{"id":20599,"date":"2024-11-05T21:45:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T21:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=20599"},"modified":"2024-11-18T08:08:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T08:08:51","slug":"bonfire-night-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=20599","title":{"rendered":"Bonfire Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20600\" src=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/fireworksPXL_20241105_20453.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/fireworksPXL_20241105_20453.jpg 600w, https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/fireworksPXL_20241105_20453-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/>Happy birthday Guida!<br \/>\nA2 is rereading <em>Seeking Whom He May Devour<\/em> by Fred Vargas. A1 is reading<em> Polostan <\/em>by Neal Stephenson, in which we learn much about the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World\">Wobblies<\/a>, the 1933 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Century_of_Progress\">Chicago World&#8217;s Fair<\/a>, balloons and cosmic rays, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magnitogorsk_Iron_and_Steel_Works\">Magnitogorsk<\/a> in the USSR, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/history\/famous-cases\/bonnie-and-clyde\">Bonnie and Clyde<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_the_Communist_Party_USA\">Communist Party of America<\/a>, the sport of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Polo\">polo<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bonus_Army\">Bonus Army<\/a>, quantum physics, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/great-depression\/hoovervilles\">Hoovervilles<\/a>, and much else. Various real figures play pivotal roles: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Niels_Bohr\">Niels Bohr<\/a>, Generals (then Major) <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_S._Patton\">Patton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Douglas_MacArthur\">MacArthur<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lavrentiy_Beria\">Lavrentiy Beria<\/a> among others*. An unsurnamed &#8220;Dick&#8221; is also very important, who is clearly the womanising polymath genius <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richard_Feynman\">Richard Feynman<\/a>. This enthralling read is the first in a trilogy, but the small 300-page size (for a Stephenson book) and the lack of an ending &#8212; it just <em>stops<\/em> &#8212;\u00a0 give credence to the rumour that it&#8217;s actually been finished but the publishers wanted it split into three parts. Well, more money for them&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>* No sign of Enoch Root thus far, though.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy birthday Guida! A2 is rereading Seeking Whom He May Devour by Fred Vargas. A1 is reading Polostan by Neal Stephenson, in which we learn much about the Wobblies, the 1933 Chicago World&#8217;s Fair, balloons and cosmic rays, Magnitogorsk in the USSR, Bonnie and Clyde, the Communist Party of America, the sport of polo, the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/?p=20599\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Bonfire Night&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32],"tags":[19,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20599"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20643,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20599\/revisions\/20643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermilionsands.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}