What annoy's me is the fact that more people celebrate Halloween (another American invention) than Bonfire Night. When was the last time you saw kids collecting, "penny for the guy"?
Been happening a lot at Nottarf, had to pay his wages somehow.
What annoy's me is the fact that more people celebrate Halloween (another American invention) than Bonfire Night. When was the last time you saw kids collecting, "penny for the guy"?
Know what you mean, but is it worse than trick or treating which can be definitely threatening?
Good football topic by the way!
Trick-or-treating is just begging. My parents never let me do it and if I have kids one day they won't be doing it either.
Unless we're homeless.
They mentioned it on Sky Sports. Suspect we will celebrate more when we achieve English independence.
Happy St George's Day.
What annoy's me is the fact that more people celebrate Halloween (another American invention) than Bonfire Night. When was the last time you saw kids collecting, "penny for the guy"?
I shall raise a glass to the bard then![]()
Halloween isn't an American invention, it's always been in the Christian calender as it's the day before All Saints (Hallows) Day, but granted it was the Americans who ruined it. Trick or Treat has Celtic roots too, from the Samhain festival - it was connected with driving away evil spirits, and was carried out by people in costume. They were then rewarded with gifts of food
Halloween isn't an American invention, it's always been in the Christian calender as it's the day before All Saints (Hallows) Day, but granted it was the Americans who ruined it. Trick or Treat has Celtic roots too, from the Samhain festival - it was connected with driving away evil spirits, and was carried out by people in costume. They were then rewarded with gifts of food
I wasn't aware of that, however, I think we can forgive people who lived hundreds of years ago from having some old-fashioned views.I saw an interesting interview with Steven Berkoff recently in which he was making the point that arguably the two greatest writers that this country has produced had an effect on anti-semitism with their depictation of Jewish characters in two of their major works.
He argued that Shakespere's Shylock from The Merchant of Venice was a ruthless moneylender who demanded his "pound of flesh" and Dicken's ***in from Oliver Twist used child exploitation to line his pockets and these characters helped to stereotype Jewish people in a bad way.
Happy Turkish Catholic man who probably didn't actually exist Day!
Happy Turkish Catholic man who probably didn't actually exist Day!
I wasn't aware of that, however, I think we can forgive people who lived hundreds of years ago from having some old-fashioned views.
Point taken, but you can understand why a Jewish person might feel differently, considering how badly they have been treated by society throughout history.
My take on it is that I feel that Shakespere was a great writer and contributed massively to not only British culture, but also worldwide. However i don't regard him as a great Human Being and a lot of his work was propaganda for the ruling Tudor dynasty.
Dickens, at least brought the issues of inner city poverty and degredation of Victorian Britain to a wider audience through his works.

Dear Virgin Media,
I'm really sorry for my Father in Law not paying his bill last month, but what with him being dead and all, it's probably slipped his mind. Some people, eh?
You, however, are to be publically commended for swooping in with all the sensitivity of a charging rhino and instantly fining him an extra ten pounds for having the unheard of nerve to be dead and therefore being unable to pay you (some people really have no idea of priorities do they? It's your profit first, THEN anything else. The cheek!).
You also win extra points for noticing his bank had returned his Direct Debit informing you he had passed away, THEN still slapping on a fine anyway. That's a special kind of meanness right there. Oh, and despite my wife telling you our sad news as well. I am intrigued - how exactly did you imagine him paying this extra fine from beyond the grave?
You also deserve a further honorable mention for promptly sending us next months bill as well. I'm simply not paying it, as ever since passing away, I have noticed a sharp decrease in the amount of television my Father in Law has been watching. I simply cannot think why that would be.
I might pay it if you can prove to me he's been watching any of your channels in heaven, but given that British Sky Broadcasting is beamed in directly from the clouds I think he's much more likely to be enjoying that. Your infernal cable pipes seem only to come up from the ground (same location as Hell - spooky coincidence) where I imagine your train people in the art of customer service.
I am bitterly disappointed in your attitude, probably automatically generated by machine and unchecked by any caring human heart. The only saving grace is that my Father in Law had an excellent sense of humour and is probably laughing his arse off about this as we type, giving you the Vs, waving ten pound notes around, planning to haunt you and enjoying the content of Sky TV.
Not really their fault, I mean it's all automated.
Some sort of procedure when this situation arises wouldn't go amiss though, surely. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to alert them to the fact the guy's dead.