Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis.

Saturday 11 November 2017

11th Hour, 11th Day, 11th Month

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    (R.L.Binyon, from  "For the Fallen")

   


















Wednesday 8 November 2017

War



(Apologies to Lynn Johnson for appropriating her work)
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i grew up watching "Victory at Sea," The World at War," and many other WWII documentaries. 40's & 50's era war movies were regular fare on  afternoon, after school TV programming. War was all around us in a nation that had been almost untouched compared to the carnage that was experienced in Europe and the Pacific, and images of the dead and dying were edited to the minimum in the films.  We had toy rifles and grenades and some of us had uniforms and military gear from the surplus stores or our fathers' attics. We built models of warplanes and warships. We staged battles. War was cool to us, and our war veteran fathers and survivor parents and grand parents said almost nothing to us about it -unlike Mike's mom. Soon, many of my contemporaries and our elder siblings were sent off to a real shooting war in Asia, and the survivors returned profoundly changed and shaken by the experience, having learnt the hard lesson that General Sherman was understating things when he said, "War is Hell."

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Вели́кая Октя́брьская социалисти́ческая револю́ция

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Petrograd, 7 November (25 October, Julian,) 1917...


The proclamation
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Kerensky & provisional government deposed...

The American Embassy, Petrograd.  Kerensky's refuge.


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 The New Bosses:



 
 

 
 
 

 

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The Masterminds:

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka Lenin.

Lev Davidovich Bronstein, aka Leon Trotsky.
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Eventually:

"Workers of the World Unite!"

Enshrined in a Holy Trinity

Красная звезда

                                    
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                        To so many of the war-weary Russian people,
                      it seemed like a good idea at the time.




Monday 6 November 2017

Are you sick of this yet?

                                   i am sick to tears of hearing about "shock and horror."

                                   i am sick of hearing the phrase "thoughts and prayers."

                                   i am sick of hearing "Now isn't the time..."

From:Yahoo News, AP

                                                                      
                                           How about you?

Sunday 5 November 2017

A Penny for the Guy?






                                                         The Fifth of November                                                     
                                                          
                                                     Remember, remember the fifth of November 
                                               Gunpowder, treason and plot 
                                                I see no reason why gunpowder treason 
                                                Should ever be forgot 

                                                Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent 
                                                To blow up the King and the Parliament 
                                                Three score barrels of powder below 
                                                Poor old England to overthrow 
                                                By God's providence he was catched 
                                                With a dark lantern and burning match 
                                                Holloa boys, holloa boys 
                                                God save the King! 
                                                Hip hip hooray! 
                                                Hip hip hooray! 

                                                A penny loaf to feed ol' Pope 
                                                A farthing cheese to choke him 
                                                A pint of beer to rinse it down 
                                                A faggot of sticks to burn him 
                                                Burn him in a tub of tar 
                                                Burn him like a blazing star 
                                                Burn his body from his head 
                                                Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead. 
                                                Hip hip hooray! 
                                                Hip hip hooray!


The Conspirators


The Capture



The gruesome fate: Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered.




 
The Commemoration



 
Penny for the Guy?

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                                        (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night)