About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

A is for All Hallows' Eve - Halloween Crackers?

I'm not sure if I should be castigating these as the devil-spawned, tradition trashing, obvious and overdue  move of some capitalist Mo-fo intent on destroying the world to push his profit margin up naught-point-five percent, or celebrate the fact that while most of the world still don't have Christmas Crackers we can now have them twice a year . . . Neah-neah Na-naeh-neah!

I'll play it safe and try to please both camps of thought . . .

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Post One

Celebration; Cracker Toys; Eye Patch; Gift; Halloween Party Crackers; Hat; Insects; Joke; Joke Nail; Motto; Novelty Cracker Toys; Novelty Party Crackers; Plastic Novelties; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Waitrose Halloween Crackers;
Oh-Em-Gee!! Can you believe these?!! Some pocket-lining, money-grubbing city-type, with more money than sense already, has done a number crunching exercise and decided to run a coach and horses through the lovely old tradition of Christmas crackers, by associating them with the horrors of pre-Christian barbarism, old-wives tales and the South American day of the Dead!!

For a few points on the top-end, the bottom line is now there's something else for hard-pressed, austerity poor parents to be badgered for by their kids, innocent of the strain on the family budget as their little eye light-up at the thought of a gift, snap and motto. There should be consumer laws protecting society from this kind of blasphemous corporate hegemony and I can't understand why the Daily Wail hasn't taken a stand!

I mean it's right there before your eyes in black & orange, you can't miss it, how could you fail to be outraged?!

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Post Two

Celebration; Cracker Toys; Eye Patch; Gift; Halloween Party Crackers; Hat; Insects; Joke; Joke Nail; Motto; Novelty Cracker Toys; Novelty Party Crackers; Plastic Novelties; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Waitrose Halloween Crackers;
How cool are these, Christmas crackers . . . at Halloween! Too cool for party-school I dare say and full of old favourites! The card (on the left) and my sample (on the right) differ only in the body of the insect and the species of semi-flat animal!

Both the spider and the octopus have been seen in a set of mouldings which have been around since the 1970's, while we saw chrome-coated versions of the beetles last time we had an insect round-up and I recently saw several of them on a kids magazine so another ubiquitous novelty doing the rounds.

It seems each set of six has two tricks/dressing-up accessories, two games and two toy figurines. Top idea, I hope the Daily Pail gets right behind this modern thinking, to bring colourful, affordable novelties to the suddenly brightened-homes of austerity Britain!

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I'm not sure; I think it's a bit naff, but I got two [proto-] posts out of it . . . and some stuff for the collection, but at four-quid; not something I'll repeat!

Although note that the person dotting the eyes of the beetle (with a permanent marker) was drunk when they did mine! And as with some of the claims made for the creepy-crawly sets from all sources last year - nothing hair-raising or creepy about them!

Time will tell if it takes-off and I know - hyperbole apart - that you have always been able to get crackers for other occasions from specialist suppliers or party-planners, such as for weddings or birthdays, so why not Halloween, but it begs the question, how long before some corporate back-handed junket-taking columnist tells us in his or her erudite fashion that funeral crackers are "Just de rigueur at wakes these days"! Remember; this is Waitrose, not Poundland!

Apart from the two variables noted above, I think it's a standard content-mix as the jokes are numbered 1 - 6 . . .

1 - What is a mummy's favourite type of music? Wrap
2 - Why do demons and ghouls hang out together? Because demons are a ghoul's best friend
3 - What do you call a witch who lives at the beach? A Sand-witch
4 - Why didn't the skeleton dance at the party? He had no body to dance with
5 - What happens when the ghost gets lost in the fog? He is mist
6 - What are ghosts' favourite kind of streets? Dead ends

. . . while the paper crowns are - of course - pumpkin orange!

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