November 11, 2004

Don't forget 11 o'clock. Today's the day the guns fell silent (for some). Now more than ever we should remember them. No more inside.
posted by kitfisto 20 years ago
  • What about the Anzacs?
  • I'm wearing the poppy. And had the pleasure of informing two French andA merican classmates why they were sounding a strange horn at 11 o'clock.
  • It should be at 11:11 on 11/11. Not simply 11 o'clock.
  • I don't buy a poppy; I can't afford a turban to pin it to. >:-(
  • The Armistice was signed at 11am, not 11:11. Obviouly a lack of foresight on their part...
  • Anyone have a link to suport their views? I will look too, but I was taught from an early age that it was signed at 11:11 on 11/11 so that everyone would find it easy to remember.
  • Well, looks like I have been wrong for over 20 years. Every citation I am finding does indicate it was 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. I hope no vets get mad at me for being 11 minutes late each year. Sorry!
  • Like three lots of eleven weren't enough!? Wowsers, I've never heard that it was 11:11 before either, so it's been a learning experience for everyone! I'm sure the veterans don't care, as long as we remember them...
  • We live across the river from the legislative building, and the cannons are going off right now. My poor cat is terrified. But at least she's thinking about the veterans.
  • I hope no vets get mad at me for being 11 minutes late each year. And in third place, trailing the pack by eleven minutes and eleven seconds: quidnunc kid :(
  • Nostril: One place here. New Zealand also returned it's Unknown Soldier from France this year.
  • I was late for the small ceremony this morning (US university, but with a Canadian group who does a yearly remembrance), but I was glad I went. It's a moment of reflection, a realisation of how lucky we in the peaceful world are, of our history, of being connected to something more important than just our lives. I touch the poppy on my lapel, and it makes me remember veterans, and their sacrafices, but also civilians, and their pain. Sometimes wars are necessary, but they are never good. I know we will never be without them, but I don't stop praying for it.
  • Remembrance day is for the soldiers, and thats pretty much all that we do remember and should remeber about the first world war. Not the politics, the rationales, the propaganda, but the horror. Thats the real lesson for today - Iraq, Palestine, Rwanda, Haiti, Chechnya, wherever.
  • I thought it was 11:11:11 on 11/11/18, and that most of the signatories were late in signing. We had a strange ritual at school, when digital watches first came out. We watched our watches from 11:10, until the displays showed 11:11:11. It was soooooo cool.
  • If only they had the foresight to sign it seven years earlier! Or 807 years earlier!