Questions

[owlfish]

• Poppy Day is the only annual day in Britain named after a flower. Why, then, is it not a big day for florists? Why does everyone buy paper poppies?


• I've sent off my registration for Novacon.* The event's only in two weeks, I won't be able to register through the con for hotel space until my registration is processed, and warning signs are everywhere that singles are limited and will probably be sold out by now. I could book a single right away in the correct hotel through its website. Other than it costing more (albeit less than a double), is there any reason not to? Is there some moral factor about making sure the con has enough of its room block sold out to justify receiving free function space from the hotel, and booking via the website would mean my booking isn't helping the con?


• I went to my local post office to mail an envelope today, only to discover they don't do express mail. Regular airmail only. So I went to Canary Wharf, to a full, dedicated post office, and sent it express mail there. Are most UK post offices so limited as to not do express mail? What else is too much to expect of little local postal outlets?

* I've been dilemma'ing between the London Good Food Fair and Novacon. There's still a small chance I may be able to see the food fair as well, but I'm not counting on it. I decided to err on the side of seeing people I'd not seen in a while.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Have you met the Peace Poppy? White instead of red. First produced by the Peace Pledge Union in 1921. Available at all good Quaker book stores (ie Friends House on Euston Road).

I believe the other point about poppies is that they grow best in churned earth, and thrive rather well on blood fertiliser.

[owlfish]

I've read about the Peace Poppy but never seen one worn.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Nor have I. Everybody I know who wants to be seen to be responding to the day wants to support the people making the ordinary poppies and their beneficiaries.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I give money. I won't wear the red poppy. It is a disgraceful symbol of the way we treat our servicemen and the crocodile tears of politicians make me sick.

Remember the grief given to Michael Foot for wearing his donkey jacket to the cenotaph? A man who lost friends and cousins in the war, yet was barracked by a war monger for not showing enough respect.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Multiply that by x, where x = 'more than a reasonable person can count,' and you get the US attitude. I'm sure you're familiar with the issues surrounding Max Cleland during the last election, but many people aren't aware that many servicemen's families get by only because they qualify for Food Stamps. And don't start on the VA -- if you think problems with homeless Vietnam veterans are bad, wait 10-20 years and see what post-Iraq US streets are going to be like. The government has, IIRC, redefined PTSD so that they aren't responsible for treating it; I'll be very surprised if many of the vets who come back, especially those with no physical damage (and thus won't be in the VA system), will have health insurance that will cover it, because it will be termed a 'pre-existing condition'.

If Dante was right, this administration will find itself in one of the lowest circles of Purgatory.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

A colleague of mine used to wear one.
The Women's Cooperative Guild were very active in the white poppy campaign during the interwar years - I don't know what happened afterwards.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

You'll see mine this year.