|
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Subject: "At the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Elevent"
|
Archived thread - Read only
Previous Topic |
Next Topic |
Gryphon
Charter Member
22726 posts |
Nov-12-17, 00:16 AM (EDT) |
|
1. "RE: At the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Ele"
In response to message #0
|
LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-17 AT 00:20 AM (EST) The company I work for issued its holiday schedule for next year the other day; it noted that in 2018, Veterans Day is not a company holiday, and the company has taken the opportunity to shuffle the designated holidays around (by canceling Columbus Day) so that everyone gets the whole week of Christmas off.I nearly dashed off a huffy note to the HR department protesting that, of all years for a company to decide not to observe Veterans Day, 2018 was especially inappropriate. Fortunately, it occurred to me to check a calendar first and learn that November 11, 2018 is a Sunday. I am perfectly OK with Veterans Day not roaming around the calendar based on when the nearest Monday is, so, fair enough, HR. You get a pass this time. (I don't give a damn about Columbus Day, except insofar as its omission means there's an awfully long holiday drought between Labor Day and Thanksgiving next fall. I'll probably take it off anyway and claim I'm observing Canadian Thanksgiving. :) Anyway. It's been a low-key 99th Armistice Day here; I've mostly been preoccupied with a friend's gloomy observation that it feels like the old Lie is being pushed as part of our national brand again lately (if it ever wasn't). Now light the candles; one; two; there's a moth; What silly beggars they are to blunder in And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame— No, no, not that,—it's bad to think of war, When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you; And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts That drive them out to jabber among the trees. Now light your pipe; look, what a steady hand. Draw a deep breath; stop thinking; count fifteen, And you're as right as rain ... Why won't it rain? ... I wish there'd be a thunder-storm to-night, With bucketsful of water to sluice the dark, And make the roses hang their dripping heads. Books; what a jolly company they are, Standing so quiet and patient on their shelves, Dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green, And every kind of colour. Which will you read? Come on; O do read something; they're so wise. I tell you all the wisdom of the world Is waiting for you on those shelves; and yet You sit and gnaw your nails, and let your pipe out, And listen to the silence: on the ceiling There's one big, dizzy moth that bumps and flutters; And in the breathless air outside the house The garden waits for something that delays. There must be crowds of ghosts among the trees,— Not people killed in battle,—they're in France,— But horrible shapes in shrouds--old men who died Slow, natural deaths,—old men with ugly souls, Who wore their bodies out with nasty sins. * * * You're quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home; You'd never think there was a bloody war on! ... O yes, you would ... why, you can hear the guns. Hark! Thud, thud, thud,—quite soft ... they never cease— Those whispering guns—O Christ, I want to go out And screech at them to stop—I'm going crazy; I'm going stark, staring mad because of the guns.—Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) "Repression of War Experience" 1918 --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
|
|
Printer-friendly page | Top |
|
|
Gryphon
Charter Member
22726 posts |
Nov-12-17, 00:16 AM (EDT) |
|
1. "RE: At the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Ele"
In response to message #0
|
LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-17 AT 00:20 AM (EST) The company I work for issued its holiday schedule for next year the other day; it noted that in 2018, Veterans Day is not a company holiday, and the company has taken the opportunity to shuffle the designated holidays around (by canceling Columbus Day) so that everyone gets the whole week of Christmas off.I nearly dashed off a huffy note to the HR department protesting that, of all years for a company to decide not to observe Veterans Day, 2018 was especially inappropriate. Fortunately, it occurred to me to check a calendar first and learn that November 11, 2018 is a Sunday. I am perfectly OK with Veterans Day not roaming around the calendar based on when the nearest Monday is, so, fair enough, HR. You get a pass this time. (I don't give a damn about Columbus Day, except insofar as its omission means there's an awfully long holiday drought between Labor Day and Thanksgiving next fall. I'll probably take it off anyway and claim I'm observing Canadian Thanksgiving. :) Anyway. It's been a low-key 99th Armistice Day here; I've mostly been preoccupied with a friend's gloomy observation that it feels like the old Lie is being pushed as part of our national brand again lately (if it ever wasn't). Now light the candles; one; two; there's a moth; What silly beggars they are to blunder in And scorch their wings with glory, liquid flame— No, no, not that,—it's bad to think of war, When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you; And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts That drive them out to jabber among the trees. Now light your pipe; look, what a steady hand. Draw a deep breath; stop thinking; count fifteen, And you're as right as rain ... Why won't it rain? ... I wish there'd be a thunder-storm to-night, With bucketsful of water to sluice the dark, And make the roses hang their dripping heads. Books; what a jolly company they are, Standing so quiet and patient on their shelves, Dressed in dim brown, and black, and white, and green, And every kind of colour. Which will you read? Come on; O do read something; they're so wise. I tell you all the wisdom of the world Is waiting for you on those shelves; and yet You sit and gnaw your nails, and let your pipe out, And listen to the silence: on the ceiling There's one big, dizzy moth that bumps and flutters; And in the breathless air outside the house The garden waits for something that delays. There must be crowds of ghosts among the trees,— Not people killed in battle,—they're in France,— But horrible shapes in shrouds--old men who died Slow, natural deaths,—old men with ugly souls, Who wore their bodies out with nasty sins. * * * You're quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home; You'd never think there was a bloody war on! ... O yes, you would ... why, you can hear the guns. Hark! Thud, thud, thud,—quite soft ... they never cease— Those whispering guns—O Christ, I want to go out And screech at them to stop—I'm going crazy; I'm going stark, staring mad because of the guns.—Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) "Repression of War Experience" 1918 --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
|
|
Printer-friendly page | Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gryphon
Charter Member
22726 posts |
Nov-13-17, 08:48 AM (EDT) |
|
6. "RE: At the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Ele"
In response to message #5
|
LAST EDITED ON Nov-13-17 AT 04:43 PM (EST) >Halloween being a "proper" holiday and being at the end of September >rather than October would be convenient for the purposes of spacing >stuff out. That ship has long since sailed, tho. As it were. (Also doesn't make a ton of sense, it's called that because it's the day before Hallowmas. I'm an atheist bordering on antitheism and that would still bug me just as a matter of form. :) I think the British do this kind of thing right; they have a couple of official holidays that are holidays purely because there needs to be one there, without bothering to cast around for something to commemorate. Just call it "Mid-October Holiday" and let's all get on with our lives. --G. -><- Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ zgryphon at that email service Google has Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. |
|
|
Printer-friendly page | Top |
|
|
|
|
|
MoonEyes
Member since Jun-29-03
1138 posts |
Nov-12-17, 12:59 PM (EDT) |
|
2. "RE: At the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Ele"
In response to message #0
|
LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-17 AT 12:59 PM (EST) I have, as I tend to, spent the past week or so in London, celebrating a friends birthday. England commemorates "Remembrance Sunday". That is not to say that nothing happens on the 11th, but the major things, such as wreaths at the Cenotaph and similar is kept to Sunday nearest. And so, this morning at 11 I had the interesting experience of seeing pretty much ALL of a major international Airport just....stop. Nothing and no-one moved for two minutes and for a wonder, no phones went or or anything either. Nice, calm, respectful.And I even managed to not drop my pants, waiting to pass through security. ...! Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths "Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"
|
|
|
Printer-friendly page | Top |
|
|
version 3.3 © 2001
Eyrie Productions,
Unlimited
Benjamin
D. Hutchins
E P U (Colour)
|