Lest We Forget

[Slavkei]

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them.




Lest we forget.

[lucas marcone]

stupid question: who are we not forgetting again?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Those who died that we may live.

Those poor souls who go out in the sand, sun, or rain, braving danger, risking life and limb, so that we can sit back in our comfy chairs and buy them a beer when they come back.

Yeah. Those guys.

(Slav may have someone specific in mind, however)

[Tapewolf]

stupid question: who are we not forgetting again?

My calendar says it's "Administrative Professionals Day" in the US ...?

[Aridas]

Well, i'm not sure if that makes sense now.

[bill]

I'm not sure it made sense to begin with.

[superluser]

Looks to be ANZAC day.  Remembrance of the Battle of Gallipoli, and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in general.

[RJ]

*nod-nod* Yup, ANZAC Day. It's a very important day in Australian history, because we remember all those old diggers who went to fight for their country.

I'm finally glad they decided to clean up their act over at the Gallipoli service and made it respectful again. It was absolutely disgusting to see all those morons leaving beer cans everywhere and passed out drunk on people's graves.

[Damaris]

Ahhh.  Americans have our big fallen soldiers memorial day at the end of May- hence our confusion.

[superluser]

Ahhh.  Americans have our big fallen soldiers memorial day at the end of May- hence our confusion.

Memorial Day is the last day of May.  Then we also have Veterans' Day, for those who came back.  That's celebrated on Armistice Day.  Then we have Armed Forces' Day, which is the third Saturday in May.  There's also V-E Day and V-J Day, but those aren't really national holidays.  Then there's Independence Day, which is another big war-related holiday.

And if you don't remember Pearl Harbor on December 7, you've got no soul...

(Phew!  Lot of those days)

[bill]

There's also Patriot's Day, which is the best fake holiday ever. (Boston Marathon, and a Red Sox game!)

[superluser]

There's also Patriot's Day, which is the best fake holiday ever.

Gave a whole bunch of people two more days to file their taxes this year, too.

[Darkmoon]

Ahhh.  Americans have our big fallen soldiers memorial day at the end of May- hence our confusion.

Memorial Day is the last day of May.  Then we also have Veterans' Day, for those who came back.  That's celebrated on Armistice Day.  Then we have Armed Forces' Day, which is the third Saturday in May.  There's also V-E Day and V-J Day, but those aren't really national holidays.  Then there's Independence Day, which is another big war-related holiday.

And if you don't remember Pearl Harbor on December 7, you've got no soul...

(Phew!  Lot of those days)

I don't bother remembering it. :p

[Alondro]

Ahhh.  Americans have our big fallen soldiers memorial day at the end of May- hence our confusion.

Memorial Day is the last day of May.  Then we also have Veterans' Day, for those who came back.  That's celebrated on Armistice Day.  Then we have Armed Forces' Day, which is the third Saturday in May.  There's also V-E Day and V-J Day, but those aren't really national holidays.  Then there's Independence Day, which is another big war-related holiday.

And if you don't remember Pearl Harbor on December 7, you've got no soul...

(Phew!  Lot of those days)

I don't bother remembering it. :p

Well, we already knew you don't have a soul.   

[Slavkei]

My "Not Normal Yankee" holidays.

Feb. 1. USS Columbia.

Apr. 25th. ANZAC day.

Sept. 15th. Battle of Britain day.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_day

Lest We Forget.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

For those who're interested, "Once on Chanuk Bair" is a nice easy introduction to how utterly screwed up the Gallipoli campaign was.

It tells the story of one particular hill, on one particular night, in the 7 month campaign.


The really scary data point is, well, there were more men lost in -one day- on the western front than were lost in Gallipoli in the entire 7 month campaign. Horrific.

Ah.. the balancing point is, well, the UK &co had a heck of a lot more people to lose - NZ had, IIRC, something like 750,000 people in the entire country at the time. From that, taking 70,000 is a -big- slice. And that's not counting the losses in the -rest- of the war.


Going back and looking at these things is enlightening.

[Alondro]

It's often hard to fathom how many people died in the two world wars.  The numbers were so huge its hard to get a good mental picture of it unless you're used to dealing with population analysis.

It's actually a valid psychological phenomenon that while one or a few people dying can evoke an emotional response, often the news of thousands or millions dying doesn't evoke as strong or persistant a response because there's no individuality in the story.  It's a number, there are no faces to put to it, no single mental image to create.  The brain usually just glosses over it as little more than a factoid.

Unless you're totally sociopathic, then there's never any emotion... and eventually you end up crazy and all alone in a house stuffed with trash and piles of newspapers with just one little corridor to walk through the various rooms, making sure the windows are properly blacked out so no one can spy on you.  Oh, and 100 cats.   

PS:  My grandfather is in a history book!  He held a hill on a Japanese-occupied island with only a handful of men for three days until reinforcements could arrive.  He was too stubborn to know he was beaten... so in the end he won!  My brother the history teacher interviewed him and he told of picking up all the grenades the Japanese soldiers threw at him and throwing them back.  Yup, that was him alright.  He almost won the Congressional Medal of Honor for it... but they lost his paperwork.  Yep, our family always manages to get screwed.   

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Unless you're totally sociopathic, then there's never any emotion... and eventually you end up crazy and all alone in a house stuffed with trash and piles of newspapers with just one little corridor to walk through the various rooms, making sure the windows are properly blacked out so no one can spy on you.  Oh, and 100 cats.   

There's good eating on a cat, you know. :-]

[Alondro]

Unless you're totally sociopathic, then there's never any emotion... and eventually you end up crazy and all alone in a house stuffed with trash and piles of newspapers with just one little corridor to walk through the various rooms, making sure the windows are properly blacked out so no one can spy on you.  Oh, and 100 cats.   

There's good eating on a cat, you know. :-]

*puts all the cat litter in a box*   

[LionHeart]

Unless you're totally sociopathic, then there's never any emotion... and eventually you end up crazy and all alone in a house stuffed with trash and piles of newspapers with just one little corridor to walk through the various rooms, making sure the windows are properly blacked out so no one can spy on you.  Oh, and 100 cats.   

There's good eating on a cat, you know. :-]

*makes a note to NEVER accept any dinner invitations from Llearch*