Happy StGeorges Day

[Brendan]

I?ve done it by finding a new beer. Wainwright by Twaites. Blooming marvellous. Beer is one of the things the English do best. Real beer mind. You are unutterably bad at larger but sublimely brilliant in that respectable understated way when it comes to ale.

Although as I alluded to earlier the problem with celebrating St George?s day in England is not persecution by the pc brigade or those bastard Irish having the audacity to be better at having a knees up than you. No! It is the inevitability of someone trying to involve morris dancing.

There is currently morris dancing going on in the pub garden not 5 yards from my front door. If it goes on for much longer the Purdey is coming down off the mantel.

[citizenED]

Had to walk home from work today but at least it gave me the opportunity to do a entirely scientific spot of research into the drivers of cars sporting the Cross of St. George Flags.

Driver one: plump English whelk.

Driver two: plump English whelk

Driver three: plump English whelk (with tattoo)

Driver four; plump English whelk (with beard)

Driver five: plump English whelk (female)

anon, anon.......

[firstchoicegary]

hope we all know st george was greek am i right or wrong?

[brum]

With a hey nony no!

A stick and a hoe

Duck your head son -

Brendan's got his gun!

[firstchoicegary]

look it up brum you see

[firstchoicegary]

i had pie and mash earlier and watched morris dancers in my mates pub

[????]

firstchoicegary Wrote:

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> hope we all know st george was greek am i right or

> wrong?

Turkish actually

[firstchoicegary]

how was he turkish? ha was from roman greece

[Brendan]

He was from Anatolia (as far as I know) which is modern day Turkey but was then a Greek region of the Eastern Roman Empire.

He is the patron of many different countries all of which celebrate the day in traditional and often strange ways. The strangest of which is in England where they traditionally celebrate with a sort of self-inflicted, introspective, discomfort about how to properly celebrate.

It is as strange as it is fascinating. But what can you expect from a nation that gave the world such marvels as cheese rolling, Viv Stanshall and dogging.

And such horrors as morris dancing.

[firstchoicegary]

thats funny

[ruffers]

edited for wrong threadness oops

[firstchoicegary]

think you got wrong thread

[titch juicy]

Am I the only one that finds morris dancing quaintly entertaining? Probably. But perhaps it should be reserved for real villages.

St Georges day? Nah. As a country we're far too secure in our feeling of superiority to outwardly celebrate ourselves. It's just not English.

[brum]

titch juicy Wrote:

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> Am I the only one that finds morris dancing

> quaintly entertaining? Probably. But perhaps it

> should be reserved for real villages.

>

> St Georges day? Nah. As a country we're far too

> secure in our feeling of superiority to outwardly

> celebrate ourselves. It's just not English.

Actually, I think you have a point there!

[red devil]

I've never understood why people feel the need to say they are proud to be English, I'm not, but I'm not ashamed to be English either...I'm just English!

[woofmarkthedog]

"Awwwighhttt Maaaaate"

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/resources/images/1271759/?type=display

Yeah.....

W**F

[mockney piers]

I think the closest descriptor that applies to a modern nationality is probably Armenian.

You could definitely get away with Hellenic, but Greek is a little meaningless in the modern sense. If you think about it someone from the Nile Delta at the time would have been culturally very very similar to someone from Constantinople or Antioch and noticeably Greek flavoured, but it would be disingenuous to claim that someone from Alexandria at the time was 'Greek' as such.

Definitey not Turkish, they turned up in Anatolia quite a while later and they weren't nice to the Armanians at all but that's a whole nother story.

In a fit of bonkersly retro-fitted question begging logic you could probably say he was Georgian I guess.

Most definitely not English, but not really the point either.

I think titch has it as it goes, very unenglish to have some sort of crass selfconcious affirmation of nationality. Far better to enjoy some warm ale and watch some cricket what!

Nut what would a dodgy spic like what I is know about all that anyway, I'll just dit in the corner sn throw a donkey of a church tower or something. ?Ol?!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Too late, Piers, Oliver Cromwell outlawed ditting in corners in 1656.

[Brendan]

Hellenic/Greek, tomato/potato. What?s a couple of thousand years when it come to nomenclature, eh?

As a Spanish-Englishian surely you should be celebrating doubly.

[Jeremy]

red devil Wrote:

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> I've never understood why people feel the need to

> say they are proud to be English, I'm not, but I'm

> not ashamed to be English either...I'm just

> English!

I'm with you on this one. I don't really feel that England is any better than a whole bunch of other places. I guess there are positive elements of our culture and history, but there are quite a few negatives too. I feel a strong association with England, but pride has never come into it.

[mockney piers]

Damn that Cromwell and his antiditestablismentarian ways.

I'm definitely with RD and Jeremy on this one. You can't have your cake and eat it. You can't have the pride in the achievements without the shame of the darker side of one's past (and as part British, Spanish and German, god knows I've picked the best ones for both sides of the coin).

Nationalism is the greatest con trick known anyway. It was just how the ruling elites, no longer swanking around in funky armour, managed to get the people they've been oppressing for hundreds of years to do the whole dirty getting cut down by grape and musket shot and machine gun fire for their continued nefarious ends.

Marvellous.