tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-716407892466377250.post5856090958218761005..comments2024-03-29T02:29:51.872-05:00Comments on West End Dumplings: The Titanic disaster and Manitoba's most tasteless memorial.Christian Cassidyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17691310860448400887noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-716407892466377250.post-73570460589855088642012-05-28T22:20:26.367-05:002012-05-28T22:20:26.367-05:00I was at a school fun fair last Wednesday and saw ...I was at a school fun fair last Wednesday and saw the Titanic slide in action. It was a major attraction with a perpetual lineup of kids waiting to climb to the top of the stern and slide screaming down the deck. I guess its an indication of how times change.<br /><br />When I was a kid the Titanic was still a sobering memory and still gripping after two world wars and a parade of much more deadly disasters. It was also a tantalizing mystery -- where was the wreck, and would it ever be found?<br /><br />Coincidentally, soon after the fun fair I was leafing through George Orwell's collected essays, journalism and letters and stumbled over a passage that I hadn't seen before (vol 1 p 588). <br /><br />Orwell was eight years old when the Titanic went down. "I remember that in all the long list of horrors the one that most impressed me was that at the last the Titanic suddenly up-ended and sank bow foremost, so that the people clinging to the stern were lifted no less than three hundred feet into the air before they plunged into the abyss. It gave me a sinking sensation in the belly which I can still all but feel. Nothing in the war [WWI] ever gave me quite that sensation." <br /><br />A 20-foot-high inflatable slide is not a 300-foot death ride, but the Titanic's transformation into a children's amusement shows how far the disaster has faded from the popular imagination.Norman Beattiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09211632496303823615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-716407892466377250.post-17834621757102782922012-04-20T03:10:15.521-05:002012-04-20T03:10:15.521-05:00a titanic shaped slide for kids - too soon? um ye...a titanic shaped slide for kids - too soon? um yes! lolCarol Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03989588557331849676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-716407892466377250.post-6899767589999961532012-04-02T23:13:17.296-05:002012-04-02T23:13:17.296-05:00The Titanic was 100 years ago, and as the basis fo...The Titanic was 100 years ago, and as the basis for a horrible movie, it has entered the realm of fiction and mythology. I doubt there are very many friends and families of the shipwreck who are feeling deeply offended by a plastic boat. <br /><br />Maybe in 100 years people will indeed be able to look back on 9/11 with a detached sense of macabre humour and some might even rent some sort of Tower Jump trampoline. Who knows. Well, Probably not, as one is a man made act of war and one is a natural disaster. Might be more akin to a Fukushima Tsunami water park or something involving the New Orleans Levyreedsolomon.matr1x at gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17833240911634788354noreply@blogger.com