Pedro

Another good read from Cole. Grant stepped outside his box for Ethan. Frat houses seem to be US equivalent of the Bullingdon Club, but with their own premises. How awful!

I see you guys like the pictures. I hope you like the stories as well.🤣😍😄 Thanks Ivor. Oddly enough, I’m sure that I wouldn’t have managed as many if I hadn’t got my gang (not forgetting the cat) doing their thing. That and playing around with the time line: so, as you said, continuing, not continuous saga Thanks guys. P

Just to add to the confusion: Camy’s map shows ‘The British Isles’ (except Shetland that has fallen off the top) ’Great Britain’ is England, Scotland and Wales. The full title of the ‘United Kingdom’ : ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ says it as it is. (Although ‘Disunited Kingdom’ is possibly more appropriate.) The red blob in the middle of the Irish Sea is not part of England but is the self governing British Crown dependency : the Isle of Man. It used to have a ‘common purse’ agreement with the UK for VAT and Excise Duties. I’m not sure of the post-Brexit arrangements. The dark green bit is the independent Republic of Ireland (Eire). FWIW England accounts for roughly 84% of the UK population on just over half of the total land area. Further details here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_of_the_United_Kingdom_by_population I will be interested to see how much the population has moved post-Brexit when our 2021 UK census results are published next year.

My news feed today led me to this.

I was looking through some of my grandparents papers the other day and came across this clipping from an English language Indian newspaper. Knowing my grandparents it will be not later than 1939, probably earlier, so think British Raj: To Prevent Accidents Chauffeur: “This, madame, is the hand brake - it’s to put on very quickly, in case of an emergency.” Madame: “I see - something like a kimono.”

Dorothy L Sayers is another British author of similar period you might like to try. Several of her Lord Peter Wimsey stories were televised way back in the early 1970’s.

Here is CNN interview from around the time of the last UK election with Tom Walker, the satirist whose character is Jonathon Pie:

I had not read this before seeing James worthy recommendation in this thread. However I fear I have missed out on the Get Smart references - and likely would have done even if the show had aired this side of the pond. However this gem perfectly describing this outsider’s view of American football encouraged me to read on: ‘Boys were running alternately at and away from each other in a dance that they suspected was somehow choreographed. One in the middle would grunt rhythmically, then they'd all collide with each other and fall down as a group.’ Least aficionados are horrified, a better description of the game occurs much later in the story.

Well the lad on the bottom of the right hand rope ain’t smiling, and the boy above him as the biggest grin of them all. Draw your own conclusions.

Another hang over from earlier days: Police officers in the UK are sometimes referred to as ‘bobbies’ after Sir Robert Peel, the politician who set up the first modern police force circa 1820. However people in the UK railway industry still refer to signalmen as ‘bobbies’. Why bobbies? In the infancy of the railways, the railway police were responsible for controlling and giving signals to trains out of which function the job of signalman developed. Tenterhooks: Mr Wiki tells me they are the hooks on a tenter, a frame on which a length of cloth would be stretched to dry after washing, so as to prevent shrinkage. However I have also heard the term used to refer to the pegs on which the herring would be hung in the smokehouse on the process of making kippers. Presumably because the hooked frame for hanging the fish resembled the weaver’s tenter. In both cases an object hung up waiting for something to happen to it. Big wig. A full-bottom wig is an expensive item. See https://www.stanley-ley.co.uk/acatalog/Stanley_Ley_Wigs_1.html. Wigs were fashionable after the Restoration. The bigger the wig the more likely the wearer was rich. Bury the Hatchet. From the native American custom I believe. oh what fun!

l remember looking at the opening remarks of this story way back when, but for some reason had to put it to one side and then never picked it up again. Thank you Dude for prompting us to go back to it. I thought there would be a previous thread with some erudite comments on the story but, alas I could not find it. As might be expected, Mihangel gives us an engaging tale, enlightening us with historic detail and colour. If, like me, you haven’t done so before read and enjoy. The story, however, is also something of an allegory or parable drawing attention to facets of human nature still evident today. May we learn and live accordingly. Thank you Mihangel.

Graeme, I’m relieved to hear that you are okay. That is he most important thing. If you get back to writing and finish your Leopard story, that would be a welcome bonus. Best wishes Stay safe.

But, as far as I can tell, only in Australia.

It appears there is a petition started seeking to rename the iconic Aussie ice-cream ‘Golden Gaytime’ https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/03/24/golden-gaytime-petition-rename/ https://www.ladbible.com/news/latest-aussie-man-launches-petition-to-get-golden-gaytimes-renamed-20210324 Have we really become that precious that we take offence at an ice-cream being named gay? Personally I love the idea and think it a physical manifestation of the Aussie sense of humour. My guess is the petitioner is either a shit-stirrer or a first generation immigrant who doesn’t understand Aussie humour (or has no sense of humour at all) I vote we should be able to have them in pommieland. They sound delicious. For a Scandinavian viewpoint on the name enjoy this https://satwcomic.com/let-s-have-a-gay-time. The comments are worth looking through as well.

Seeing this thread about one of Graeme’s excellent stories, prompts me to ask if anyone has heard anything from him lately? I hope he is okay. I think it must be nearly two years since his last comment here.

Thanks Talo. Interesting and useful to know if reading/writing something not in your home territory. In conversation I think they would usually be referred to without the ‘phone’ : cell -USA; mobile -UK, movil -Spain, same root as mobile; Handy -Germany, I’m guessing because it is held in the hand or alternatively from the English word handy meaning convenient. What do the French use? Portif? As for using a phone of any sort? Brits use all of those listed except ‘pull the cord’** (which is what you do to stop a train in emergency). We also ‘give someone a bell’. I can never remember if the origin of the term is from the bell sound of an incoming call or from the name of the inventor: Alexander Graham Bell. And we still dial, although some refer to ‘punching in the number’. ** not to by confused with ‘pull the chain’ which refers to something else entirely.

And there was I thinking it was a full stop and therefore an exceptionally subtle way to put down calls for sequels.

Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Today we should remember the Jews, homosexuals and others murdered in the Nazi ‘Final Solution. We are also asked to remember those killed in subsequent genocides including Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, and be ever mindful that it can happen again and probably is already somewhere in the world.

Impressive. That floor must be smoother and more polished than it looks.

Greetings to all our Australian cousins.

Maybe a successor to the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky?

Unless the Senate run offs result in a change in control, Grim Reaper McConnell will either block or at least so water down any proposals put to Congress that Biden will not be able to achieve much. However for those who nevertheless feel a little quiet celebration is warranted, I offer you this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pRhjWdr-LAA

That’s adult humour, not ‘adult’ humour, before anyone gets the wrong idea. It’s not the panto season yet! Interestingly, although the ‘k’ is silent, the family name Knutt is believed to derive from Canute/Cnut.

Good one. And next up after that was this offering :

Another gentle take on the tradition by Cole. Nicely done! Read here and enjoy: http://www.awesomedude.com/cole-parker/tricking-and-treating/tricking-and-treating.htm No prizes for guessing who missed reading the rubric at the top of the story and had to work out who Ryan was the hard way!