Bruin Fisher

Why ever did they let you go? We know you can sing, did they fail to recognise your talent? Or were you extremely badly behaved?

Your faith in my muse is touching, Cole. I'll get my cattle prod out and see if I can stimulate him into activity....

Funnily enough, we got special privilege too - in our case we were allowed exeats (visits home) two weekends per term rather than the one that the other boys got.

It's a very powerful piece by Ruwen. Cleverly written, he's used repetition to very good effect. And the underlying story is as relevant now as ever. Amazing to see how history looks like repeating itself just 80 years later. Will the human race never learn from its history?

I'm inspired to start a new thread after watching the video clip posted by Cole, "Kings College Choir Announce Major Changes". It didn't seem right to post this in his thread, and thus hijack it, so I'm beginning another. Does anyone here share my experience, of being a member of a boys' choir? The first Boarding School I attended had a music teacher who had big ambitions and started a choir of 8 - 13 year olds, and drilled us mercilessly until we became really rather good. We sang on the BBC, and at St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St Albans, Salisbury, Ely and at the Chapel of King's College Cambridge among other places. And we made records. My memories of that time are curiously mixed. Much of them focus on terror. We were all afraid of the choirmaster, who had a temper and was wont to throw things at any boy he caught not looking at him for his cue at the right moment. Choir practice took up much of our lives, as far as I remember we rehearsed half an hour every morning and again in the evening. But despite all this the experience of singing in those big imposing buildings - and for me hearing my own voice soaring above the music - was spine-tingling and has stayed with me all my life.

This is the only April Fools' prank I've seen this year, but I don't feel deprived - it's brilliant!

And if the Russians were aiming at military targets as they claim, then they missed, too!

Oh, very good, Cole! The old Parker rapier wit still as sharp as ever. Greetings from East of the pond.

It's raining... Cats and Dogs (England) Old Ladies and Sticks (Wales) Like a Pissing Cow (France) As from Esteri's Ass (Finland) Female Trolls (Norway) Chair Legs (Greece) Tractors (Slovakia) Men (Hallelujah)

Well, that depends on two variables... the size of the appendage, and the skimpiness of the undies. I'm giving nothing away...

From the trailer it looks harrowing - and also true to life. All too many school playgrounds are just like that, I fear.

An absolutely splendid piece of writing, Jason. What a neat device you used. There's a movie about a couple of friends, one straight, one gay, who share a hotel room for a wedding, and then return to the room every year, their relationship developing and other relationships each of them have coming and going over the years. It's called, I think, "The Last Straight Man".

So glad you like it, Jason. 🙂

I have at least two friends whose speech is littered with Cockney Rhyming Slang. Camy's illustration covers some of the most common examples but there's a bewildering variety of terms. And cockneys abbreviate them. My friends speak of 'going for a Ruby' when they visit an Indian restaurant, 'puttin' on my best Whistle' when they dress up in their best suit, and 'having a nice cup of Rosy' when they share a pot of tea. Someone who talks a lot is described in a popular song as having 'more rabbit than Sainsbury's'. The story goes that this Rhyming Slang began when criminals wanted to discuss their nefarious plans in public without alerting the police to their schemes. I'm not sure if that's just folklore, though.

English is a mongrel language, it must be perplexing for foreigners to learn.

This from mylondon.news, in an article about Princess Diana and her family: "Diana's brother Earl has four children, and Louis, the youngest, was just a toddler when Diana died in Paris." Diana's brother is called Charles Edward Maurice Spencer. He is Earl Spencer, but that's his title, not his name. It seems the British Aristocracy system is difficult for even a web news service named after its centre, London, to grasp. Incidentally, the headline of the article claims that Louis, rather than William or Harry, is in line to inherit Diana's mansion, Althorp House. It was Diana's childhood home, but it never belonged to her. It belongs to Charles, Earl Spencer, so naturally one of his children will inherit. Maybe I should in future ignore mylondon.news as an unreliable source. I fear I've become the victim of clickbait. 😝

Since it's about politics, is the writer awkwardly talking about backing, in other words political support, among reef communities? That's the only way I can make any sense of this sentence. I suspect any Ozzies reading this thread are rolling about laughing. No doubt it's crystal clear to them!

From Collins English Dictionary: cack-handed in British English (ˌkækˈhændɪd ) adjective informal 1. left-handed 2. clumsy Word origin from dialect cack excrement, from the fact that clumsy people usually make a mess; via Middle Low German or Middle Dutch from Latin cacāre to defecate

That's interesting, a German speaking family I knew used to warn their toddlers away from anything dirty by saying 'Cacka'. Perhaps a common Saxon derivation...

Hmm. You and me both. The meaning of that sentence is opaque to me.

Well, Cole, some of these are just Ozzie weirdness. I've never heard of No.1. But 'went to the cricket' is perfectly normal to us, short for 'went to (watch) the cricket (match). Cack-handed is, I think, a Northern term and is rather derogatory, originally referring to left-handed people, and by derivation to clumsy people. Cack is muck, dirt, possibly even shit. Cack-handed is someone who can't do something neatly, cleanly, and makes a mess of things. Cruel to identify left-handers that way, I think. Backing in is also perfectly normal - reversing (going backwards) in(to a parking space). I have no idea what a 'motherhood statement' might be. On a visit to Australia I was puzzled to find an aisle in the supermarket labelled 'Manchester' - which is a town in the North of England. It turns out that cotton and linen goods, sheets, towels etc., were originally exported to Australia from Manchester in the UK and they still describe bedlinen as 'Manchester goods'. Like I said, weird.

From a list of 'Typos that change the meaning of the sentence': I arrived at the poolside cafe and was seated immediately; the waiter was so inviting I wanted to jump right in. (Breast Stroke? Back Stroke? Front Crawl?)

😅

James, now you're educating me. Thanks for this. Perhaps US usage is creeping into British usage over the word gotten. That's a known phenomenon. I did a little research: This from Grammarly: People in the United States and Canada use gotten for the past participle of got in most cases. People in English-speaking countries outside of the United States and Canada usually use got. Also this: Both got and gotten existed as far back as Middle English. English speakers in North America preserved gotten as the past participle of got. Outside of North America, the shortened version became standard. This from Lexico (Oxford English Dictionary): As past participles of get, got and gotten both date back to Middle English. The form gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American English. In North American English, got and gotten are not identical in use. Gotten usually implies the process of obtaining something, as in he had gotten us tickets for the show, while got implies the state of possession or ownership, as in I haven't got any money This from Grammarist: In American and Canadian English, the past participle of the verb get is usually gotten. For example, we might say, “I have gotten behind on my work,” or, “The book was not gotten easily.” Got is the participle in some uses, though, such as where has got to or have got to means must (e.g., “We have got to go to the store.”) and where has got or have got means has or have (e.g., “I have got five sisters.”) In the main varieties of English from outside North America, the past participle of get in all its senses is usually got. Gotten appears occasionally, and it is standard in a few set phrases such as ill-gotten gains, but the shorter form prevails by a large margin. Definition from Collins English Dictionary: gotten (gɒtən ) Gotten is the past participle of get1 in American English. See also ill-gotten gains I concede that we DO use gotten in British English, in a few very specific set phrases, the only one I can think of is the one cited by Grammarist above: ill-gotten gains.

Absolutely wonderful. Thanks for the heads-up.