Labour Day
Sep. 2nd, 2019 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyI have a yearly tradition. Every Labour Day, I march with my union in the parade, and then I go to the Gladstone for a drink and food, and then I go to the CNE. This is the last bright spot of summer, the peak of summerness, the happy, carefree day that I get before everything inevitably goes straight to shit. Last year I couldn't do this because the CNE workers were on strike (bad unionists crossed the picket line, mediocre unionists stayed at the Gladstone, my friends and I joined the picket line, which was what everyone else should have done but didn't because they suck).
But this year. This year the strike was over, we're gearing up for a massive fight with a government that literally wants us dead, and it was the biggest I've ever seen the march. And it's okay to go to the CNE again.
So it was a good day.
Listen, giant puppets are very important. If you look at any country with a strong labour movement, you will see that they have puppets and effigies. Back in the day we used to have them too, but recently the labour movement has been ineffectual and maybe that's why. Anyway good job, COPE.
The CNE is this annual fair that happens in Toronto. It's big and garish and loud and dumb and it is my favourite thing ever. There is all kinds of good shit and on Labour Day, if you're in a union, you can get in for free. I have no idea why I love it so much because it is the kind of place where rainbow unicorn poop emoji plush toys are a thing, but this is just a thing about me that you have to accept. I can generally drag at least one person to go with me and this year I got two, and they were just as ridiculously excited about it as I was.
My favourite thing about the CNE is the butter sculptures. This year's theme was Victory.
My other favourite thing is that every year, the food vendors try to top each other with the Wrongest Food. My rule is that if I can find a Wrong Food that I can actually eat, I am allowed to eat it. I think the winner of this year's was deep fried bannock, but I didn't actually see it.
This year's food was only marginally Wrong, in that it's something that I would probably eat outside of a CNE context, but it wins Wrong Points for its hilarious presentation:
So this is lemon and pineapple soft serve (really more of a sorbet, but it came out of a soft serve machine so I guess it counts) with coconut flakes served in a watermelon. With a wee umbrella.
Then my friend bought two giant Day of the Triffids Boston ferns, which we lugged back on transit and made everything look like a jungle. It was great. I feel slightly guilty about not getting any assignments done, but the CNE comes but once a year and I'm hoping the manic carnival energy will get me through the rest of my hell-month.
But this year. This year the strike was over, we're gearing up for a massive fight with a government that literally wants us dead, and it was the biggest I've ever seen the march. And it's okay to go to the CNE again.
So it was a good day.
Listen, giant puppets are very important. If you look at any country with a strong labour movement, you will see that they have puppets and effigies. Back in the day we used to have them too, but recently the labour movement has been ineffectual and maybe that's why. Anyway good job, COPE.
The CNE is this annual fair that happens in Toronto. It's big and garish and loud and dumb and it is my favourite thing ever. There is all kinds of good shit and on Labour Day, if you're in a union, you can get in for free. I have no idea why I love it so much because it is the kind of place where rainbow unicorn poop emoji plush toys are a thing, but this is just a thing about me that you have to accept. I can generally drag at least one person to go with me and this year I got two, and they were just as ridiculously excited about it as I was.
My favourite thing about the CNE is the butter sculptures. This year's theme was Victory.
My other favourite thing is that every year, the food vendors try to top each other with the Wrongest Food. My rule is that if I can find a Wrong Food that I can actually eat, I am allowed to eat it. I think the winner of this year's was deep fried bannock, but I didn't actually see it.
This year's food was only marginally Wrong, in that it's something that I would probably eat outside of a CNE context, but it wins Wrong Points for its hilarious presentation:
So this is lemon and pineapple soft serve (really more of a sorbet, but it came out of a soft serve machine so I guess it counts) with coconut flakes served in a watermelon. With a wee umbrella.
Then my friend bought two giant Day of the Triffids Boston ferns, which we lugged back on transit and made everything look like a jungle. It was great. I feel slightly guilty about not getting any assignments done, but the CNE comes but once a year and I'm hoping the manic carnival energy will get me through the rest of my hell-month.
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Date: 2019-09-03 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-09-03 11:36 am (UTC)I used to go to Toronto for my birthday every year and we'd go to the CNE on the streetcar. <3 Glad you had fun!!
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Date: 2019-09-03 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-03 11:24 pm (UTC)Down to the weird military recruitment booths.
But the butter sculptures at the Erie and Washington County Fairs are much smaller (I think Washington Co didn't even have a butter sculpture display, though they did have a woman doing a live cheese carving demo). (Erie Co just had a single display case of butter sculptures, in the same room as the twelve-foot-tall teddy bear somebody had entered in the Handcrafts in some category or other.)
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