Mine doesn't. Odd, I think. Is it just 'cos we lost? You can't move for cork hats and 3 for 2 Foster's offers on Australia Day, and the less said about St. Patrick's Day the better.

You'd think the opportunity to flog a bumper load of hot dogs, and get rid of that barrel of Coors that the brewery left in January and no-one's touched since, would be too much for most landlords.

The Australia Day thing is just a beer promotion, though, isn't it? And to large extent that's true of St Paud's as well: I had the devil's (excuse me, the "divil's") own job getting any Irish food this March (look, I just fancied it, OK?) So it's all down to what the likes of Anheuser-Busch think will play in the market, and perhaps, yeah, they do think bigging up a military defeat might strike the wrong tone.

I'd happily celebrate the "Spirit of '76" myself, for all my misgivings about America the World Power. They need better bread buns for those hot dogs, though.

Does the States do St George's Day in a big way, though - with ales and Yorkshire pudding and fish'n'chips and and and...? If not then why should we do 4th of July?

Of course, this is a rhetorical question, really. I'm happy for us to partake in the traditions of other countries. I feel it helps keep us more 'tolerant' and 'aware'. I also (put simply) think we owe it to the countries we invaded and pillaged. It's the least we can do, in our superficial way.

Changing the subject slightly - I've always said that if I won the lottery (the only way I'm ever going to get a significant amount of money) I would like to spend a year (and most likely two) just doing a world tour, taking in all the major festivals and events - religious and otherwise. I'd like to see Diwali and the Kumbh Mela in India, the masque in Venice, the carnival in Rio and oooh, loads I don't even yet know about! Maybe this makes me a horrible cultural tourist, but what's the point in professing that you know about something when all you've ever done is read about it in your favourite armchair? I've never travelled, so I feel like I've got alot of cultural catching-up to do.

Wyatt Earp wrote:

QUOTE:
I had the devil's (excuse me, the "divil's") own job getting any Irish food this March (look, I just fancied it, OK?)

Actually the otherwise ordinary O'Neill's are ok in this area.

Wyatt Earp wrote:

QUOTE:
I'd happily celebrate the "Spirit of '76" myself

Ah, is this the place to say that it's 32 years ago today since I saw The Ramones and The Flamin' Groovies at the Roundhouse? If so, consider it said...

We don't celebrate the 4th of July because we fucking hate the fucking Americans.

I mean, OK, we (the collective 'we' of the British public, which includes millions of people whose taste appals me) lap up the Americans' cultural waste produce in a depressingly supine manner - and don't get me wrong, there's some good stuff too, Tamla Motown, Woody Allen, woohoo for that - but we also, at the end of the day, think they're a bunch of crass, domineering, loudmouthed cunts and the idea of celebrating their national day would rub most Brits up the wrong way (and I'm not just talking about clever Brits who've been to university and that, I'm talking about Brits who listen to happy hardcore and wear sportswear when they aren't doing sport). There'd be vandalism, if not full-scale riots. That's my take on it, anyway.

Happy Independence Day to all WSC's American readers, by the way!

Prodigal Son to thread. Or not.

Y'see, although I see SR's point, I simply wish we'd celebrate with the same vigour the 'special days' associated with the Indian subcontinent, parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

(Okay - Notting Hill Carnival -I'll give you that. But that's just representing one segment of our diverse population, when there's so many more. And the carnival is going a bit commercial too.)

evilC wrote:

QUOTE:
Y'see, although I see SR's point, I simply wish we'd celebrate with the same vigour the 'special days' associated with the Indian subcontinent, parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

(Okay - Notting Hill Carnival -I'll give you that. But that's just representing one segment of our diverse population, when there's so many more. And the carnival is going a bit commercial too.)

Yeah, but the Americans aren't a "segment of our diverse population", are they. They're us... gone wrong.

QUOTE:
"…whence came all these people? They are a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes... What, then, is the American, this new man? He is neither a European nor the descendant of a European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations.

So, increased European integration then ...?

evilC wrote:

QUOTE:
Y'see, although I see SR's point, I simply wish we'd celebrate with the same vigour the 'special days' associated with the Indian subcontinent

Try getting down Oxford Road in Manchester on Eid, and you might change that opinion.

A pub not far from the office I'm sitting in has had a board outside for the last three weeks letting us know about the chance to 'celebrate American Independence Day!'. Why the bleeding hell anyone in England would want to do such a thing, they don't explain, and it's only appeared this year, so clearly they don't sell enough beer at the start of July...

SamLKelly wrote:
Why the bleeding hell anyone in England would want to do such a thing...[/quote]

Well, remember that it is also independence for us, and it means that we don't have the kinds of people who'd vote for George Walker Bush voting in our elections.

This is something Wyatt might know, where would you go in London to actually get some decent American beer if you wanted to celebrate today?

The best thing about today is that the LA office is shut and I don't have to respond to 2000 queries at the time of day when I want to be going to the pub god damn it. See also: "Thanksgiving". Which must be worse surely?

Fact of the day: Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day - 4th July 1826!

Any Sainsbury's, I would imagine.

Spearmint Rhino wrote:

QUOTE:
evilC wrote:

QUOTE:
Y'see, although I see SR's point, I simply wish we'd celebrate with the same vigour the 'special days' associated with the Indian subcontinent, parts of Africa and the Caribbean.

(Okay - Notting Hill Carnival -I'll give you that. But