Over The Gate
Hello World,
Happy May Day! Saturday would be the day to get your Bolshevik on, dance around the Maypole, or in England, jump off low bridges into shallow water, which is an idea that probably sounds a lot better if you're a college student and totally drunk, although even at that, I would think it would still lack a certain appeal. Apparently, May Day is another one of those times when there is no wrong way to celebrate the holiday, and according to our friends at wikipedia, you would have a wide range of options open to you, all around the world, from the political to the fanciful and everything in between. Here's just a sampling:
===========================
Due to its status as a celebration of the efforts of workers and the socialist movement, May Day is an important official holiday in Communist countries such as the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday and their efforts largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various communist and socialist parties.
Now, May Day is a very important celebration in Italy. Very popular is the Concerto del Primo Maggio ("1 May's Concert"), organized by Italian Labour Unions in Rome in Piazza San Giovanni. It is attended by more than 300,000 people every year, and involves participation of many famous bands and songwriters. The concert is usually broadcasted live by Rai Tre. In a separate May Day-related proclamation, the Roman Catholic Church added another Saint Joseph's Day in 1955 that Christianized May 1 as the day of "Saint Joseph, the Worker". Saint Joseph is the only patron saint of "people fighting communism."
In Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland, Labour Day is a public holiday, celebrated by many different socialist parties and groups with political demonstrations and speeches. In recent years, non-socialist parties have also held meetings and speeches along with the socialist parties. In Sweden and Finland, however, it merges with Walpurgis Night, a carnival-type festivity.
===========================
So there you have it, holiday fans. As you can see, May first is basically an international free-for-all, celebrated in countless ways, all through the ages, and across the cultural divide, from pole to pole. Maypole, that is.
In other seasonal news, we recently received the BOCES Southern Westchester brochure of their Adult Education offerings for Spring & Summer 2010, which they have loftily entitled: Unlimited Horizons, thank you very much. Frankly, I wasn't expecting too much in the way of entertainment from our friends at BOCES, because I already know they don't offer goofy Adult Ed courses like belly dancing and basket weaving, like you get in regular schools. They're much too serious for that at BOCES, and instead they offer a variety of practical classes on no-nonsense topics like Auto Mechanics, National Electric Code, Pharmacy Technician, Carpentry and House Inspection. But in their section that announces: "Harness the Power of the Sun at SW BOCES Solar Energy Program," I admit that I was not prepared for a course that I simply had no idea what it was for - NABCEP PV Entry Level Exam Prep. Now, this is the entry level, mind you, and I don't even have a clue as to what they're talking about, so you can imagine what it looks like when they get to the more advanced levels, gadzooks. So I'm obviously not signing up for that, especially the part where it says to bring your own tools, and I would be at a loss in terms of what to bring: screwdriver, flashlight, dilithium crystals, particle accelerator? I simply wouldn't know where to begin. They also offer three separate courses on welding, including Arc Welding I and Arc Welding II, which are fine by me, and I even understand what that means, so I'm on board with that in a big way. But also available is something called Mig & Tig Welding, and here again, I wouldn't expect the welding situation to have gotten so far afield that they had invented some new version of it that I had never even heard of. I mean, it's one thing when the new technology passes us old-timers by, and I guess that's only to be expected, but heck, this is the OLD technology passing us by, and frankly, I have to draw the line at that.
We get the following from Bill, courtesy of his friends at Survey Spot, where they had asked him to complete one of their online surveys about commuting -
==============================
Which one of the following would you most value to help reduce your travel stress?
(Select as many as apply.)
[ ] Increased stress
[ ] Respiratory problems
[ ] Anger
[ ] Traffic accident
[ ] Reduced sleep
[ ] Other {_________________________}
[ ] None / Roadway traffic does not affect my health
========================================
Bill has the impression that these answers were not the most appropriate ones for this particular question, and I think he may be on to something there. In fact, if I was the folks at Survey Spot, I might want to send that whole section back to the drawing board and start all over again.
Also not saying what they mean (one hopes!) was a recent heart-warming story that had been forwarded to me about a venerable 92-year-old minister, who when asked to address the congregation with some words of wisdom, approached the pulpit with what they described as "a halting gate." Gee, I sure hope not! Here I'm thinking, on top of everything else this wizened old man has to contend with, they certainly shouldn't make him drag a gate along with him besides, heaven knows. Or in the immortal words of Jerry Colonna: "Greetings, Gate - let's syncopate!"
And what may be new and interesting on the local crime scene, you may be wondering, and well may you wonder, indeed. We recently had a call from a former member of our church who was in the neighborhood, and complained that the property was looking unkempt and shopworn, and very much in need of some sprucing up, not to mention, sooner rather than later. So last week, a few of us walked around outside and made notes of the most obvious areas that required attention, such as overgrown bushes, loose debris, broken garden furniture and the like. Also drawing unwanted attention was an old derelict lawnmower that had been abandoned in the backyard, which apparently was no longer working and was not worth repairing. (Although in its defense, I feel obligated to point out that we only have that information anecdotally from someone who was told by another person, and as we all know from TV police shows by now, third-party hearsay would never stand up in a court of law.) In any case, the church had already gotten a new lawnmower, so the old one was extraneous as well as being an eyesore. I asked my mechanic about it, and they agreed to take it off our hands, so earlier in the week, I wrestled the old battle-axe out of the yard, and rolled it down the block to my mechanic, for however they might make use of it, perhaps for parts or for scrap. I told them the story of our purloined railing, and said that I was surprised that no one had filched the old broken lawnmower out of the yard and sold it for scrap already. At that, my mechanic told me the story of a transmission that he had removed from a car in order to replace the rings, and he had no qualms about leaving the car outside overnight on the apron, knowing that it couldn't be moved without the transmission. In the morning when he returned with the replacement rings, sure enough, the transmission had been stolen right off the property, lock, stock and barrel. Now he says, he even has to lock his scrap metal up at night, or it's gone by morning, which actually exhibits a refreshing spirit of initiative in today's lackadaisical culture that ought to be encouraged, although perhaps re-channeled in a direction that was somewhat less larcenous. After all, something like this can all too easily get completely out of hand, and the next thing you know, they'd be stealing the 92-year-old minister's halting gate, and then where would the poor man be?
Elle
Happy May Day! Saturday would be the day to get your Bolshevik on, dance around the Maypole, or in England, jump off low bridges into shallow water, which is an idea that probably sounds a lot better if you're a college student and totally drunk, although even at that, I would think it would still lack a certain appeal. Apparently, May Day is another one of those times when there is no wrong way to celebrate the holiday, and according to our friends at wikipedia, you would have a wide range of options open to you, all around the world, from the political to the fanciful and everything in between. Here's just a sampling:
===========================
Due to its status as a celebration of the efforts of workers and the socialist movement, May Day is an important official holiday in Communist countries such as the People's Republic of China, Cuba, and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.
In countries other than the United States and Canada, resident working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday and their efforts largely succeeded. For this reason, in most of the world today, May Day is marked by massive street rallies led by workers, their trade unions, anarchists and various communist and socialist parties.
Now, May Day is a very important celebration in Italy. Very popular is the Concerto del Primo Maggio ("1 May's Concert"), organized by Italian Labour Unions in Rome in Piazza San Giovanni. It is attended by more than 300,000 people every year, and involves participation of many famous bands and songwriters. The concert is usually broadcasted live by Rai Tre. In a separate May Day-related proclamation, the Roman Catholic Church added another Saint Joseph's Day in 1955 that Christianized May 1 as the day of "Saint Joseph, the Worker". Saint Joseph is the only patron saint of "people fighting communism."
In Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland, Labour Day is a public holiday, celebrated by many different socialist parties and groups with political demonstrations and speeches. In recent years, non-socialist parties have also held meetings and speeches along with the socialist parties. In Sweden and Finland, however, it merges with Walpurgis Night, a carnival-type festivity.
===========================
So there you have it, holiday fans. As you can see, May first is basically an international free-for-all, celebrated in countless ways, all through the ages, and across the cultural divide, from pole to pole. Maypole, that is.
In other seasonal news, we recently received the BOCES Southern Westchester brochure of their Adult Education offerings for Spring & Summer 2010, which they have loftily entitled: Unlimited Horizons, thank you very much. Frankly, I wasn't expecting too much in the way of entertainment from our friends at BOCES, because I already know they don't offer goofy Adult Ed courses like belly dancing and basket weaving, like you get in regular schools. They're much too serious for that at BOCES, and instead they offer a variety of practical classes on no-nonsense topics like Auto Mechanics, National Electric Code, Pharmacy Technician, Carpentry and House Inspection. But in their section that announces: "Harness the Power of the Sun at SW BOCES Solar Energy Program," I admit that I was not prepared for a course that I simply had no idea what it was for - NABCEP PV Entry Level Exam Prep. Now, this is the entry level, mind you, and I don't even have a clue as to what they're talking about, so you can imagine what it looks like when they get to the more advanced levels, gadzooks. So I'm obviously not signing up for that, especially the part where it says to bring your own tools, and I would be at a loss in terms of what to bring: screwdriver, flashlight, dilithium crystals, particle accelerator? I simply wouldn't know where to begin. They also offer three separate courses on welding, including Arc Welding I and Arc Welding II, which are fine by me, and I even understand what that means, so I'm on board with that in a big way. But also available is something called Mig & Tig Welding, and here again, I wouldn't expect the welding situation to have gotten so far afield that they had invented some new version of it that I had never even heard of. I mean, it's one thing when the new technology passes us old-timers by, and I guess that's only to be expected, but heck, this is the OLD technology passing us by, and frankly, I have to draw the line at that.
We get the following from Bill, courtesy of his friends at Survey Spot, where they had asked him to complete one of their online surveys about commuting -
==============================
Which one of the following would you most value to help reduce your travel stress?
(Select as many as apply.)
[ ] Increased stress
[ ] Respiratory problems
[ ] Anger
[ ] Traffic accident
[ ] Reduced sleep
[ ] Other {_________________________}
[ ] None / Roadway traffic does not affect my health
========================================
Bill has the impression that these answers were not the most appropriate ones for this particular question, and I think he may be on to something there. In fact, if I was the folks at Survey Spot, I might want to send that whole section back to the drawing board and start all over again.
Also not saying what they mean (one hopes!) was a recent heart-warming story that had been forwarded to me about a venerable 92-year-old minister, who when asked to address the congregation with some words of wisdom, approached the pulpit with what they described as "a halting gate." Gee, I sure hope not! Here I'm thinking, on top of everything else this wizened old man has to contend with, they certainly shouldn't make him drag a gate along with him besides, heaven knows. Or in the immortal words of Jerry Colonna: "Greetings, Gate - let's syncopate!"
And what may be new and interesting on the local crime scene, you may be wondering, and well may you wonder, indeed. We recently had a call from a former member of our church who was in the neighborhood, and complained that the property was looking unkempt and shopworn, and very much in need of some sprucing up, not to mention, sooner rather than later. So last week, a few of us walked around outside and made notes of the most obvious areas that required attention, such as overgrown bushes, loose debris, broken garden furniture and the like. Also drawing unwanted attention was an old derelict lawnmower that had been abandoned in the backyard, which apparently was no longer working and was not worth repairing. (Although in its defense, I feel obligated to point out that we only have that information anecdotally from someone who was told by another person, and as we all know from TV police shows by now, third-party hearsay would never stand up in a court of law.) In any case, the church had already gotten a new lawnmower, so the old one was extraneous as well as being an eyesore. I asked my mechanic about it, and they agreed to take it off our hands, so earlier in the week, I wrestled the old battle-axe out of the yard, and rolled it down the block to my mechanic, for however they might make use of it, perhaps for parts or for scrap. I told them the story of our purloined railing, and said that I was surprised that no one had filched the old broken lawnmower out of the yard and sold it for scrap already. At that, my mechanic told me the story of a transmission that he had removed from a car in order to replace the rings, and he had no qualms about leaving the car outside overnight on the apron, knowing that it couldn't be moved without the transmission. In the morning when he returned with the replacement rings, sure enough, the transmission had been stolen right off the property, lock, stock and barrel. Now he says, he even has to lock his scrap metal up at night, or it's gone by morning, which actually exhibits a refreshing spirit of initiative in today's lackadaisical culture that ought to be encouraged, although perhaps re-channeled in a direction that was somewhat less larcenous. After all, something like this can all too easily get completely out of hand, and the next thing you know, they'd be stealing the 92-year-old minister's halting gate, and then where would the poor man be?
Elle
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 7:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home