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- Boris Johnston will achieve his longstanding ambition to become a former Prime Minister.
- Stock market higher at end of 2021 than at the beginning (FTSE – 6,460) but higher inflation too (most recent CHPI – 0.6%).
- No progress for those hoping for marriage equality in the Church of England.
- State based hackers turn their disruptive attention to open source software. (Watch out WordPress).
- Donald Trump will remain the centre of attention.
- There will be midnight mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow next Christmas Eve. People will be wearing masks.
- A rocky year for Nicola Sturgeon but the SNP will be returned triumphant to Holyrood, despite their record.
- No vote on Scottish Independence this year but like it or not, constitutional change is a-coming.
- Attempt to repeal the Human Rights Act, removing the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights from UK law. (It is a stepping stone to restoring capital punishment – the Brexiteers are not done with us yet).
- Legislation emerges in Scotland to restrict fireworks.
9 responses to “Street Music”
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I encountered the Salvation Army at the bottom of the escalators in the Buchanan St Galleries last Saturday afternoon. It was sorely tempting to drop an orange down the tuba as I passed, but I refrained, sailing by on my way with thoughts of expressions of multi-{ethnic,cultural,religious} societies…
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Jingle Bells is certainly a carol and, arguably, a hymn too.
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(corrected link from last comment – is it really that long ago that I last commented here?)
I love bagpipes, but am at a loss to imagine Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They’ll be doing Hallelujah next (everyone else seems to be).
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Good Father, you have come a long way from the Salvation Army. (I have rarely encountered them here in Mexico.)
As far as “Scotland’s national instrument of war,” with the advent of laser-guided missiles and 500 pound bunker busters dropped from 10,000 meters, it is much more difficult to scare your enemy away with that squealing noise.
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In the US we encounter Salvation Army at the doors of many stores and malls, ringing a bell hoping for monetary donations. I have heard that they even now have credit card readers and can run the card right there! I think I’d prefer the band, but I’ve never encountered one.
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The bell thing is very much a North American thing. Bands are the the way to get the money in on this side of the Atlantic. They had an open bucket today (which I thought was not a legal way of collecting money) rather than a credit card reader.
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I had the misfortune to stand too close to the RAF Leuchars Pipe Band. The sound was far worse close up than the noise of the engines of their planes. Not only a weapon of war but also an instrument of torture. The Geneva Convention should ban such weapons.
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The Salvation Army (El Ejército de Salvación) Christmas Kettles started in San Francisco over 100 years ago when a local officer wanted to collect funds for Christmas Dinner for the poor. He remembered a kettle collecting money back in Liverpool England and decided to try this at the local ferry dock. He positioned himself to get folks both coming and going. Thus a tradition was born.
Now you can go to the US Salvation Army website and get info about setting up an online Christmas Kettle on your blog to collect from your visitors directly to the SA.
Mexico has very strict separation laws, more strict than the USA, and laws regulating religious institutions, so I have never seen a Christmas Kettle or a SA band in Mexico. I do know that they operate a shelter here in Monterrey.
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“It was, unmistakably, the skirl of a bagpipe…
The senior officer halted his men and came riding back. ‘Captain Windham, I believe there is an ambush set for us down yonder.’
‘It does not sound like an ambush, egad!’ replied his colleague rather tartly, as the heathenish skirling grew louder.” (D. K. Broster, The Flight of the Heron [1925])
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