“Friend of Pen Friend and clever fellow, alias Judge Roy Bean…”
I’m honored! I don’t consider reading and commenting on this “clever” newsletter to be “faffing around!”
“And of course it understates just how annoying the thing is.”
In the States, that condition, “fiddly, annoying, onerous,” is a “shit-show.”
“Can you think of any more Britishisms that my people use to help attenuate our constant low-level anxiety?”
Most famous might be, “Keep calm and mind the queue.” How about “take a deep breath, make a wish and Bob’s your Uncle?” Or if a person is overly anxious, they might need to "Wind your neck in."
“VR guide man “Whoa!! That’s amazing!!
“But the farmers are not the only ones who are unhappy with conditions. Almost 50 percent of the country’s teachers according to teaching unions –“ Teachers are the most neglected and underappreciated profession out there.
“… ‘do we need to go in tractors to [the education ministry]?’” BRAVO!!!
As a 70 year old, having, at last, the solitude to reflect on the many happy memories in my life, I find that school uniforms, that the girls in my Catholic High School wore in the late 60’s and early 70’s, were actually very fetching; though we boys complained because the girls at the nearby Public High School wore miniskirts…at age 16 I thought no one looked cuter than my 1st girlfriend, also 16, looked in her uniform.
Brilliant and heartwarming read this week! So funny to think about our English euphemismsms in the attempt to avoid the actual word from percieved offence. ( I say English now as no self respecting Scot, Irish, or Welsh citizen of great Brittain would ever describe themselves as a " Brit " infact our " low level anxiety" as you so rightly described it even extends to pretty mech NEVER describing ourselves as " English " its become a very dirty post empirical word, but really amongst our guilty selves now the wide truth of our diabolical behaviour over the centuries has been brought to light .
However, the rest of the world doesnt appear to mind todays natives from our Isle half as much as we do! Infact my Scottish friends are quite the Anglophiles and Ive found delightful responses to being English in many places. Its the loud and wonderful American proclamation that I am " Oh Wow a BRIT!" That is the antithesis of lying low in a most appologetic manner and just about keeping my plummy / west country brogue at a barely audible volume.
Your list of our habit of replacing words with euphemisms got me thinking about the sometimes baffling language we have.
An example being when you wrote about " A pilot to introduce school uniforms" in France.
I wondered " Why a Pilot? ... well I suppose Pilots wear very smart uniforms and it may sell the idea to the children!)
Ahhh the nuances of grammar eh? Lovely read Hannah .Top notch old bean!❤️🤗
PLUMMY-very upper-class adjective. If you say that someone has a plummy voice or accent, you mean that they sound very upper-class. You usually use plummy to criticize the way someone speaks. [British, disapproval] OMG!! I will add that to my vocabulary!!! It’s one of those perfect words! Thank you, Ms. French!
Of course, that reminds me of a story: back in the day, attending a week-long seminar (pharmacy and boring) in Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt), walking up the most famous street in Memphis, Beale Street, with my fellow “seminarians”?? https://bealestreet.com/
So, the secretary for the marketing professor teaching parts of the seminar had observed me and my antics for the entire week, and as we were walking up Beale Street, she said, [because she detected that I was often distracted during the seminar, unlike the other seminarians, who were plummy pharmacists], she said, “Do you know what you are? You’re a dilettante!” I looked at her and a very broad smile came to my face and I replied, laughing, “Oh my! You have only known me for a week and yet you have pierced my soul! I will have the word, “dilettante” carved into my epitaph!”
But, more specific to the word “plummy,” was that I noticed, walking down Beale Street, two very ordinary looking guys who had a bevy of very attractive young women hanging on their every word, simply because they were British and had that plummy accent…if I’d been still in my youth (I was prolly mid 40’s) I would have tried diligently to cultivate a plummy accent! [as diligently as a dilettante can manage].
On a very somber note, I also visited the Lorraine Motel, site of the tragic assassination of the Most Reverend Martin Luther King.
BUT, speaking of the "nuances of grammar" and to end on a more upbeat note, I also visited Graceland, Elvis’s home and I heard a woman say, in a very Southern, redneck accent, “Ah don’t believe Elvis is dade’; I think he just wore-out and went off to be by his-self fer a while.”
“Friend of Pen Friend and clever fellow, alias Judge Roy Bean…”
I’m honored! I don’t consider reading and commenting on this “clever” newsletter to be “faffing around!”
“And of course it understates just how annoying the thing is.”
In the States, that condition, “fiddly, annoying, onerous,” is a “shit-show.”
“Can you think of any more Britishisms that my people use to help attenuate our constant low-level anxiety?”
Most famous might be, “Keep calm and mind the queue.” How about “take a deep breath, make a wish and Bob’s your Uncle?” Or if a person is overly anxious, they might need to "Wind your neck in."
“VR guide man “Whoa!! That’s amazing!!
“But the farmers are not the only ones who are unhappy with conditions. Almost 50 percent of the country’s teachers according to teaching unions –“ Teachers are the most neglected and underappreciated profession out there.
“… ‘do we need to go in tractors to [the education ministry]?’” BRAVO!!!
As a 70 year old, having, at last, the solitude to reflect on the many happy memories in my life, I find that school uniforms, that the girls in my Catholic High School wore in the late 60’s and early 70’s, were actually very fetching; though we boys complained because the girls at the nearby Public High School wore miniskirts…at age 16 I thought no one looked cuter than my 1st girlfriend, also 16, looked in her uniform.
Hi Darling Hannah!
Brilliant and heartwarming read this week! So funny to think about our English euphemismsms in the attempt to avoid the actual word from percieved offence. ( I say English now as no self respecting Scot, Irish, or Welsh citizen of great Brittain would ever describe themselves as a " Brit " infact our " low level anxiety" as you so rightly described it even extends to pretty mech NEVER describing ourselves as " English " its become a very dirty post empirical word, but really amongst our guilty selves now the wide truth of our diabolical behaviour over the centuries has been brought to light .
However, the rest of the world doesnt appear to mind todays natives from our Isle half as much as we do! Infact my Scottish friends are quite the Anglophiles and Ive found delightful responses to being English in many places. Its the loud and wonderful American proclamation that I am " Oh Wow a BRIT!" That is the antithesis of lying low in a most appologetic manner and just about keeping my plummy / west country brogue at a barely audible volume.
Your list of our habit of replacing words with euphemisms got me thinking about the sometimes baffling language we have.
An example being when you wrote about " A pilot to introduce school uniforms" in France.
I wondered " Why a Pilot? ... well I suppose Pilots wear very smart uniforms and it may sell the idea to the children!)
Ahhh the nuances of grammar eh? Lovely read Hannah .Top notch old bean!❤️🤗
PLUMMY-very upper-class adjective. If you say that someone has a plummy voice or accent, you mean that they sound very upper-class. You usually use plummy to criticize the way someone speaks. [British, disapproval] OMG!! I will add that to my vocabulary!!! It’s one of those perfect words! Thank you, Ms. French!
Of course, that reminds me of a story: back in the day, attending a week-long seminar (pharmacy and boring) in Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt), walking up the most famous street in Memphis, Beale Street, with my fellow “seminarians”?? https://bealestreet.com/
So, the secretary for the marketing professor teaching parts of the seminar had observed me and my antics for the entire week, and as we were walking up Beale Street, she said, [because she detected that I was often distracted during the seminar, unlike the other seminarians, who were plummy pharmacists], she said, “Do you know what you are? You’re a dilettante!” I looked at her and a very broad smile came to my face and I replied, laughing, “Oh my! You have only known me for a week and yet you have pierced my soul! I will have the word, “dilettante” carved into my epitaph!”
But, more specific to the word “plummy,” was that I noticed, walking down Beale Street, two very ordinary looking guys who had a bevy of very attractive young women hanging on their every word, simply because they were British and had that plummy accent…if I’d been still in my youth (I was prolly mid 40’s) I would have tried diligently to cultivate a plummy accent! [as diligently as a dilettante can manage].
One more thing of interest to those across the sea: the ducks at the Peabody Hotel, around the corner from Beale Street: https://youtu.be/_lFZT7Cidc4?si=BMKTA7djQ_BZTuDa
On a very somber note, I also visited the Lorraine Motel, site of the tragic assassination of the Most Reverend Martin Luther King.
BUT, speaking of the "nuances of grammar" and to end on a more upbeat note, I also visited Graceland, Elvis’s home and I heard a woman say, in a very Southern, redneck accent, “Ah don’t believe Elvis is dade’; I think he just wore-out and went off to be by his-self fer a while.”