Painted green and pagan

Here’s another indicator that civilization is headed straight to hell in a handbasket: The Guardian’s page of photos of the Beltane festivities held Sunday at Glastonbury.

It’s not just that the photos look like they might have been submitted by what the Brits refer to as Members of the Public. (They’re colorful, but not especially well composed.) It’s that the captions are mindless. “A woman holds up a bunch of flowers”; “A dance is performed”; and (my favorite) “A man painted green and dressed in green”.

It’s like The Guardian has turned over the amateur photos to a caption-bot. Or possibly outsourced the work to Minsk.

Just for ducks, I checked out the Telegraph, The Guardian’s polar political opposite. Their picture page is not materially better. My only take-away from them is that Beltane is a pagan festival. Because they say so in eight of the 14 captions.