154 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

  1. Hi tris. It’s me again.
    Pic 3 – Looks like Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnez on the right.
    Pic 6 – Grassmarket. I have walked there often.
    Pic 11 – Is it a pencil sharpener?
    Pic 12 – A Porsche.
    Pic 14 – School-based sit-com Please Sir! Derek Guyler as janitor on the left. John Alderton as the teacher.
    Pic 20 – A carpet-beater.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. First in, DonDon. Well done!
      No. 3 is indeed “I Love Lucy” with Vivian Vance and William Frawley to the left of Mr & Mrs Arnez.
      No. 11 is a pencil sharpener, but shame on Tris – it’s topless…

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Yes, Auld Toons, the cover is missing an so is the wee drawer for the shavings. Probably “Made in West Germany”. Can you remember the manufacturer’s name?

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

        3. The rotary sharpener that I remember is obviously a bit different from the one in Pic 11.
          It had a cast iron casing, a wee drawer for the shavings, and a complicated mechanism for holding the pencil steady.
          It was made in West (sic) Germany, and I think the manufacturer was Staedler.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          2. Correction. After bashing the internet, and learning and learning a new word, Bleistiftspitzmaschine mit Drehkurbel, I can say with authority that the manufacturer was Faber Castell.

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

                  1. Yeah. It’s a fascinating language.

                    A whole sentence in a word. Polysynthetic.

                    https://www.iamexpat.de/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/7-hilariously-long-german-words#:~:text=1.,concept%3A%20motor%20vehicle%20liability%20insurance.

                    The longest French word has only 25 letters. The German one 79 letters.

                    The longest in English is “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

                    The longest word in Greenlandic, a polysynthetic language, is reputed to be nalunaarasuartaatilioqateeraliorfinnialikkersaatiginialikkersaatilillaranatagoorunarsuarrooq, meaning ‘once again they tried to build a radio station, but apparently it is still only on the drawing board’.

                    Like

                    Reply

      2. The pencil sharpener looks strange without the cover for the shavings.

        Vivian Vance and William Frawley played Fred and Ethel Mertz in “I Love Lucy.” Lucy’s and Desi’s character’s names were Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  2. #16…….Looks American,….. 1950’s maybe. Mountains on the horizon are common in towns and cities of the West. The tower is no help. Definitely not one of the Mormon Temple towers. But I’m guessing that the mountains are the Wasatch Range at Salt Lake City. Googled for confirmation:

    Consistent with several Google views of Main Street, Salt Lake City, ca 1950’s.

    The tower is the weather tower on the Walker Center building at 175 South Main Street. It was taken down in the 1980’s and replaced in 2008-2012.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Center

    https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/walker-centers-new-high-tech-tower-lights-up-salt-lake-city-skyline

    Some Salt Lake City views ca 1900:

    https://clickamericana.com/topics/places/scenes-salt-lake-city-1900

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. The Walker Centre is an impressive building for 1910! The sign on the top is a bit tacky though… Salt Lake City meets Las Vegas!

      There are some nice old buildings there, but, some right horrors too! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Tris……The Walker Center tower was taken down and later rebuilt. Modern high-rise Salt Lake City looks different. This is a view on South Main Street today.

        Below, a modern aerial view of Salt Lake City looking south, with the bright blue lit Walker Center sign on Main Street clearly visible in the center right. To the right (west) of the Walker sign, two towers of the Mormon Temple on Temple Square are seen above higher, more nearby buildings. To the left (east) of the sign is the domed state capitol of Utah. The east face of the Wasatch range is on the far left of the picture.

        Salt Lake is a big city by western standards (east of California and the bigger cities of the Pacific coast). Wiki: With a population of 200,133 in 2020, the city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which had a population of 1,257,936 at the 2020 census. Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City–Ogden–Provo Combined Statistical Area, a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along a 120-mile (190 km) segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,746,164 (as of 2021 estimates.)

        Alistair Cooke: “For the Mormon faithful, it is Mecca, Rome, and Jerusalem; the spiritual center of the world.”

        The Temple (lower center, with bigger modern buildings all around), and the mountains:

        Like

        Reply

        1. In that first pic, I looks a lot nicer.

          But I’m surprised that they allowed that temple, so important to them, to be overshadowed by skyscrapers.

          I’m guessing that its a big city because it’s the only place in the state where city is possible?

          Or are there other easily livable places in Utah?

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          1. Tris…..Yes, behind the Temple, across a brick wall the surrounds Temple Square, is an LDS church office building which dwarfs the Temple just across the street.

            Much of Utah is uninhabitable. Most of the 3.3 Million people in Utah (more than 2.7 Million of them) live in a narrow strip of cities and farms along the Wasatch Mountain front (east of the Great Salt Lake and west of the Wasatch,) from north of Ogden, to Salt Lake City, to Provo. This strip of land has cities and farms, with water for drinking and agricultural irrigation coming mostly from the streams that come down from the melting snow in the mountains.

            The rest of Utah is very sparsely populated, but is bisected by three cross-country interstate highways. Western Utah is mostly uninhabited desert. West (along I-80) from Salt Lake City stretches the Great Salt Lake Desert, which in Nevada becomes the Great Basin Desert. There’s almost nothing along this desert wilderness of I-80 until you get to Reno, at the base of the Sierra Nevada……over on the far west side of Nevada. To the east of I-15 (the highway to Las Vegas that bisects Utah south to north,) and south of the populated Wasatch Front, are the southeastern Utah Canyonlands…..Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, etc. Lots of tourists there, but very few residents. (About 2/3 of the territory of Utah is public land that’s owned by the federal government and is administered for various public purposes.)

            On a motor trip west to San Francisco, I had stayed for the noon organ recital in the Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square, and didn’t leave Salt Lake City until about 2:00 PM. My next night’s stay on I-80 was in Reno…..10 hours away. With only a stop for a hamburger at a diner in Winnemucca, Nevada, at about 9:00 PM, it was a drive across the blackness of the desert wilderness of two states. After midnight, the lights of Reno on the western horizon looked almost like a sunrise. The lights in downtown Reno hurt my eyes. 🙂

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

              1. LOL……Interesting article!
                Yes, Ogden is an old city which became really prominent as a Union Pacific railroad town on the route of the transcontinental railroad. If people in Salt Lake City were looking for sin, they went up to Ogden. Maybe they still do. 🙂

                Also good access to winter sports. Beautiful views of the Wasatch Range from Ogden!

                Liked by 1 person

                Reply

                1. I’m reminded of John Cleese’s satirical announcement of Queen Elizabeth revoking American Independence during the Gore/Bush year 2000 Florida election debacle.

                  “To the citizens of the United States of America:”

                  “In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.”

                  “Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchal duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories – except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (the Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, MP – for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.”

                  “Except Utah, which she does not fancy.”…..LOL!

                  https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0011/S00122/notice-of-revocation-of-independence.htm

                  Liked by 1 person

                  Reply

                  1. LOL Very good.

                    She could give Utah to Airmiles, duck of Pork. I read that they like younger girls there and that at least originally you could collect them as wives… any number of them. 🙂

                    Would suit him.

                    Liked by 1 person

                    Reply

                  1. As if having all the wives you wanted wasn’t ENOUGH sin for the old time Mormons……LOL. There was the problem of all the mothers-in-law of course. 🙂

                    Liked by 1 person

                    Reply

                    1. Oh lord. Did they not think of that before they embarked on collecting wives. For every wife you add… a MIL.

                      At least Boris Johnson and Donald Trump only have one WIFE at a time… Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean only one woman.

                      I was just thinking about that. In French a mother in law is une belle-mère (a beautiful mother) and a father in law is un beau-père (same thing but father).

                      Anyone know how that came about?

                      Cos some of the ones I’ve met hardly justify that description!

                      Liked by 1 person

  3. Hi from me, too Tris.

    I see you’re continuing last week’s royal connections with Mary of Teck at No. 1 – after hubby and first son last time.

    No. 8 is a mid-19th century photo of Robert Burns’ birthplace in Alloway, when it was a drinking howf. It looks a wee bit tidier these days now the National Trust for Scotland has it under its wing.

    No. 10 is the Victorian housewife or maid’s hated fire bellows – hard work to pit a blaw on the fire or the range in the morning…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    2. HI Auld Touns.

      Yeah, Dave sent me the photos of the family and I used the two blokes last week…. (should I be calling exulted personages “blokes”? No?… Oh dear, never mind!)

      Anyway, I though I’d better put in the old dear too. Apparently she was a horrible woman and he was a horrible man. Absolutely devoid of any emotion, but with a great deal of sense of entitlement. And that seems to have been passed down to his kids, who, as far as I can make out were all weird.

      Yes. It’s Burns week this week. Morego sent me that one. We should celebrate burns nicht. Munguin may have a glass of whisky on Wednesday, and I foresee an order of haggis, Neeps and Tatties for dinner that night.

      He’s far, however, from being a ‘Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie’

      How much we take for granted these days…

      The heating comes on 20 minutes before you get up. Not a match struck or a bellows pumped. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    3. Aye Auld Touns, being used as a tavern in the years after Burns’ death – and that of Jean Armour – was the thing that saved the cottage for posterity.
      Given the Victorian propensity for demolishing historic landmarks, especially in the era of railway building, it’s amazing we still have it today.
      No matter how culturally or historically important anything may have been, if it stood in the way of progress – i.e. profit – down it came…
      The cratur, which was so important in the poet’s life, helped save what must be the most tangible artefact of his legacy.
      It provides a world-wide focus on the man in the present day and gives us an insight into how farming life was lived in the eighteenth century.
      The byre, next to the living space and under the same roof, was part of the heating system whereby the coos would radiate heat as part of their digestive processes.
      You can see what looks like steam rising off cattle standing outside on a cold still day…
      As a wee bonus you got a smell of the countryside right there in your living room.
      Must have been very pleasant, I’m sure…
      Who needs this central heating geegaws, anyways?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. LOL.

        Love it. Great idea.

        Interesting background to the poet.

        Munguin is now considering purchasing a cow to hear the quarters used by the factota.

        He wonders how much hay costs!

        Like

        Reply

    1. Wiki: The Hermits [in 1964] never topped the British charts again, but in America in 1965—when Billboard magazine ranked them America’s top singles act of the year (with the Beatles at no. 2)—they topped the Hot 100 with two non-UK releases: “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” and “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” (a cover of the 1910 Cockney-style music hall song “I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am”). The no. 12 debut of “Mrs. Brown” on the Hot 100 in April 1965 was the decade’s third highest (behind the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and “Get Back”).

      Ed Sullivan Show, June 6, 1965:

      YouTube comment: Herman’s Hermits gave us such wonderful, simplistic “feel good” songs in the mid sixties. This was one of them.
      The band did okay in their native Manchester and had a minor impact in the rest of the UK. But in the USA they were superstars, and 17 year old Peter Noone seems to be having the time of his young life here, performing for an audience of his screaming American fans.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I honestly never understood why or how Ed Sullivan could be this guy who could make you or break you on American tv.

        He had as much stage presence as a rice pudding.

        But apparently he was all powerful.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. Tris…..Sullivan had been a columnist for the New York Daily News and other newspapers, with an accent on New York City gossip, and the world of Broadway and show biz. His awkward wooden demeanor and gaffe-prone speech pattern, on what became the longest running and most popular variety show on American television, was the source of endless jokes and parodies. Comedians would come on his show and do merciless Sullivan impersonations (which he loved.)

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

            1. From where that photo was taken.
              I was, and still am, into photography.

              Used to stare into the windows at the cameras then coming from Japan and Russia

              Liked by 2 people

              Reply

                1. I hope it’s happy memories…

                  I’m not surprised that Japan would have had amazing photographic equipment. In the early 2000s (maybe 2004, 2005) I was on my way to Geneva from Paris on a train and there was a party of Japanese school kids in their middle teens.

                  I was sitting next to one of the lads and we had one of these conversations you have when neither of you speaks the other’s language. A few words of Japanese, a few in French, a few in English. Anyway, he had the most amazing digital camera that I’m sure we could never have got in France or Scotland. I’d never seen anything like it.

                  I’d no idea, though, that the Russians would have had decent camera equipment.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  Reply

                  1. The Russians stole the lens formulates and designs after the War

                    The German lenses were still the best in the Western World but the Japanese soon caught up

                    Liked by 2 people

                    Reply

    2. Maybe that was what was wrong with her.

      To be fair, she was forced to marry her ghastly husband and have 5 kids with him.

      I suspect that that might have been enough to make her constipated.

      I read that she was a acquisitive old dear. She would go to people’s houses (I mean aristos’ houses, not ordinary people) and she admire something, some picture or ornament, and they would feel obliged to offer it to her as a gift as she prepared to depart.

      “One likes your little table”

      “Then your majesty must have it. I will have the butler come and pack of for your majesty (whispered to self: you greedy old bat)”

      Peter Noone.

      I can’t believe that was a hit.

      Second verse same as the first! (and the third)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        1. That would be advisable.

          “One admires one’s necklace”, as the hand automatically reaches out to accept it.

          They are all as tight as drums.

          There’s a story about Charlie when he was still Duke of Corwall (Wee Willie is now).

          He was invited to a lunch. Wherever they go the menu has to be approved by their staff. (I suppose it’s fair enough. If you served something they didn’t like, it would be embarrassing all round).

          Anyway it turned out that they would be serving lamb… so Clarence House writes back and asks from where they were going to source the lamb.

          The hosts reply.

          And Clarence House writes back (can Houses write) and says that the Prince of Wales only ever eats lamb sourced from “Duchy” farms…ie his.

          So not only did he get a free lunch; he sold them the meat.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          1. “Can houses write?” you ask
            No, is the answer.
            An example not just of anthropomorphism (the ascription of human characteristics to non-human things) but also metonymy
            (the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated).
            We often see the latter being used, as in “the Crown” for the monarchy or “the press” for the media.

            Who doesn’t just love grammar?
            Astonishingly, when you take the time and trouble to point out people’s little solecisms, it’s not always received with effusive appreciation!
            Can’t think why…

            Liked by 2 people

            Reply

              1. LOL.

                Clever House… Just as well, when you consider how dumb many of its inhabitants are.

                Don’t worry, Donny, just leave me to deal with that. You go back to your beef burger and social media”, says the House.

                Liked by 1 person

                Reply

    3. From what I vaguely recall, the accompanying laughter track was quite hysterical.
      (This comment was a reply to Tris’s posts on Lucille Ball, flagged up as duplicate and moved here.)

      On Herman, my favourite was Sunshine Girl, which brings back memories of an idyllic 60’s summer in Orkney. Also saw them around that time in a silly American college musical, in which Peter N explained their presence as being “sort of exchange students”, spending time in an American college presumably to sing a couple of songs. If I am ever at a totally loose end, despite my wife’s best efforts,may trawl through late 60’s diaries……

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. The carpet beater (No 20) had more than one use – your Granny’s threat to,”gee ye a slap across the erse wi this” usually improved one’s mischievous behaviour 😃

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

            1. The signs by the doors saying ‘Entree’ and ‘Sortie’ suggest France, but the destination board saying ‘Strassen’ might place it in Belgium, unless it’s in the Strasbourg area, in which case it’s back to France again.

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

                1. Well, that suggests the destination is Strassen, the suburb of Luxembourg…? and the architecture looks right for that, too.

                  Like

                  Reply

    2. A calculated guess, Lucerne/Luzern. Calculated from the bus destination plate, “Strassen” and there isn’t anywhere big to go to but Lucerne, and back.
      Confession; I used google for Strassen and then a map. Sheesh the things you do to try and receive a favourable glance from Munguin. 😊

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

          1. Hmmm. Odd. I suppose that, being very rich, Luxembourg can afford to import buses from wherever they want… Can’t think of another reason.

            Are American buses any good?

            Like

            Reply

  9. 4. When I first saw that, I thought she was aiming a gun at the wringer.
    14. Deryck Guyler played the caretaker, the teachers in the middle of the front row were played by Erik Chitty, John Alderton, Noel Howlett, Joan Sanderson and Richard Davies.
    20. Like the round dustbin with the domed lid, the carpet beater was last seen in any numbers in comics, where Rodger The Dodger’s dad (amongst others) used to use it for its secondary purpose.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Work or I’ll shoot ye?

      I think shes turning the handle of the ringer!

      I loved Joan Sanderson. Actually she would have been great as Queen Mary.

      Like

      Reply

    2. It looks like she is using the wringer the wrong way round. Returning the wrung out item to the soapy water.
      Any wringer I ever used,( mid 40s-early 50s), was loaded from the tub and collected on the sink draining board. The water running back into the tub.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. Must admit, John, I didn;t see that, but you are right. she was feeding the washing back into the soapy water.

        And they say education’s gone down hill now? HUH!!!

        Like

        Reply

        1. The “gun” thing is the switch on the wringer.
          They were heavy in action and robust to avoid breakage.
          The model is standing in the corner for some reason – probably the better to show the machine’s features.
          The drain hose would only be in the sink when the washing was finished.
          Clothes would be wrung out of the machine into the first sink (usually the deeper one filled with cold water) to be rinsed.
          The wringer was then rotated so that it was between the sinks.
          Clothes were wrung again into the small sink (or onto the draining board if there was only one) and were ready for drying.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

            1. I’m your man for the job, presuming the usual terms and conditions apply…
              Got the General Electric machine in the pic on order?
              It’s the only type I can manage…

              Like

              Reply

              1. Ha ha ha. You have to bring your own.

                You can’t expect Munguin to provide!!!! He’s not running a charity.

                Seems he’s a stereotypical Scottish Penguin.

                Like

                Reply

                1. Ah Munguin and stereotypes…
                  It reminds me of the great Arnold Brown and his brilliant take on prejudice –
                  “Well… here I am… Arnold Brown… Scottish AND Jewish…
                  when it comes to national stereotypes – perfect!
                  Two for the price of one!!!!”
                  And why not?
                  Wonderful.
                  A master of his craft and still with us at the age of 86.

                  Looks like I’ll have to rummage roon The Barras branch of Auld Washing Machines Я Us to see what they’ve got available…

                  Like

                  Reply

          2. Yip, that’s how I remember it working, rinsed a couple of times between sinks, or rinsed in sink then wrung back into spinner. The pipe hooked over the sink could it be this was a spinner.

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

  11. Pic 3……Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnez ….just thought I would mention that James Mason did a film with them…perhaps NOT his finest moment or the best vehicle to show of his GREAT talent…..but I guess (financial) needs must…..not seen it but hey I would watch ANYTHING he was in….even THAT !

    Though SHE , Lucille Ball, was a very funny and very good actress……and hugely popular .

    Ah yet ANOTHER opportunity for ME to mention JM…..what am I like….what indeed…

    Have a nice day everyone …..

    🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. Gone OFF him…how very dare you….LOL

        However moving on ….I Thank You for this lovely picture of him in all of his full brooding glory…..be still my beating heart….incoming swoon…..now back in the room…..I think….

        Have a Fabby evening Tris

        🙂

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  12. Pic2 is a Studebaker Scotsman.

    Not quite the compliment we may surmise it to be…
    In 19th century America Scots gained a reputation for being canny with money.
    Some called it astuteness, some called it meanness.
    Either way, it became a bit of a stereotype and in 1957 Studebaker decided to introduce their new basic range, designed to be the cheapest full-sized cars and pick-ups on offer.
    This was the Scotsman!
    Sold on quantity rather than quality.
    Lots of metal but stripped-out to keep the cost down.
    Anything worth having was an added-cost extra.
    Sadly, it was to prove a bit of a swan-song for the company, for although the vehicles sold well enough they didn’t generate sufficient profits to allow Studebaker to invest in research and development of new improved models and it went out of business less than a decade later, after a long decline .
    As we know, the most successful companies are not those with the cheapest prices – think e.g. Volkswagen/Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota or Honda.
    All leading brands with top quality products but none of them low-priced.
    There’s a difference between price and value, indeed…

    Not quite the compliment, but we’ll take it anyway.
    D’ye think Rabbie would have driven one, given the chance?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Reminds me of the middle east.

      The Leyland company tried to get into their truck market by undercutting Mercedes in price.

      The locals couldn’t see past the thousands of 20 year old Mercs still in service and good support.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    2. LOL. I’m not sure I’m flattered that America though Scots deserved the equivalent of the Lada or Proton…

      More or less everything was there… but it only worked for a short time.

      🙂

      All getting us prepared for out Haggis and Neeps… or Mushrooms, and Tatties, chappit, of course.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Aye, you’ve got to look at the whole-life cost of a car, including reliability and residual values when it comes to selling on, and not just the up-front price when new.
        This is where the older cheap Eastern European cars proved poor value.

        I was once told by an American colleague that where he came from, to scotch something was to repair it cheaply with sticky tape, hence Scotch Tape, the equivalent of Sellotape here or Durex in Australia.
        Probably where the idea for the name Scotsman came from.
        I thought it was hilarious and not only that, a great idea!
        Saved mony a bawbee on buying new things since…

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. LOL LOL

          Interesting though, because even in these islands, we have a reputation for parsimony, which I’ve always thought (maybe wrongly) was undeserved.

          “You’ll have had your tea!”

          Like

          Reply

  13. Surprising for me, I knew a few of this week’s AOY. Although I see, despite google detective work with the bus destination, I was several hundred miles out, and the wrong country. Oh well, must try harder.
    Picked up a new word thanks to Morego, metonymy.
    10) Brought back memories, when I ran my woodworking shop I used to make the wooden parts for bellows and fit the nose pieces for a small company in Dumfries and Galloway. The one in the image would have been rejected, bandsaw marks still prominent.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Well Munguin forgives you. Overall despite not working out Luxembourg you witty, clever and informed contributions to the blog tend to put a small smile on his beak.

      I’m thinking maybe No 20 was a reject, not to be used on rich people’s carpets, but possibly on their servants, who were of less value to them.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I remember as a kid using No 20 on carpets and learning the lesson to check wind direction before starting.

        A small smile on his beak, a small tear of gratitude in my eye.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

    2. Aye Alan, metonymy, not to be confused with synecdoche, a superficially similar but distinct concept.
      Tris will explain in full for you.
      I have it on good authority that it’s all he talks about at dinner parties…

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Ho ho ho…

        I wonder if that’s the reason I seem to eat alone so often?

        And I always thought it was my ability to turn the conversation in the direction of the “use of the subjunctive mood in 19th century French literature”.

        🙂

        Like

        Reply

        1. That sounds absolutely fascinating, Tris.
          You must get down to writing a 70,000 word treatise on the subject without delay.
          A best-seller for sure…

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

      2. Aha Morego, another one, synecdoche. Had to look it up, just to get the pronunciation.
        I think I’ve got it and might be able to use it.
        How’s this, “The world and the oyster is buggered.” How did I do?

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

              1. Aye Tris, it’s the way you tell them!
                I haven’t seen that one since we used to visit Dar es Salaam on the Waverley of a Fair Saturday…

                Feel free to logomach as you will, was e’er my maxim.

                Liked by 1 person

                Reply

            2. Another one I had to look up Morego, logomachy. The voice giving the pronunciation sounded Scottish, definition ended with, “communication verbiage.” Vegetarian foodies talking?

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply

              2. Alan – logomachy is literally fighting over words or their meaning.
                Logos – a discourse – and mache – to fight.
                Both Greek.
                A disquisition in regard to words and their usage and hence a part of the wider science of orthography, which governs how a language is written and used.
                Pabulum?
                I’ll allow you to decide…. 🙂

                Like

                Reply

                  1. Morego, Tris, I interject with the usual, “Aye but.” Pabulum I knew from the mesmerisingly beautiful symbiosis between fungi and the calyptra at the root hair ends of plants, the exchange of food substance.

                    Pabulum, cerebral food. As this short discourse demonstrates, but as with any food, some not to all tastes.

                    The term “mealie pap,” possibly derived from pabulum?

                    Like

                    Reply

                    1. Pabulum is a word which has a number of meanings, dependent upon context.
                      From the Latin pascere – to feed – it can of course mean food or fodder – as mealie – or coarse material for the fire.
                      In literature, it has come to mean nourishment for the mind or on the other hand merely dull intellectual stuff, depending upon the individual viewpoint.
                      I fear that mere consideration that the latter could appear in any of his publications has aroused the great one’s ire!
                      We must learn to gang warily henceforth…. and needs must consider ourselves admonished! 🙂

                      Liked by 1 person

                    4. That’s far too intellectual for me… Morego will probably cope nicely though.

                      Not sure about porridge, but maybe “pap”, as in that’s a load of…?

                      Like

  14. Thank you for that!
    I must asseverate that the good Doctor was in the most atrabilious frame of mind during that discourse!
    I confess to cachinnating somewhat, nonetheless…
    Eschewing convenance, the Noble Prince affected a most contumely and idoneus rejoinder…
    No recreant he; for all his apparent nescience, he irrefragably carried the day!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Talking-up Scotland / Scottish media fact checking is like shooting fish in a barrel

I cost nothing to run so donate to https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/

The Dunglishman

The bilingual blog about all things British

STAGE LEFT

Love, theatre and ideas

Scotty Grant

Wildonline.blog

British Wildlife & Photography

scotlandisdifferent

Why Scotland should be an independent country

BrawBlether

Thoughts about Scotland & the world, from a new Scot

Divided We Fall

Bipartisan dialogue for the politically engaged

Insightful Geopolitics

Impartial Everytime Always

maxspilleroftea.wordpress.com/

Black Isle Media

We Provide The Facts, You Make The Decisions

The Broad Spectrum Life

Exploring Rhymes, Reasons, and Nuances of Our World

Musical Matters...

Mark Doran's Music Blog

Zoolon

Songwriter / Guitarist

Best in Australia

This site supports Scottish Independence

thehistorytwins

A comic about history and stuff by FT

For Scotland

My Life as Graham

The embittered mumblings of a serial malcontent.

Jamie Maxwell

Raptor Persecution UK

Pride's Purge

an irreverent look at UK politics

ScienceSwitch

Exploring the Depths of Curiosity

Mark All My Words

Nature + Health

netbij.com

http://netbij.com

Chris Hallam's World View

Movies, politics, comedy and more...