The Film Festival weekend is coming up, and members of the Film Society have been going round the shops to encourage them to do special window displays. I saw Jo Eliot going into Golesworthy's to ask them (this being the good quality country clothing shop by the Clock Tower). When I asked what sort of film display they could provide, she said "Oh, they can do something like the 39 Steps!"
Well, Booth's have put together an old cinema seat and a movie camera, and La Maison have gone for the local option, with Armstrong the (alleged) poisoner - there was a film called Dandelion Dead which was made in Hay, and those are dandelions in the display. He claimed that he bought the poison to kill the dandelions in his lawn (rather than his wife).
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I think Golesworthys have gone for the Dambusters. Possibly. (If I'm right, do I get a prize I wonder?).
They have a child's hooded coat hanging over the display with four circles which seem to be propellers attached to the outstretched arms, so that could be intended as a Lancaster bomber; a British Legion poppy cross (which came free the other day in the junk mail), and a small sign saying "Don't mention the dog".
The dog in the Dambusters got run over just before the mission, and was also, rather unfortunately now, called Nigger.
Story was that Nigger was really really the dog's name, then they changed it to Blacky but now the BFI have restored it to Nigger. And after all, the dog WAS a black haired dog!
I think the dog's name was 'unfortunate' back then or is it from the 1940s before racism was bad?
Racism was bad in the 1940s - but Nigger was a common name for a black dog back then. And as Guy Gibson used his dog's name as the code word on the Dambuster raid, it was pretty integral to the plot of the film.
Meanwhile, the Bookshop on the Pavement have come up with a brilliant window display based on silent films (sorry, no picture - I didn't have my camera with me).
I'm not commenting on the appropriateness of the dog's name but I do question whether we need to see a very offensive word spelt out in full, doing so could be seen as agreeing the word is an acceptable one to use.
Nigger was a common name for a black dog when I was young. It's only in recent years that political correctness has got out of hand and that it is deemed offensive to even call a dog that name. The word is of course a Southern States derivation of 'negro' which means black. Forty years ago all black people were called negroes with no offence intended.
Poor old Nigger the dog then who never knew the can of worms that his name opened up. Here's everything you need to know about him . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_(dog)
don't be upset by "Welsh news not" saying was racism acceptable in the 1940's - they're being too sensitive - probably a Taffy !
If it was good enough for Mark Twain to use the word "nigger", it's acceptable here - discussion of a word is not using it with the intention of causing offence to anyone.
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