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on poppy day everybody buys plastic poppys. After poppy day
they go in the bin . so I think it would be great if the day
after poppy day someone bought your poppy off you and then
next year for twice as much.
(?) The Poppy Appeal - What it is and where it came from
http://www.poppysco....uk/intro/intro.htm
[my face your, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
(?) For Pericles
http://images.googl...afe=off&sa=N&tab=wi
it's a flower. [my face your]
Origins, in-depth
http://www-ang.kfun....html?Papa_som.html
[thumbwax]
Back of the Canadian $10
http://www.bankofca...racter/2001_10b.htm [my face your, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
(?) Origins, in-depth
http://www-ang.kfun....html?Papa_som.html
[thumbwax, Oct 04 2004]
(?) Back of the Canadian $10
http://www.bankofca...racter/2001_10b.htm
[waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004]
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Annotation:
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Where are you, [gizmo]? Poppy day sounds nice. Why doesn't everyone use real poppys? I would imagine them to be more pleasant. |
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Recycling the poppy? Is it customary to give the flower potted or just on the stem? Mightn't the government complain about so much poppy in one place? |
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Sorry, I see that they're plastic poppys now. Why plastic? |
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celeb poppies for sale? mebbe? |
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Hmmm... a poppy? Can I bother anyone with the meaning of such word/objetc/plant/whatever? |
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“Poppy, please.”
“Paper or plastic?”
“Paper.”
“Present or previous?”
“Is previous pricey?”
“Previous is pricey. Profits the poor.”
“I’ll purchase a paper previous poppy, please.”
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They're really out in bloom right now. I've got a bunch on my table I picked fresh the other day. + |
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tis a lovely idea, gizmo. + |
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I saw the title and thought this was a poppy-seed equivalent to those stores that sell rugs and things made out of hemp... |
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Maybe I'll buy one for my... um... dad. |
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If we allow this idea, then the hard-working war veterans who produce the poppies will be left without jobs. |
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[suctionpad] They can work in the poppy shops. |
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poppy day = remembrance day = armistice day, etc, etc. Problem with live poppies is twofold, firstly they're not in season on 11th November and secondly they don't last long when you've cut them... |
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They put poppy day out of poppy season? That's just plain silly. |
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I know you're being funny but there is a serious reason for it, which the page in the first of the links above has inexplicably missed. As you'll have gathered, the 11th day of the 11th month was the day the armistice was signed ending the Great War (WW1). Later, 'Flanders fields' on which much of the fighting had occurred in trenches and out of them, did burst into waves of poppies. It is a peculiarity of poppy seeds that they can lie dormant for years, even hundreds of years I am told, and then be brought out of dormancy by earth disturbance such as artillery shell explosions and fires did so effectively in Flanders. So it is therefore an irony which easily escapes people that this delicate flower which doesn't last long off its stem should be the signifier of such an abidingly incredible conflict, and so it's faintly ridiculous that we buy plastic or paper flowers for this one day (or one week if you're lucky) and then, as gizmo points out, we chuck them away. Although I usually pin them together with palm crosses (April) and corn dollies from harvest festival (Sept/Oct), still aware that these are all neo-pagan symbols which have chocolate teapot usefulness on their own without proper reflection and appreciation devoted to the thing they signify. |
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[silverstormer] many of the veterans who make the poppies would be unable to work in a shop, as they are missing various body parts and/or are quite seriously scarred mentally (I know because I have visited the factory). This is why they make the poppies in the first place. |
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The ones that are not able to work in the shops can make a reduced supply, for the number of mangled/lost poppys. Jobs are also available in the collection of the 2nd hand poppys in the first place. |
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In Flanders' fields the poppies grow
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. |
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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. |
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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
In Flanders' fields. |
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So strong is the impact of this amazing poem by Canadian John McCrae that I noted on a visit home that these words actually appear on the back of the recently redesigned CDN ten dollar bill. Very small, but they are there (see link). In fact I heard that the first printing of bills was recalled because of a misprint in the first line. |
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This poem pretty much *is* the summation of how Remembrance Day is viewed in Canada, particularly the last three lines. |
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I used to keep my poppies. |
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I am always losing my poppy, which always falls out of my lapel. However, I don't bother about this as this means I have to buy another one which means I give even more to charity.
P.S. My grandfather fought on the Somme in WW1 and survived, so I thank my lucky stars every poppy day that it isn't my grandad's name on one of those crossess, otherwise I wouldn't be here. |
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