May Day Greetings (to the Workers of the World)
Happy May Day!
I’m still in a far-too-busy-to-be-posting-much-of-anything kind of state right now, but the old May Day-themed Stoa posts are on this page, and Dave Osler’s got a suitable joke for us all to enjoy.
In several years of recording Dead Socialists, I still haven’t come across one who died on May Day. I hope this is not accidental (comrade).
And, Americans!, for you, as ever, it is Loyalty Day!
(Actually, “as ever” doesn’t seem to be quite right: wikipedia tells me that in 1921 it started out as Americanization Day, which is even funnier.)
Here in Oxford, of course, we have our own reactionary invented traditions.
UPDATE [11.30pm]: Americans! Here is your annual Loyalty Day Proclamation!
I’ve no love for the communists, but it seems like Loyalty Day is a cure more harmful than the disease.
↓ Quote | Posted 1 May, 2007, 3:11 pmSadly, Pierre Bérégovoy committed suicide on May 1, 1993 – so you can add him to the database.
↓ Quote | Posted 2 May, 2007, 10:48 amRather tremendous balls he has, asking us to observe “Law Day” (excuse me, “Law Day, USA”) with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” If I’d've known, I might’ve put on my best shirt and performed a public reading of the last few sections of the Second Treatise.
↓ Quote | Posted 2 May, 2007, 2:09 pm1960s or 70s sounds older than most Oxford ‘traditions’ to me. I heard carnations for exams was only 1990s, though I don’t know if that’s true.
↓ Quote | Posted 6 May, 2007, 8:18 amThere were a few carnations around when I was taking exams in the first half of the 1990s, though not nearly as many as there are nowadays, if memory serves.
↓ Quote | Posted 9 May, 2007, 9:31 am