(36) Laws concerning Killjoys and Killers

At 5:30 p.m. on November 2nd 1988 a firework exploded loudly outside my window. I thought back to my own teenage escapades with fireworks and decided that if I were an MP I would try to pass legislation to proscribe the sales of fireworks to anyone under the age of eighteen. (Today I would lower the age limit to sixteen.) I do not see why explosives should be sold over the counter, and certainly not to youths.

Were I consequently to be accused of being a killjoy for this measure then I decided that I would respond "Better killjoy than kill children!"

Later that evening I was awaiting the start of a TV programme and therefore found myself watching the first few minutes of another one. It was the first of a three part Dr Who episode.
The Dr and his assistant land his craft, the Tardis, on an earth colony a few centuries in the future.
They get arrested by some officials (members of The Happiness Patrol, I think) on suspicion of being "Killjoys."
Earlier a woman was shot for the crime of "being a Killjoy" and her killer was applauded by his superior for having killed forty-five Killjoys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happiness_Patrol

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(281) "Are you not entertained?"

Image
At 21:12 on June 29th 2015 I was flicking through a Youtube version of the 2000 film Gladiator - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbBiXPVKuTA I reached the point just before a particular scene which I wanted to see. Other available versions showed only certain excised scenes, but not the film in its entirety. It is where the gladiator portrayed by Russell Crowe talks with the slave owner played by the late Oliver Reed. The preceding scene, where Crowe takes on and slaughters a half dozen gladiators one by one, I had seen before as one of those excised. I now saw Crowe, after his killing spree, lobbing his sword to hit a distant table and asking of the ampitheatre crowd, "Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?" He then spits into the dust and walks off as the crowd chant his name. And I had seen that finale before, too. But the complete film here seemed to show a slightly different cut to that with which I was familiar. A missing bit ...
Read more

The Narrative, plus Epilogues and Appendices

Image
" When a man looks for Truth, Truth looks for him." (Sufi aphorism) "The plura l of anecdote is not data." Introduction The coincidences in this section, mostly from early 1988, seemed to lend themselves more easily to a narrative exposition.  To those examples which are, to some extent, verifiable,  I have appended a V. And to make the following of it all easier I shall begin with a synopsis. Before I begin, permit me to note that when, in April 1994, I attended the Society for Psychical Research Psi/Synchronicity workshop  (94) Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com)   I was made aware by Dr Caroline Watt of what she called the "Mine Vs Yours" syndrome. i.e. that people tend habitually to regard their own coincidences as more cute, amusing, worthy of attention than those of others.  I think this is basically for two reasons:- a) Having lived through it all the experiencer will o...
Read more

(166) Paula Yates and family and friends. And from the Third to the Fourth

Image
( AMPLIFY ING the above article will make it easier to read.) I first met Fiona in March 1994, marrying her in December 1995 and hence moving to Hastings. I noted that a lot of her arty friends and neighbours had children with unusual names. Judy Neate had a son called Bingo, and Alistair Fairley a son called Paris and a daughter called Carson. Laetitia Yhap had a son called Ajax and Craig Sams a grandson called Mars. Unconventional children’s names automatically prompted thoughts of the TV personality, Paula Yates, and her four daughters - Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom, Little Pixie and Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Yates More than once, in the first years of our relationship, I joked to Fiona that all we needed now was for Paula Yates to move into the area. Ms Yates had a close friend in Jo Fairley, Alistair’s sister, who had a house just around the corner from us. We had heard that Paula would sometimes be seen in the shops of Hastings...
Read more