Totally 80's weekend!

There have been many times throughout our life together where Dave has turned to me and referenced some famous eighties movie, only to have me stare blankly as the reference went over my head. Usually this results in a "that was from such and such movie silly girl" "yeah but I never actually saw said famous movie" "WHAT WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHO DID I MARRY MY LIFE IS A LIE."

Then we typically go through a list of commonly watched 80's movies with me having watched a tiny fraction of our peers' standard repertoire. For the record, I missed: Ghostbusters, The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, Alien(s), Terminator 2, The Goonies....and that's a very short list. I didn't see Dirty Dancing until only a few years ago. I'd never seen a movie with Molly Ringwald in it.

SO, Dave and I decided that this weekend we'd have an 80's movie marathon! So far, we've seen The Breakfast Club, The Goonies, Sixteen Candles, and we have Ghostbusters, Alien and Pretty in Pink cued up.

These movies are pretty good! Not only that, but now I'll totally get all future references to these movies. Yes! I'll be cool! Finally! I can join in with the rest of my generation! HAHAHAHAHA!

Maybe if I'd spent less time continuously watching Back to the Future, Star Wars, What about Bob, and all those Ernest movies, I'd have done this years ago.

Now, I must learn why one must not cross the streams.

Whatever that means.

On Poppies.

A discovery that we made this last week is that Poppies and Remembrance Day are not commonly associated in France. Or really anywhere other than the Commonwealth.

Our lapels had an empty spot until the night of November 10th, when Sarah stopped by the Canadian Embassy in the hopes that they had imported some for the expats in town. With our poppies firmly attached to our lapels, we spent two days fielding the common question: Nice brooch... where'd you get it?

To which we were able to share a bit of Canadiana in response.

I'd go on here about it, but I found a nice summary on the CBC this morning that I think is worth putting up.

Why the poppy?

The association between the poppy and war dates back to the Napoleonic wars, when a writer saw a field of poppies growing over the graves of fallen soldiers.

During the Battle of Ypres in 1915, Canadian Lt.-Col. John McCrae was inspired to write the poem In Flanders Fields on sighting the poppies growing beside a grave of a close friend who had died in battle.

The poem was a great inspiration in adopting the poppy as the Flower of Remembrance in Canada, France, the U.S, Britain and Commonwealth countries.

The first poppies were distributed in Canada in 1921.

Today the volunteer donations from the distribution of millions of poppies is an important source of revenue for the Royal Canadian Legion that goes toward helping ex-servicemen and women buy food, and obtain shelter and medical attention.

And of course, the referenced Poem.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

-- John McCrae

November 11 in France

November 11th is a National Holiday in France, but it's not quite the same as it is back home.

In Canada (and other commonwealth countries), we set aside one day of the year to remember those who have lost due to the tragedy of War. In the US, this same idea is captured by Memorial Day, in May.

Here, they have two days in the year that they remember war, but for them, the days are tied to specific events. In France, November 11th is set aside to honor Armistice Day, or the cessation of World War 1.  In May, they set aside time to remember World War 2.

Consequently the ceremonies around the city of Paris were much smaller than I had expected. At 10:45 yesterday I walked down a very empty Champs Elysees to Etoille to watch the ceremony taking place at the Arc de Triumph. At around 11 am, a motorcade drove slowly down the boulevard and stopped at the base of the Arch. Out stepped President Sarkozy, and the German Chancellor Merkel. After a quick promenade around the Arc they jointly carried a wreath to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, listened for the Army chorus to sing their respective National Anthems, stepped back into their vehicles and left. While the ceremony carried almost as much somberness of the one I'm used to watching in Victory Square, it lasted only about 15 minutes from start to finish.

I think the most striking thing of the whole event was watching the crowd that turned out. While it was small, the crowd represented many nations. I heard voices speaking in French, British, North American (USA and Canada, I assume), German, and other dialects. No one nationality dominated the event -- this was really a world wide ceremony. And when the last post was played, each person there stopped, waited, listened, and remembered. Together.

House votes in favour of Healthcare Reform

A vote went through in the US today to pass part of a healthcare reform bill in the US. This is truly amazing. I really didn't think that would ever happen.

More details here, and here.

From the second link...

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates.

Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history. In a further slap, the industry would lose its exemption from federal antitrust restrictions on price fixing and market allocation.

Forgetting about October

Some days are worse than others. And sometimes, big batches of those days band together to form months that are better left forgotten. October was one of those times. Some things happened that I'd wished hadn't, and some things didn't that I'd wished had. In all, a bunch of completely unrelated, inconsequential items seemed to fall in steady sequence to make for a generally nasty month.

I'm glad that I didn't write much (anything) during the past 40 days or so. I think it's probably better that October is left as a blank, rather than black, spot on an otherwise great year.