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press
1984
Pg. 196:
Joyce did not find the week “restful”; in Finnegans Wake he lists “all moanday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday”— sparing the shunday to shine!
Google Books
Einstein’s Monsters
By Martin Amis
New York, NY: Vintage Books
1990
Pg. 112:
There were seven to chose from (all different now, all sad days, since the dog): Shunday, Moanday, Tearsday, Woundsday, Thirstday, Fireday, Shatterday.
Google Groups: JBMExclusive
Jayakar Malliah
12/2/10
(...)
Without sex our week would be MOURNDAY TEARSDAY WASTEDAY THIRSTDAY FIGHTDAY SHATTERDAY & SHUNDAY Remember 7 days without SEX makes one WEAK.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
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