Liberal free for all coming to an end

[smc]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Umm, what's that campfire song? Hosanna? I guess? Am I getting this right?

I suspect you mean "Kumbayah."

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

What does that mean, painting the town red?

It means to engage in some sort of spree, originally riotous and bloody (hence the "red") but over time to mean go out at night, around town, and hit all the top spots, drinking, cavorting, carousing, and so on.

One origin of the phrase is said to come from the 1830s when a group of friends ran around a town somewhere in Leicestershire, England (I can't remember exactly), late a night, and painted a whole bunch of buildings red.

Another is the "Spring Heeled Jack" legend of England, which is linked to Henry de la Poer Beresford, a notorious hooligan who, while at Oxford University, used to cause a lot of mayhem. It included literally upsetting apple-carts, breaking windows, and painting the heels of a parson's horse with aniseed (which would come out red).