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bummer on the nudity……..

Dude, it’s cold. And there’s open flame.

Have you ever fried bacon in the nude? If so, slap yourself.

So, England has Aggies?

Had no idear.

(actually, I had never heard of Guy Fawkes night. I heard of Guy Fawkes, I ain’t all that dumb.. ok kinda)

That area of the country suffered a large proportion of the stake-burning of ‘heretic’ Protestants under Catholic rule. That is why they have such a strong tradition of giving the Pope’s effigy a taste of what they expected him to endure for his eternal damnation.

Why Stoatie, yes I have. It’s GREAT for dry skin…. 😉

I keep trying to get my friends to do a Guy Fawkes party each year, but it never comes off…..

Somewhere Al Gore is availing himself of the nearest fainting couch.

Stoatie, see if you can open this. japanese cat weightlifting game. They bet on how much cats can lift or something, using bigger and bigger fish…

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/2/Japanese-Cat-Weight-Lifting-454076.html

Wait, I’m confused… if it’s pagan-y isn’t nudity required?

Looks like a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! (It’s their 40th Anniversary by the way.)

“A penny for the Guy.” I remember those days, pushing around an effigy of Guy in a wheelchair.

Burn him up later, why yes we did. That’s the thing about the Brits, they can be both savage and urbane simultaneously. It really is a marvelous trait.

I think we need some flaming effigies here. Howzabout:

“Penny for the Pelosi.”
“Fifty for the Frank.”
“Dollar for the Dodd.”

Yes, but do they burn any meddlesome outsiders in a wicker man?

Oop North round Bonfire Night it was a trial and a tribulation. The local feral kids would be setting off bangers for a month beforehand. It was like living in bloody Sarajevo. I’d’ve scragged the little bastards if I could’ve caught ’em.

And if anyone wonders why there’s a tinge of nostalgia for Guido F., I give you the resplendently repellent Barry Sheerman MP, member for Huddersfield, who, fatuously, linked November the 5th to global warming. Never mind an effigy; old Bazza himself atop a pyre would be a damn good start in ridding the land of hectoring holier-than-thou prodnoses.

Not one town will burn teh Obambi or Osama Bin Laden – that would be RAAAAAAACIST!!

Hm. I was hoping to find a list of some of the effigies local societies have burned in recent years (it’s a often closely guarded secret until the night), but this is a pretty interesting rundown of the local lads and their traditional costumes. I don’t know which group it is, and it’s not listed here, but one society dresses up in quite sinister fox costumes. I don’t know why that’s creepy, but it is.

D’you know, I think they might have burned Osama somewhere around here. They are pretty fiercely politicaly incorrect out here.

Wow! It’s only eight, but the Hastings Observer has a gallery of photos of tonight’s bonfire up already. Check it out — it’ll give you some idea.

Looks like the effigy was the Greedy Pig Virus — if I read it right, that’s: NHS Parking, Bankers and Politicians.

That first one is because the hospital in Hastings has recently instituted stiff parking fees (I don’t know how widespread that is, but I know it’s true at Hastings). It’s causing a lot of hard feelings because…well, hey, you’re some old coot who has to visit his wife in hospital every day, the last thing you need is ANOTHER damn expense.

I have to say, my experience of the NHS is that it isn’t so much horrible in big dramatic ways (despite what you read in the Daily Mail). It’s horrible in small, mean ways.

Hm. Torchlit processions look ALL wrong with flash photography.

Yes, the flash ruins it. In reality it’s a really quite pagan/sinister experience (and all the better for it, of course – because that is what it’s supposed to be). Flash robs the pictures of any atmosphere.

The robed fox mask people are, surprisingly, not local. They’re from Yorkshire and what they do is deliciously weird – a set of ritualistic fire dances to a drumbeat, punctuated by bright flashes as one of them tosses an incendiary powder onto one of the flaming torches.

There! Quite ruined the bowler hat, double decker bus, jolly Cockney ‘cor luvva duck’ image? Good! Allen (above) has it perceptively nailed with his ‘savage and urbane’ comment.

Beneath the deceptively bland surface here there are often unspoken things going on. We don’t recognise it ourselves, half the time.

Anyway, Guy Fawkes Night is great fun and I heartily commend it. Far be it for me, a mere furriner, to recommend a suitable substitute for ritual burning in place of our own, dear, Guido Fawkes…

(exits stage LEFT, whistling innocently)

[…] mentioned a while back that Sussex makes a Very Big Deal out of Bonfire Night, holding parades and fireworks and bonfires […]