Frostier And Frostier

[poliphilo]

The mornings get frostier and frostier. This morning when I went out to feed the birds pigeons the grass crunched under foot and I left tracks- just like good King Wenceslas.

You know who Wenceslas was, don't you? Of course you do. He was the warrior king who defeated his enemies (the Huns or the Mongols, my memory is getting a little hazy) at the battle of the White Mountain- and has a statue in the big central square in Prague- where the Czechs hold all their demonstrations. Heaven only knows how he found his way into a jolly English carol...

Mary has strep "A"- the throat infection that is wild-firing its way through our schools so I don't expect her mother to be bringing her over this morning. Strep "A" claimed a number of lives, but the authorities aren't for letting parents keep their kids at home. The authorities are heartless.

Talking about authorities, Nadhim Zadhawi- the dodgy businessman who currently holds one of the great offices of state- has said that the nurses are "playing into Putin's hands" by going on strike. This could be the most insultingly stupid thing I've ever heard a government minister say- and I've been listening to the fuckers for over half a century. Not only stupid, of course, but heartbreakingly cynical.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Saint Vaclav of 'good king' stuff was actually a child king who was murdered young- the story is a myth.

The Battle of the White Mountain was actually the one where the Catholic League defeated the Winter King (Frederick V of the Palatinate, champion of protestantism) in the 17th century.

I know this stuff of course! :o)

That's why the biggest statue in Wenceslas square in actually to Jan Huss and other protestant heroes.

[poliphilo]

I knew all this stuff once, but...but, ah well....

[shewhomust]

Interesting that you've heard the message that the authorities don't want you to keep your kids home, because I picked up the opposite: sonme medical person on Radio 4's PM saying: if your child has a sore throat, please don't send them to school to infect others. (But don't necessariy go bothering your doctor straight away, because it may just be a sore throat).

Which isn't to argue that the authorities aren't heartless, just about how they express it...

[poliphilo]

This was a case where parents of a kid who wasn't ill wanted to keep them home for safety's sake (which is what we were all asked to do during the great lockdown.) I can't remember the source...