Warning: "V" Spoilers Ahead
If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading now. I mean it. STOP. OK, then, as the web site says, you're just a rebel. V would approve.
So, Melati may get an orang named for her, but me - I get a movie. V for Vendetta came out today and Big Daddy & My Kid went to see it. It's gotten excellent reviews and giggly or not, the girl did agree to shave her head on film so kudos for that. I didn't go see it myself, for a number of reasons, including:
1. I was worn out after the Tiger game and was sleeping soundly when they left for the movie.
2. I'm not really into those action/adventure/violent/whatever movies.
3. The guy in the mask kinda scares me actually.
4. I prefer to watch movies in the comfort of my own home, away from the unwashed masses.
So they come home during the UAB/Kentucky game and start reciting "Remember, remember the fifth of November" to me. Which seems odd, to say the least.
My birthday is November 5th. When I was a kid we had this big book that had a short story or a poem or a nursery rhyme to read to your children every night of the year. If the date was a holiday or some day of remembrance, the reading would have to do with that. The reading for my birthday was:
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
(My sister still emails that poem to me on my birthdays.)
I don't remember if the book explained "Guy Fawkes Day" or if my father (who did the readings to me & my sister) explained it to us. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. On the night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled (November 5th) bonfires were set to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as "Bonfire Night." The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire. Although some people are probably actually celebrating the attempt to blow up Parliament.
Either way, kind of an odd bedtime story for children.
If you go to imdb you'll see that the tagline for the movie is "Remember, remember the fifth of November."
(And here's the spoiler....I guess. I haven't actually seen the movie but I would assume this is this crux of the plotline.)
I asked them, "Why are you saying that?" (the poem)
And Big Daddy said, "That's what the whole movie's about."
Confused, I say, "Guy Fawkes blowing up Parliament? It's about Guy Fawkes Day?"
And Big Daddy said, "It was HIM."
Well, I can see that I'm boring you, Internet. But this sort of thing - when something flashes back from my childhood like that, especially something that reminds me of my deceased father - just gives me the warmest sense of belonging and home and childhood wonder. You never knew I was so sentimental, did you? Well, it's not like the zoo named the panda "Kalisah" or anything, but it's something.
