God F**k Ye Merry Gentleman
Seasons' greetings to my loyal readers. This is probably the last post of the year, unless I am genuinely bored over the New Year's period and/or Melanie Phillips declares war on the Moon or something. I'll be on my way to the funeral of a beloved uncle. I therefore take as the text of my Christmas sermon George Black's last words to his son Conrad (later Lord Crossharbour):
"I've lost the will to live. Life is hell. Most people are bastards. And everything is bullshit"
truly a lesson to us all. (This was the basis for one of the tag-lines I used for D^2D a while ago "Life is unbearable, death is inevitable and the rate of inheritance tax is 40% - why bother?").
Anyway, happy holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas, Yül, Hannukah, Eid, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Samhain, Tet or any other more recent and more obviously fictional wintry piss-up. Personally, the only holiday officially recognised by D-Squared Digest is 1 January, which is the only day of the year on which all stock exchanges in the world are closed (Christmas Quiz question, possibly trick; name a European country in which the stock exchange is open on December 25?). Look after yourselves.
Turkey?
ReplyDeleteChristmas Quiz answer: Russa, Armenia and other countries which celebrate holidays according to the Russian Orthodox Calendar.
ReplyDeleteWell, losing the will to live is actually admirable at that time of life - it doesn't say anything about whether younger, not terminally ill, people should have it though. Life is indeed hell, except for the good bits. Most people are bastards. Probably, though I think it's how you approach them: I was impressed at an early age by James Joyce's "I never met a bore" - and mostly, if you're nice enough, they're nice back. "everything is bullshit" however is true. The only tv I enjoy (apart from Dr Who) is the X-Factor (for Simon Cowell) and Dragon's Den.
ReplyDeleteOh why isn't the Russian Orthodox Calendar different for Jan 1?
It is, but the Russian state (and Armenian) uses the Gregorian calendar while the church uses the Julian. The Greek interbank system gets totally screwed up every year around Easter because they want to shut down on a different day from the rest of the eurozone. If Turkey ever joins the Euro there will be a lot of problems about that too.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that actually, at some point on the globe, a stock exchange is always open?
ReplyDeleteGod bless us every one.
Io Saturnalia! to you too.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you do for Christmas, it's probably less harmful to your health than a night out with D^2.
ReplyDeleteDriving on Spanish roads? You'd have to be drinking meths on your night out to be more deangerous than that.
ReplyDeleteThis post is poetry.
ReplyDelete