All Souls...

This time of year is always slightly strange to me in the U.S., because everyone is utterly obsessed with that most godly of festivals, Hallowe'en. When I was a Guide, we weren't allowed to celebrate it at Guides because it was the work of the devil. But then, they thought that about Carnival too. And I left sharpish after that.

Nonetheless, my point is that this time of year, for most Englishfolk, is about celebrating the time we caught those evil folks, led by one Mr. Guy Fawkes, attempting to blow up the wonderful democratic institution that is our Houses of Parliament. Or, to see it from another point of view, it's the time where we in fact gloss over the fact that the fiesta is about hanging, drawing and quartering Catholics who may or may not have been stooges to cause the utter suppression, politically and legally, of Catholics within the country. Ahem.

Still, as we've decided to ignore that, and the majority of Yanks also acknowledge the dodgy beginnings and roots of Thanksgiving/Columbus Day (except in South Dakota) and still manage to have a jolly good time, I'm not going to be ashamed of the fact that this time of year is when I am most homesick. The smell of damp wood roaring away in a ginormous fire, carrying whisky in one's pocket in order to keep warm whilst you watch the glorious explosions of dynamite and metal oxides, eating disgusting amounts of candy floss and so on and then nearly vomming it up whilst on the whirling rotating eggs held together by what appears to be string... It's by far the best time of year. Which is why I got very confused when our Corporations professor referred to the seasonality of the fireworks business and how obviously June/July always looked better on the balance sheet. I didn't get it, honestly, for a good few minutes, and then it clicked into place. Because it's such a basic, integral part of my childhood and culture.

Nonetheless, I am trying to get into the H spirit (and yes, that's Hallowe'en, not heroin) this year, and so KTB and I were thinking of going everywhere dressed like Rainbow Brite for the next few days. The Other Half is grumbling about it, but tough, matey, this year we're going native. And therefore, in anticipation, I am trying to come up with a (slightly less obvious) playlist related to the big H with music that I actually already have on my iTunes...

1) Haunted By You - Gene
2) Kilo - Ghostface Killah
3) Witches' Rave - Jeff Buckley
4) Pumpkin - Tricky
5) Monster Hospital (mstrkrft remix) - Metric
6) The Boogie Monster - Gnarls Barkley (had to be done)
7) Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) - David Bowie
8) Things I've Seen - Spooks
9) Invisible Man - The Breeders
10) Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong, But... - Arctic Monkeys

Grand. All other suggestions appreciated... Plus I couldn't let this go without some sort of rant...



Target will allow its pharmacists to refuse to fill contraception. Women are, unsurprisingly, annoyed at this - and where next, as someone pointed out - refusing to give people ARVs because HIV/AIDS may have been caught from "immoral" behaviour?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. That is genuinely frightening.