Hello A. - Eschew obfuscation, please. Is your birthday June 19th? If so, why didn't you tell me, so I could have planned a party with your blog friends?
Juneteen is a holiday celebrated in 26 of our states. It is not a federal holiday or "bank holiday" as you would say. I am happy to hear you have never heard of it, because the purpose of the post was to edify ignorant foreigners. :)
Abolishing the slave trade (I am sure you'll agree) is something quite different than freeing slaves. And the latter is what Juneteenth commemorates in America. Specifically, it commemorates the physical freeing of those slaves in Texas, who had been "technically" free for 2 years, but unenforcedly so (until the USA re-took possession of the states then in rebellion.)
"Juneteenth", incidentally, is a combination of "June" and "nineteenth" which African slaves had trouble wrapping there tongues around. Many were not that fluent in English, or at least in the white man's pronunciations. There is a word for that "contraction" of two words, but it escapes my memory.
I am still interested in what June 19th means to you. Please?
A.-your comment prompted me to research when the law was passed prohibiting the further importation of slaves into the United States. I found that it was enacted in 1807. The is probably not simply a coincidence with your own 200th anniversary. There was probably some larger agreement between countries at that time, don't you think?
Whatever it was, apparently Spain wasn't a party to it. (The Armistead incident.)
Did I say abolition of the slave trade was the same as freeing slaves? Did I? I merely thought you might be interested because this blog is, after all, called *British*speak.
Well criminy, A. The post was about celebrating the feeing of slaves. You are the one that brought up the unrelated topic. Who knows why? All I did was try to drag you, kicking and screaming (still screaming) back to the point. And then, polite that I am, I even offered an observation related to your unrelated comment, just trying to be nice, as usual, which you completely ignored, by the way, and simply began shouting at me again.
And double sigh.
And, God, why did I even mention the Armistead incident?
Max dear, can you do something about this? I know you always do the right thing. Write a poem or something to soothe the savage breast. You do that so well.
No comments? Wrong blog perhaps. Is this every year? I've never heard of it before and it's possibly the one date that would make me notice most.
ReplyDeleteIn the UK a year ago last March we commemorated the 200 years since the slave trade was abolished.
Hello A. - Eschew obfuscation, please. Is your birthday June 19th? If so, why didn't you tell me, so I could have planned a party with your blog friends?
ReplyDeleteJuneteen is a holiday celebrated in 26 of our states. It is not a federal holiday or "bank holiday" as you would say. I am happy to hear you have never heard of it, because the purpose of the post was to edify ignorant foreigners. :)
Abolishing the slave trade (I am sure you'll agree) is something quite different than freeing slaves. And the latter is what Juneteenth commemorates in America. Specifically, it commemorates the physical freeing of those slaves in Texas, who had been "technically" free for 2 years, but unenforcedly so (until the USA re-took possession of the states then in rebellion.)
"Juneteenth", incidentally, is a combination of "June" and "nineteenth" which African slaves had trouble wrapping there tongues around. Many were not that fluent in English, or at least in the white man's pronunciations. There is a word for that "contraction" of two words, but it escapes my memory.
I am still interested in what June 19th means to you. Please?
Portmanteau. That is what a combination of two words is called.
ReplyDeleteA.-your comment prompted me to research when the law was passed prohibiting the further importation of slaves into the United States. I found that it was enacted in 1807. The is probably not simply a coincidence with your own 200th anniversary. There was probably some larger agreement between countries at that time, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteWhatever it was, apparently Spain wasn't a party to it. (The Armistead incident.)
sigh....
ReplyDeleteDid I say abolition of the slave trade was the same as freeing slaves? Did I? I merely thought you might be interested because this blog is, after all, called *British*speak.
Well criminy, A. The post was about celebrating the feeing of slaves. You are the one that brought up the unrelated topic. Who knows why? All I did was try to drag you, kicking and screaming (still screaming) back to the point. And then, polite that I am, I even offered an observation related to your unrelated comment, just trying to be nice, as usual, which you completely ignored, by the way, and simply began shouting at me again.
ReplyDeleteAnd double sigh.
And, God, why did I even mention the Armistead incident?
Is-your-birthday-June-19th-?
ReplyDeleteAsk that bloody Sheila person!!! She's know-all if ever there was one!
ReplyDeleteWho is that person calling me BLOODY Sheila???
ReplyDeleteWho does he think he is?
I know a LOT about this subject, and many others.
I think he is just jealous.
I say he should be happy because he is witness to the birth of a new (and very irritating) blog character.
ReplyDeleteReally, really, this is too bad. It's just not cricket. I'm so disappointed in this behaviour.
ReplyDeleteMax dear, can you do something about this? I know you always do the right thing. Write a poem or something to soothe the savage breast. You do that so well.
ReplyDeleteI love being quoted max
ReplyDeleteHe's quoting you? Which particular part?
ReplyDeleteEschew Obfuscation. In her dreams, though. She stole it from Reader's Digest. :)
ReplyDeleteOh and there I was thinking you were erudite and it was Debbie all along.
ReplyDeleteIt is always a mistake to think of me that way.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, it is ALWAYS Debbie.
Blowing her pink smoke screen back at the drivers behind her... :)
Gosh, you read other people's blogs? I thought you just counterfeited them.
ReplyDelete