[HPforGrownups] Fudge

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 99049

Apologies for the last two blank posts...

David wrote:
> > For non-American English speakers, the reference we are using is to a
> > quaint American custom sometimes refered to as 'tarred, feathered, and
run
> > out of town on a rail', where a ne'er-do-well is trussed up, bound hand
> > and foot, and then hung from a fence rail (as in 'rail and stile') and
> > carried out of town, with the admonition not to return.  I thought I'd
> > explain it, since I didn't realize the genesis of the saying until just
a
> > couple of years ago.  I don't know if other English speaking group have
> > shared this particular method of inviting someone to move on, but I know
> > it was really popular in the American South until the middle of the 20th
> > century.

Yes, the general title for that sort of activity is "rough music" and it's
well known across England (where it went under various names such as
"skimmington" and "riding the stang") and Wales (where it was known as
"cwlstrin" and "ceffyl pren"). Had all sorts of variants, blowing horns and
banging pans outside someone's house, parading them in effigy, or tying them
up and parading them on a pole. It was usually used for people who offended
social norms of "rightness", like domestic abusers of both sexes.

Potterverse relevance? Well possibly. If "rough music" is a prevalent form
of justice in the WW, then maybe that's the counterbalance to the highly
dubious official legal system. And if it can be done to the Minister, it's
obviously not something that's limited to the lower classes...

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri