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Crickey! It's Diana down under!

DavidDavid
edited September 2006 in General chat
I have a pet hate. Actually it's more than a pet hate. I really hate it. _National mourning_ that is. I just don't get it. To me, mourning is by its very nature a private process, or something shared between close relatives/friends mourning another close relative/friend. Diana started all this of course. I remember virtually being ostracised at my work place for refusing to _mourn_. How can you genuinely mourn someone you don't know? Sympathy for their death, yes, but proper mourning? Anyhow, I'm sure plenty don't agree with me, but I couldn't help laughing at the Prime Minister addressing the nation at his funeral, an army of yellow flower carrying, khaki clad men standing in the shape of Steve's catchphrase word "Crickey!" and then forcing the poor little animals below to stand and mourn him. ![mourning](http://www.stroudgreen.org/pics/crocs.jpg) RIP Mr Irwin, but the attention seeking nonsense of a collective nation in these situations is worrylingly a growing trend. Right, rant over. The forums were a bit quite so thought i'd pipe up.
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Comments

  • andyandy
    edited 4:27AM
    That is ace. What an great photo. Entirely beyond parody. (At this point in the service, everyone holding a croc and dressed as Steve Irwin will stand, insert their finger into the crocodile and incant loudly "Ripper - it's really angry now". Only members of the Irwin family are allowed to say "Crikey".)
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  • LizLiz
    edited 4:27AM
    I had exactly the same experience with the Diana thing - sad, yes, but I DID NOT KNOW THE WOMAN. Two particular incidents stand out for me: some American clients that I was working for at the time ringing up to check that I was OK, and being slightly surprised that I was at work (WTF?), and the day of the funeral itself when it was inescapable. I sat in the garden and read a book. It all felt creepily voyeuristic to me. In a way, the Steve Irwin thing is even more freaky - there was at least some social/constitutional explanation for the Diana thing (potential future Queen, mother of the third in line, etc, not that I really buy it), but a man who spent his life terrorising wildlife? I don't get it.
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  • andyandy
    edited 4:27AM
    The Australian PM described his death as "quintessentially Australian", which contains more ironies than you shake a croc at. However, I will settle for observing that no report of Irwin's death suggested that he was drunk at the time, so it wasn't the *perfect* aussie.
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  • PetePete
    edited 4:27AM
    I've often heard the phrase "at least he died doing what he loved"

    Er... Antagonising dangerous animals?
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  • TollingtonTomTollingtonTom
    edited 4:27AM
    This is so true.
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  • ADGSADGS
    edited 4:27AM
    If TT has contributed nothing else to this forum, by digging out this thread he has introduced me to that photo, which otherwise I may never have seen. For this, I salute him.
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  • andyandy
    edited 4:27AM
    I look back on 2006 as the golden age of this forum.
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  • miss anniemiss annie
    edited 4:27AM
    We must all be a terrible disappointment to you andy. I wonder what TT put into the search box to unearth that gem of a thread?
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  • andyandy
    edited 4:27AM
    I just miss David's light-hearted, often photoshop-assisted rants about the "state of things". He doesn't do so much of them anymore. Things change. Whilst you miss things past, you know that one day you'll probably pine for things you have today in the same way.
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  • TollingtonTomTollingtonTom
    edited 4:27AM
    Andy, have you been watching the Flumps again on UK Gold Jr?
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