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

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I recognise it mostly by guesswork; I don't use it myself and have only ever come across it in the last few years. I think this is partly because the generation affected by the Armistice is dying out, but I don't like it; Remembrance Day is more to my liking because that focusses on the event, not the thing used to show commemoration (it's too reminiscent of Red Nose Day, which is also for a good cause but does deliberately involve a lot of entertainment, humour and silliness, none of which are appropriate to Remembrance Day)

The poppies are a symbol; a symbol does not need to be a natural thing. They are not a stand-in, because real poppies were never, to the best of my knowledge, worn; in fact, they carry a lot of symbolism, including being the colour of blood

[oursin.livejournal.com]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John Macrae of the Canadian Medical Corps, died of pneumonia (I wonder if this was associated with Spanish flu?) on active duty in 1918.