Chances are you don’t have a ticket to the 2013 Inaugural Ball. You can all thank technology.
As the Washington Post reports, “People who had signed up to attend the Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center received e-mails Sunday from Ticketmaster that said tickets would go on sale Monday. It told recipients that they would receive a link sometime Monday with an exclusive link to buy a limited number of tickets for $60 each. But instead, e-mails went out hours later with a link to the Web site to buy them.”
Daily News has a little more color for the affair: “While testing its email system, the company accidentally broadcast the link to buy inauguration tickets on Sunday, rather than on Monday as previously advertised. Twitter was deluged with complaints by disappointed fans of the president who missed their chance to buy tickets to the inauguration events. Ticketmaster apologized for the mistake on Sunday evening.”
The worst part about the inauguration comes from federal employees not even getting vacation time! Again with the WaPo: “Since the observance of King’s birthday falls on the same day, government workers in the D.C. area will lose the extra paid time off they usually receive for the swearing-in ceremony. Full-time federal employees are entitled to “in lieu of” holidays, meaning they can normally bump the dates forward or back when official holidays fall on non-workdays. But that won’t apply this year because the law doesn’t offer such a provision for the inauguration holiday.”
Except when it doesn’t, since MLK day generally keeps things in D.C. quiet. Some federal staff will still be required as they’re essential or “law-enforcement officers, firefighters, medical personnel, meteorologists and watch-center operators.”
Alas, poor Al Roker. You’re not getting out of inauguration duties anymore anytime soon.