Time Out of Joint:

MLK ...remember

(photo from Time Photo Essay)

St. Andrew's Day

November 30 is the Feast of St. Andrew and marks the beginning of Advent.

Matthew 4:18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

yeah, that St. Andrew . . . It is said that circa the mid 4th century the bones of St. Andrew were brought to the North from Constantinople by St. Rule (also called Regulus). In a dream St. Rule heard a voice which said, bring the bones of St. Andrew to "the west, in the utmost part of the world". A thousand years ago the Cathedral of St. Andrews and the Tower of St. Rule (108 ft. tall!) were built to house the relics properly.

St. Andrew was a missionary to Asia Minor and Greece and legend has it was crucified by the Romans on a saltire cross in 60 A.D. This is why the national flag of Scotland (dating back to the 12th c. and probably one of the oldest flags still in use) is the White Saltire cross on the Blue field . . . which probably represent the bones of St. Andrew crossing the sea to Scotland.

Incidentally, the shape of the salitre cross (the X) is also the seventh rune/letter of the Elder Futhark. Who cares, right? We'll i think it is significant for two reasons. Gebo (X) is the reason why, in the olden days, people would sign a contract with an X. Why? Well this brings us back to Saint Andrews and the significance of the Saltire cross to the Pictish people newly converted by St. Rule. Gebo (X) is a linking rune which is symbolic for the connection/bond between people and between the land --between the people and the heavens. Tolkien thought runes were important because they represented the power of language which helps us participate with the deeper meanings in creation; It allows us to participate with the word and the story and creation . . .

Remember St. Andrew, disciple of Jesus of Nazareth and pillar of the church, murdered this day by the Romans under the reign of Nero and whose bones safely rest on the Island of Amalfi in Italy.

Armistice Day . . .

November 11, 1918 . . . Armistice day; the War to end all Wars came to an end.

[95,000 dead human beings at the Second Battle of Ypres!]

Remember those who willingly (and many unwillingly) throw themselves into the gates of Hell.

[750,000 dead human beings at the Battle of Verdun]

Some fought for grand causes and many others died to the absurdity of human arrogance.

[325,000 dead human beings at the Third Battle of Ypres . . . all for 5 miles of land]

This will probably be one of the last Armistice Day that can actually embrace the World War I veteran as there are only 30 American vets left --there are 10 left in Britain-- and the world number is not much higher . . . They will very soon pass into shadow, myth, and very dark legend.

Take two minutes at 11 a.m. to remember . . .

News to Remember . . .

Reporter Tours Berlin Day After Kristallnacht

BERLIN, Nov. 10 (AP) - In a tour of Berlin this afternoon, this correspondent saw few Jewish stores or synagogues that escaped damage in 12 hours of anti-Jewish violence. Many buildings were destroyed.

The rioting reached a high point at the center of Berlin, where, at noon, thousands gathered in the streets to watch gangs pound to bits dozens of stores.

This correspondent saw dozens of men and women rush into a toy shop in the arcade between Unter den Linden and Friederichstrasse and scoop up what they could get.

They went in after gangs of youths smashed the Plateglass windows. Inside, counters, partitions and everything breakable or loose was thrown to the floor and smashed.

Five other stores in the arcade, a favorite shopping place of tourists, also were plundered. Few police were visible.

A short distance away, at the corner of Jaegerstrasse and Friederichstrasse, a second-story pawn shop came in for vengeance.

Youths with lead pipes broke windows, then threw fur coats from the racks down onto the heads of several thousands watching in the street below.

Around another corner in the center of the city, a tailor shop was looted. In the doorway, a tailor's dummy with a hat on its head hung with a rope around its neck.

Further down Friederichstrasse, a noonday crowd smashed the mystery around the city's best-known black magic store.

Here, as elsewhere, the crowd used iron pipes, sticks and whatever implements were available.

The mobs worked throughout the day in various sections of the city, seemingly according to plan.

The swank Kurfuerstendamm quarter, which suffered earlier in the morning, was revisited later by gangs who went inside shops and completed the demolition.

The outbreak appeared by far the worst anti-Semitic demonstration Nazi Germany has seen. The worst previous was in June, 1935.

This correspondent started out at daybreak on the tour. The first damage seen was the destruction by fire of the wealthy synagogue in Friederichstrasse, near the zoo railway station.

Clouds of smoke rose from three domes of the stone building. The interior was a furnace, with the tile roof about to collapse as the fire ate at rafters. Worship benches, books and other inflammable materials had been piled in the center.

During the morning this smoking synagogue could be seen by passengers on international trains arriving from the West. This temple, with the city's newest one on Prinzregentranstrasse, both huge structures, were virtually destroyed by fire.

Hundreds of stores gaped open when workmen passed them in the morning. Near Alexander Square, some 20 workers from the city market were helping themselves at a shoe store.

When this correspondent got there, they were sitting on the curbs, laughing and trying on pair after pair of shoes in a hunt for pairs to fit them.

In front of other stores, goods and furniture - including pianos - were piled high. Three boys sat on one piano, kicking the keys with their feet.

Six large Plateglass windows in the capital's best-known children's furniture store, on Leipzigerstrasse, were caved in.

This afternoon, the optimistic proprietors took measurements for replacement.

all this was reported today . . . back in 1938 (source: The AP Archive)

[thanks to my brother Tony who sent this in . . . good stuff brother]

the gunpowder plot

November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day!!

. . . who? what?

The Brits have their own occasion to blast fireworks (and do they love them), burn massive bonfires, and yes . . . burn Guy Fawkes in effigy.

Wikipedia describes the events as so:

"Guy Fawkes was a member of the group of Roman Catholic conspirators who attempted to carry out the Gunpowder Plot. The conspirators had planned to assassinate King James I (James VI of Scotland) and all the members of both branches of the Parliament of England. To do this, the House of Lords was to be blown up during the formal opening of the 1605 session of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was primarily responsible for the latter stages of the plan's execution. He was discovered before its completion, however. Following an interrogation, Fawkes and his co-conspirators were executed for treason. His execution is commemorated in Britain with Guy Fawkes Night."

"interrogation" --riiiight

Cheers to you Guy Fawkes . . . "you cheeky papist scum!!!"

I'll celebrate with an apertif of Pimms and a few drams of my favorite Islay (thanks David H.) . . .

Remember When?

Remember this day back in 1978? the Shock and Grace of a Saint