Remember remember...

Philistine'sMonster

No it's not the lyrics from Fame, it’s bonfire night or fireworks night or whatever the cock you call it these days -- a good old English tradition of celebrating anarchy and terrorism, and frightening pets. But today there’s another reason for popping the corks and blowing our fingers off with cheap explosives from Tesco. What a moving day it's been. So, whether you’re from Stroud Green, Finsbury Park or even, bless ‘em, Stround Green, I hope you’ll join me in a drink. Cheers!

As I write this, at 1:15pm, I hear the sound of WHISTLES and BANGS from down the street, and I expect this to continue daily until … ooh … well into January, I expect. I intend now to spend the rest of the afternoon in a pub, as I have done before, watching the kids setting rockets off down Marquis Road (last year they were assisted by a responsible adult who looked like he’d been sitting on The Bench all day drinking Horse Piss Lager, bless him). It’s a lovely time of year, and I’m glad I don’t work at the Whittington Hospital A&E, but I wish you all a fantastic evening on this momentous day.

See you later, perhaps? I’ll be the one who’s had more Guinness than everyone else.

Ta-ta, and be safe.

unaesthetic

i hate bonfire night

it celebrates the capture, torture and scapegoating of a freedom-fighter from a persecuted religious/political minority. i for one agree with abolishing the monarchy (although blowing stuff up is so passé) and with religious freedom.

if we burned effigies of the inmates of guantanamo every 9/11, it would mean about the same thing (forgetting for a moment that islamists want to inflict the very opposite of what fawkes stood for). i'm really not by any means a right-on, politically correct person, but i find myself in agreement with guy fawkes and can't take any joy in the celebration of his punishment.

i'm going to watch <i>v for vendetta</i> tonight. alan moore's take on the story is foof for thought...

Philistine'sMonster

Well that's pissed on my flame.

But it's certainly given me "foof" for thought.

Hurrah for staying in.

unaesthetic

hurrah for foof!

andy

*it celebrates the capture, torture and scapegoating of a freedom-fighter from a persecuted religious/political minority.* This is tosh. Guy Fawkes was *anti* religious freedom rather than pro. Not that he was important. I'm no Simon Schama, but England at the time was a small country on the fringes of Europe. The gunpowder plot has to be understood in the context of a series of protestant/catholic clashes where the big dogs of Europe (Spain) were encouraged by the pope to close down the new heretic protestant countries and install catholic heads of state. Foiling the gunpowder plot was important for the emergence of parliamentary democracy, because if it had worked any outcome would have been more authoritarian. Obviously there are no good guys here but this period of history is a bit more like Star Wars, with England and the rebels and Spain as the Empire. The gunpower plot is like some stormtroopers sneaking into Hoth. Or something. But it's hard to describe them as 'freedom fighters'

andy

and v for vendetta was rubbish - even with natalie portman in it.

tosscat

I liked it, it made me cry. A bit silly though.

Philistine'sMonster

Silly is good. Tosh is good. So is foof, a word which I think should be included in the dictionary. We likes a bit of fun, we does.

Heeeeey! Star Wars night! We could blow up a big Death Star instead of burning effigies of some old bastard with a beard from history who was so stupid he couldn’t even blow up parliament properly. I mean if you’re going to do a job, do it properly or just piss off, that's my motto.

Silliness aside, last night around 11pm there was a charming bunch of grown-up twenty/thirty-somethings on Woodfall Road having their own fireworks display in the park. Ahhh.

If you were one of them, cheers!

Hmmm. Sparklers are a bit like lightsabers…

katiejane

@ larrick obama - I know who you are. You're tosscat!

rainbow_carnage

Did anyone else get approached by children and asked to buy fireworks for them?

We were walking by Tesco a few days ago. A boy of about 13 tried to talk to us. I thought he was going to ask us to buy him booze (which I can't totally disapprove of as we used to get older friends to buy the stuff). It turned out that he wanted fireworks. He was very polite and assured us that he had the money. I was almost sad to have to say no. It was all very sweet.

unaesthetic

...all very sweet

until he lets a rocket off thru someone's letterbox or blows his own fingers off...

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David

I'm confused. Did Guy Fawkes get subjected to a hormone injection experiment too or is that just in Alan's version? And as a authoritarian, is this the most effective way of combatting freedom fighers? Why not just shoot them? Worked for Franco.

Duncan

Hurrah for Andy!

Except that I rather liked V for Vendetta, especially the bit at the end where everyone has their own mask.