On August 21st

[Cadaverous Pallor]

The very fact that one of the most oft-used names for the event is "September 11th" makes saying the date out loud awkward. Even 12/7 is "Pearl Harbor Day". We don't call it "WTC day". "Nine-Eleven" is a good substitute because people don't usually refer to dates this way. It seems that referring to it as "September 11th" has stuck completely and I don't see it wavering for another generation at least.

I've gotten used to having to say the date all day long as a part of my job (for 2 days, actually - the day that it's the book due date, and the day that it's the one-week DVD due date). It still sucks.