Badboiiz

My badminton friends had long thought of a 'corporate' name to identify our little group. We had mused over our own individual levels of Bourgeois to Bohemian ratio -and found ourselves varying on that scale. So we pondered on the origens of the cultural term 'Bourgeois' -travellers in Paris who were thought to have originated from Bohemia that territory in turn was habitated by the 'Boi' around two millenia, they had tussles with Roman military. So us boys became 'boiiz'.


From Bourgeois to Bohemian- a case of association or contamination?
Bohemian’ was always used in clear contrast to ‘Bourgeois’ .Both terms seem to have eminated from the 19^th century chattering classes of France and Britain, although there was a distinctive variation in the US, that I will return to later (herumphh). Wikipedia says;“The term Bohemian emerged in France in the early 19th century when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class gypsey neighbourhoods. The term bohémien was a common term for the Romani people of France, who had reached Western Europe via Bohemia.[2]”In terms of the Badminton Club aka The Bad Boyz (that entity in we members have at least a modicum of intense identity) what is it of us that is Bohemian? Or more particularly of Adrian Lee? Interestingly Bohemia now a part of the Checz Republic was so named after the celtic tribe the Boii. So Boii -heim (home of the Boii) became Bohemia. So in what sense are we the Bad Boiiz or Bad Bourgies?
Of course Alan Parham, this writer, as a child of the counter culture of the 60’s was, yes I admit it, a token ‘Hippy’. But since then we have had Yippies, Yuppys, Dinkies. Now we have BoBos. But more of that later.
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Bohemianism-also dubbed in Wikipedia as:“…the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties. Bohemians can be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds.”
On this simple scale we score as follows (in no order of first among equals).

	Adrian	Peter	Douglas	Nick	Magid	Alan
Unconventi-onal lifestyle	Yup	Mmm	Er	Nein	Nein	Maybe
Musical artistic or literary persuits	Yup	Mmm	Yup	Some	Mmm	Some
Few permanent ties	?	Nein	Nein	Nein	Nein	Nein
Wanderer,	Sometimes?	Nein	Mmm	Mmm	Nope	Nope
Adventurer	Sometimes?	Yes-ish	Oooh	Yup	Mmm	Wannabe
Vagabond	North Grove	Only in dress	Beard for it	Occasional	Oh No	Teeth for it

Scale Yeroop/Der/Doh/Yup/No/Way- No Way/Whoa/
　As one can see there are a few areas for future research, controversy, denial and projection. Are we also like minded? Yes we go to the Tollgate and consume beer. Although Magid may be a bit of a heretic in this regard. Mmm.“What, then, is it that makes this mystical empire of Bohemia unique, and what is the charm of its mental fairyland? It is this: there are no roads in all Bohemia! One must choose and find one’s own path, be one’s own self, live one’s own life.”