Wiggy The Orange

                                         

Albert Camus once said that in the depths of winter, in our hearts beats the spirit of eternal summer. …. Well he said something like that and if it wasn’t him it was someone like him. So that is my first comment on the political events of this week.

 Like most of society when faced with a frightening situation we’ve been making jokes about it.

                                             

I think enough has been said about the episode of the Simpsons where a certain man becomes President, enough has been said about Orange being the new Black but there might be another wee thing going on which is uniquely British. 

                                              

In these days of looking back, retro being cool, reminiscing about the good old days before mobile phones, when tooth extraction could be dangerous and 'like' was not the popular word in the English language, there was a TV series in the UK for kids under fives ( and mums and dads) about a small village and their fire station. It was done in stop motion animation, 13 episodes of 15 minutes. That was all. IT now has its own website!

                                           

 Something that would stir the imaginations  of those that went on to create Wallace and Grommet.

                                          

                                                 And Philip, who  is a true Staffie. Big teeth, no brain.

 For something that only lasted a few episodes the characters of this village have captured the collective British consciousness as a shorthand for something very simplistic but of no bloody use whatsoever. During the financial crash in 2011 the  economy of this fictional toytown was used as a model to explain the fiscal multiplier and fire fighter Dribble was laid off due to the financial crisis. 

In September 2014 a spoof twitter account with the name of the village followed by the handle @UKIP parodied the official output of the UKIP party. 

But to tell you the truth it was very difficult to tell the difference between the truth and the parody.

The village of course is called Trumpton.

I'll just leave that there.

 Capitol Hill

 At some point in the last 48 hours every citizen in the UK over the age of 45 has had a titter at that and maybe found themselves whistling the famous theme tune whenever Wiggy the Orange  appears.

Life goes on.

Nature stabilises everything.

                                        

                                                       From the Cairngorm Website

The Cairngorm Mountains have been there for 40 million  years  before the last ice age and no matter how many golf courses Wiggy the Orange builds in Scotland, he’s not going to flatten these by the power of his ego.

By a weird segway, I have ended up on a think tank, well it's not big enough to be a tank, more a 'think goldfish bowl' for a crime writing festival set in the Highlands  with a background and landscape steeped in drama. 

And death.

                                         

                                                  From the Cairngorm Website

 So what are our ideas so far? Well the location of the festival will be very near the sources of water that make the greatest whisky in the world. So a few whisky tasting events.

There are a few micro breweries in the area, so we’re going to do a few beer and book events. 

Also going to have a cinematic evening, at the moment the local interest is the 39 Steps but as the world expert on Hitchcock is known to us and we can bribe him to do it it with for a bag of M&M's,  it probably will be Psycho. 

We are going to have a marquee in the square with a lot of heaters, maybe a big log fore if the health ans safety will allow it,  with two events with either fish and chips at half time or a pie. 

We’ve also got tabs on a local bus tour company who  will get a writer to tell the story of what happened in Glencoe and if that doesn’t make the blood stand up on the back of your neck goodness knows what will. ( with the exception of Wiggy)

                                     

                                            Again from their website, I am fancying a crime event on this train!

The area is so remote that night is black, black  black,and maybe that tour should take place at midnight - which was when the massacre happened. 

Oh, and they’ll be some writing events – new blood writers etc. But I suspect if the festival does get off the ground I could do a clinical trial on the effectiveness of hangover cures. Bring it on I say. 

                                           

Caro Ramsay 11 11 2016