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Just use this as a counter to the "rising tide of crap" on HN. Then again what makes HN special to me is that it is free of otherwise very popular and frequent

Just use this as a counter to the "rising tide of crap" on HN. Then again what makes HN special to me is that it is free of otherwise very popular and frequently also great topics I agree with. Exactly because they are popular. Why should they also be popular here as well as everywhere else? This weekend the US will be awashed in Memorial day related content. Heck, I think this would fit better on HN if it was voted up on any other time of year. The current top comment mentions Memorial day isn't about hotdogs. But seriously is there a major US holiday less commercialized? Christmas is a god damn consumer orgy. Memorial day in my experience is still quite the thoughtful and yes memory and appreciation full holiday.

gruseom 14y ago
I ran across this piece because Paul Fussell died this week and posted it because it was so shockingly enlightening. Nothing to do with Memorial Day; apart from not keeping track of these things, I'm Canadian and we do our remembering in November. If some people voted it up for Memorial Day, so much the better for an impassioned piece of good writing. Fussell obviously deserves to be better known.
- pyre 14y ago
  > we do our remembering in November The US celebrates 'Veteran's Day' on November 11th, which coincides with Remembrance Day (or Armistice Day), though it's one of those holidays that are more of a footnote than anything else. Memorial Day apparently holds a much older heritage. According to Wikipedia: [...] it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War [...] By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.
peteretep 14y ago
What makes HN great is - simply - the culture. This is partly due to the people. If as a community we continue to stamp the culture on to newcomers, it has a good few years left in it. If its popularity grows at such a clip that the culture is lost, it becomes Reddit.

gruseom 14y ago

I ran across this piece because Paul Fussell died this week and posted it because it was so shockingly enlightening. Nothing to do with Memorial Day; apart from not keeping track of these things, I'm Canadian and we do our remembering in November. If some people voted it up for Memorial Day, so much the better for an impassioned piece of good writing. Fussell obviously deserves to be better known.

pyre 14y ago
> we do our remembering in November The US celebrates 'Veteran's Day' on November 11th, which coincides with Remembrance Day (or Armistice Day), though it's one of those holidays that are more of a footnote than anything else. Memorial Day apparently holds a much older heritage. According to Wikipedia: [...] it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War [...] By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.

peteretep 14y ago

What makes HN great is - simply - the culture. This is partly due to the people. If as a community we continue to stamp the culture on to newcomers, it has a good few years left in it. If its popularity grows at such a clip that the culture is lost, it becomes Reddit.