Despite inflammation of gum tissue not being the main theme of this informative rant…. to be fair, it isn’t at all any sort of theme to do with this blog…. I believe that the name of this periodontal nastiness best puts forth the true topic of my discussion in an informative and humorous manner.
Fuelling (but not with petrol; have you seen those prices?) my intellectual side this sunny Sunday morning, I tuned (remember when you had to tune your television) in to BBC News. Aside from the troubles in Syria and Bradley Wiggins’ “bonne heure,” as he put it, my attention was captured by an elderly lady who watched the man of the Tour de France‘s golden hour grow up.
She explained how, from even as early as 7 or 9, Wiggins would ride around the once Olympic track in preparation for his career on the bike. She also went into depth about his past and upbringing explaining how this once “quiet, little boy” had developed into a world-beater. But the Belgian-born Londoner, we are informed, once kept a darkened secret. I’ll quote the BBC’s guest with this one:
“He used to have ginger hair but it’s darkened down these days…. luckily for him”
Now you may not have been left with mouth agape after that little hair-ist cheap shot as you may have had she said he had previously been of African descent until he found a friend in the King of Pop, but still…. bloody hell!
What the hell’s wrong with being ginger? I for one am a fan of Karen Gillan – simply because of her rôle in one of my favourite TV shows…. honest! – and see no reason as to why the colour of one’s hair deems one ‘luckier’ than another.
See how enraged I am…. I’m not even making a tangent to rant about ‘luck.’ I’m as en route to getting to the bottom of this dilemma as Bradley himself is to pass through the Chemps Élysées to win the Tour.
Tim Minchin doesn’t half get this largely British / Australian “taboo” down to a tee!
Watch this >> Prejudice
The reason I make the point of this being a largely British / Australian “taboo” is because it is, for all intents and purposes, just that! The Americans, I’m informed, don’t nearly see the funny side of red-heads as their cousins from across various ponds.
Maybe the British saw too much Celtic spirit in their burning locks and felt the need to subtly oppress true Brythonic / Gaelic uprising by making them the arse-end of many a joke (just like the Irish in general, really). Who knows?
So my advice to you all is this; if you learn nothing else from the Americans (ok so that was more of a warning than anything else), let’s be fair to our fire-haired buddies. They’re real people too! And incidentally a girl in one of my now year 8 classes is a genuine relation to this formidable cyclist. Cool huh? Who needs six degrees of separation when you’ve got two! But then again if he’s ginger I’d rather disassociate myself from him, to be honest!
By the way, should you feel you’re suffering from gingivitis, go to your dentist…. not a salon!
Smiley, ginger-looking face 🙂
SteCymru14's Smiley Faces 