{"id":3452,"date":"2011-11-08T10:27:23","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T17:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3452"},"modified":"2011-11-08T20:52:37","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T03:52:37","slug":"we-did-not-burn-the-landowner-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3452","title":{"rendered":"We Did Not Burn the Landowner After All"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jack o' Lantern depicting the Gunpowder Plot. Stacked barrels on the left, arches over head, Guy Fawkes with a torch at right\u2014carved by the neighbors' daughter, an architecture student.<\/p><\/div>\n

There is an Anglo-American couple (her from the UK, him from right here) down the road who always have a Bonfire Night<\/a> party.<\/p>\n

M. and I bumped into the American half recently, and he said that this year’s “Guy<\/a>” would be a certain wealthy local hobby-rancher.<\/p>\n

Having earned his money elsewhere, this guy is busy buying up every piece of vacant land he can find, erecting pretentious ranch gates, quarreling with the Forest Service, and possibly interfering with water rights (still unproved, but if so, it’s a hanging offense).<\/p>\n

Unlike the actual largest landowner in this end of the county \u2014 who might be found on a mechanic’s creeper<\/a> underneath one of the engines at the volunteer fire department, fixing something \u2014 he holds himself aloof from all community activities.<\/p>\n

He has a bad case of “Texas Vertigo”\u2014he thinks the world revolves around him. And, says the woman who waited tables down at the little steakhouse while working on her nursing degree, “He’s a two-dollar tipper.”<\/p>\n

“All right,” I thought, on hearing my neighbor’s announcement, “it’s a real Aradia<\/a> <\/em>moment. Di legare il spirito del oppresore<\/em> and all that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Not the neighboring landowner but a cable TV talker.<\/p><\/div>\n

But when M. and I walked up the neighbors’ driveway, dish in hand, to where everyone gathered around the fire pit, beer kegs, and tables of food, the “Guy” was someone else\u2014a certain cable television political pundit.<\/p>\n

Not nearly as interesting from a folk-magic perspective, if you ask me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Burn! Burn!<\/p><\/div>\n

It is still an emotionally satisfying conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an Anglo-American couple (her from the UK, him from right here) down the road who always have a Bonfire Night party. M. and I bumped into the American half recently, and he said that this year’s “Guy” would be a certain wealthy local hobby-rancher. Having earned his money elsewhere, this guy is busy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,26,21,66,69],"class_list":["post-3452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado","tag-culture","tag-england","tag-halloween","tag-samhain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-TG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1214,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1214","url_meta":{"origin":3452,"position":0},"title":"Did a ‘Pagan’ Bury the Staffordshire Hoard?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"Staffordshire Hoard\" is a cache of 7th-century Anglo-Saxon sword jewels and other items recently found in England (and a great boost for metal-detector sales, no doubt).The caption on one slide of the golden hoard suggests that because a gold cross was folded in on itself before burial, the person\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1172,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1172","url_meta":{"origin":3452,"position":1},"title":"A Movie for Reconstructionists","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"That would be Rain in the Mountains.Described by reviewers as a \"quirky indie comedy,\" it is about trying to go back to the old, ancestral ways.And that guy hanging from the tree and telling people their destinies? Hmmm. The screenwriter, you will note, was an Anglo, not an Indian.Netflix has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11887,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11887","url_meta":{"origin":3452,"position":2},"title":"Why Is the Hippo Goddess Holding a Bull by a Chain in the Northern Sky?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This carving comes from a Greco-Roman-era Egyptian temple in Esna,where decorated walls are being carefully cleaned and original colors seen again. As workers in Egypt remove soot and dirt from the temple, sometimes with a mixture of alcohol and distilled water, the original painted carvings and hieroglyphics beneath are so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bulls-leg.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=317","url_meta":{"origin":3452,"position":3},"title":"Blog Stew 1. A University\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Blog Stew 1. A University of Texas study suggests that the nutritional value of American vegetables has declined over the past 50 years (from Science Blog via MacRaven). Yesterday two of my students, both living at about the poverty line while attending university, were complaining about how hard it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10594,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10594","url_meta":{"origin":3452,"position":4},"title":"“Out of the Broom Closet” \u2014 American Wicca in the late 1980s","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"? Valdosta State University in Georgia has digitized and posted two videos by Wiccan journalists Malcolm Brenner and Lezlie Kinyon. (That is Brenner's voice-over narration.) This one,\u00a0Out of the Broom Closet, was released in 1991 from video shot in the preceding years. This documentary begins with a protest of Z.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=544","url_meta":{"origin":3452,"position":5},"title":"The altar of the .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The altar of the . . . intramural volleyball league?Depending on your persuasion, the following announcement indicates the Paganization of an American university, a celebration of \"diversity,\" a violation of the separation of church [Aztec temple?] and state, \"multiculturalism\" run amok, or good clean fun.The student activities board at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3452"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3471,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions\/3471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}