Crenellate
To furnish with battlements, embrasures or loopholes.
Hence crenellated, embattled.
May be spelled with either one or two ‘l’s.
From the French créneler.
International Pillow Fight Day
Contrary to my previous post about Tartan Day Scotland, International Pillow Fight Day, which is also on 6 April, seems to be purely about having a bit of fun.
Yes, that’s right, on Saturday 6 April, there will be massive pillow fights in cities around the world! There may be one near you there are happenings in cities across the globe from Amsterdam to Zaragoza!
All over the world, groups like [the Urban Playground Movement] organize free, fun, all ages, non-commercial public events. From a massive Mobile Clubbing event in a London train station to a giant pillow fight near the Eiffel Tower in Paris to a subway party beneath the streets of Toronto, it is clear that the urban playground is growing around the world, leaving more public and more social cities in its wake. This is the urban playground movement, a playful part of the larger public space movement.
One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously rejecting the blight on our cities caused by the endless creep of advertising into public space. The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants, not consumers, in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world.
On Saturday April 6th we will once again celebrate World Pillow Fight Day with a massive pillow fight on [London’s] Trafalgar Square. It’s the most fun you can have on a city square and on this day, it happens in hundreds of cities around the world.
Because this is supposed to be fun the rules are kept to a minimum; there are just two: Don’t hit anyone with a camera and don’t hit anyone without a pillow.
What a shame that at the time of writing the only UK event listed is the one in London, but as usual there is up to date information on their website at .
Scotland's Tartan Day
Saturday 6 April marks Tartan Day Scotland and the start of the eponymous 10 day Festival. It is not so much a celebration of tartan but more a celebration of all things Scottish:
Tartan Day is a celebration of Scotland. Our vision is to see Scotland at the heart of a global Tartan Day celebration, bringing to the world’s attention our creativity, our innovation, our heritage, our business success — and our people.
Tartan Day marks the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 at Arbroath Abbey. This historical occasion sowed the seeds of modern day democracy and was used as a basis for the American Declaration of Independence. Tartan Day was inspired by this historical occasion to celebrate all that is good about Scotland — its people, its heritage, its history, its culture and its amazing legacy to the world.
The Tartan Day Scotland Festival takes place at the beginning of April each year. The Festival is a 10 day programme of very special events which commemorate all that is best about Scotland and the Scots, home and away. Find out more about why we celebrate Tartan Day, read about famous Scots and keep up-to-date on news stories from around the world.
Tartan Day is also celebrated in the USA, Canada and I suspect many other places where there are people with Scottish roots.
There’s a lot more information at www.tartandayscotland.com.
Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering
Being Eastertide here is a lot on this week and Friday 5 to Sunday 7 April sees the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering. As their website says:
In September 1966 a modest concert of Northumbrian music and song was held to raise funds for Morpeth Antiquarian Society. It was the inspiration for a one-day Northumbrian festival in March 1968 which evolved into the Morpeth Gathering.
The festival includes a vast array of competitions including crafts, performance and writing. Events of local interest have been added to the programme of concerts, singarounds, barn dance, storytelling, theatre and street performance which includes a young people’s pageant as part of the Border Cavalcade.
The emphasis of the Gathering is firmly upon the native traditions of Northumberland and, whilst there is plenty of scope for traditional music from all over the British Isles within the festival, the wealth of local culture is well to the fore.
For the curious the guy on the left, playing the pipes, is my godfather!
More information at www.northumbriana.org.uk/gathering/index.htm.
Weekly Photograph
Paris in the Springtime … A quiet square at the western end of Ile de la Cité. This was taken on a warm Friday lunchtime. Noreen and I were sitting outside the café having a delightful lunch with our friend Allison, who was a student in Paris at the time. All the while, just visible in the middle distance, there was a group of Parisian workmen playing boules.
Click the image for lager versions on Flickr
Montage: Place Dauphine
Paris, May 2006
International Carrot Day
Yes, I kid you not; this isn’t an April Fool! Thursday 4 April is International Carrot Day.
Indeed you may well ask, “Why?” I did.
Well as it says here …
Carrot Day was founded 2003 to spread knowledge about the carrot and its good attributes around the world. [It] is celebrated every year on April 4th and is the pinnacle for carrot lovers all around the world. It is the day when the carrot is celebrated through carrot parties and other carrot related festivities.
More information at http://www.carrotday.com/.
There’s even a list of Carrot festivals and a link to the Carrot Museum.
Alternative Proverbs
I found the following alternative proverbs on the intertubes. They’re probably very old, but they amused me!
Don’t change horses until they stop running
Strike while the bug is close
It’s always darkest before Daylight Saving Time
Never underestimate the power of termites
You can lead a horse to water but how?
Don’t bite the hand that looks dirty
No news is impossible
A miss is as good as a Mr
You can’t teach an old dog new maths
If you lie down with dogs, you’ll stink in the morning
Love all, trust me
The pen is mightier than the pigs
An idle mind is the best way to relax
Where there’s smoke there’s pollution
Happy the bride who gets all the presents
A penny saved is not much
Two’s company, three’s the Musketeers
Don’t put off till tomorrow what you put on to go to bed
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and you have to blow your nose
There are none so blind as Stevie Wonder
Children should be seen and not spanked or grounded
If at first you don’t succeed get new batteries
You get out of something only what you see in the picture on the box
When the blind lead the blind get out of the way
A bird in the hand is going to poop on you
Better late than pregnant
As always there is more than a grain of truth in many of them.
Mini-Steam Trains
For all you steam train buffs out there, and especially those in and around London, IanVisits has a listing of the miniature steam railways which can be ridden on in the London area — and a few others as a bonus. Worth a look if you want an afternoon out over the summer.
Image from Harrow & Wembley Society of Model Engineers
More details and links over at IanVisits.
Food Quotes
Some more amusements for Low Saturday — that dreary day between Good Friday and Easter Day. These are all taken from Kitchen Wit, Quips and Quotes for Cooks and Food Lovers by Jane Brook, which I was given for Christmas.
Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first.
Josh Billings
Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn’t try it on.
Billy Connolly
How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?
Julia Child
Cooks do meals for people they know and love. Chefs do it anonymously for anyone who has the price.
AA Gill
I have left many things unfinished in my life, but never a bar of chocolate.
Robert Morley
Having a good wife and rich cabbage soup, seek not other things.
Russian proverb
Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people.
Elizabeth Berry
Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who lie in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter.
Fran Lebowitz
In victory, you deserve champagne, in defeat, you need it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan
A thriving household depends on the use of seasonal produce and the application or common sense.
Olivier de Serres
Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.
Spike Milligan
World Coal Carrying Championships
Easter Monday, which this year is on All Fools’ Day, 1 April, is the date of the World Coal Carrying Championships at Ossett, near Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Each year men and women race the streets of Ossett carrying big sacks of coal. There is a women’s race, two men’s races (all over a course of just under a mile) and also much shorter events for children. The races start at 12 noon at the Royal Oak Pub, Owl Lane, Ossett.
The Coal Carrying Championships are recognised by The Guinness Book of Records.
More details at www.gawthorpemaypole.org.uk.