I have a perverse fondness for Tonite, Sharon, it's sort of appealingly sleazy and smacks of a cad with pretensions escorting a bevy of lovely ladeez to a tinsel-bedecked hostelry for a round of babychams - and your addition of the screamer at the end is a delicious touch. We're too politically correct here in America to say Xmas, we call it "the holidays." While-U-Wait, on the other hand ... ewwww.
I'm so sorry, Sheena! If it's any excuse, I did know it was you, but there's another lovely woman called Sharon with whom I've also become friendly, and because I've never met either of you in person in this weird new world we inhabit, I do tend to confuse your names. It's remiss of me and I promise to do better in future. Meanwhile, do feel free to call me Gertrude ...
😂don’t worry dear Gabrielle (I promise I will never call you Gertrude), I have often been called Sharon in error and really don’t mind as it’s rather a nice name and makes me think of roses. Sometimes people mistakenly call me Sheila -
I feel your pain, Sheena, and don't get me started on Gabs or Gabby, which you would be astonished how many people indulge in quite freely, although I'm not shy about stating my feelings for it. I have a whole circle of actually very dear friends in London who, if questioned, would insist that they always accord me my full name but ... just ... don't. It's very strange, but I tell myself that these are lovely and dear people and life is finite!
Oh, Angela, I'd forgotten that awful thing of dividing us, aged all of 12, into the perceivedly more academic stream and the perceivedly less, it was so unproductive and so plain old unkind. And what on earth was the point of making you learn Latin for a year and then stop? They'd stopped the a/alpha system by the time I arrived and just gone alphabetical (do remember that Miss Winthorpe refused to use the capital A for the 'a' stream because she said it was the capital for both a and alpha? I think she might possibly have needed a hobby), but I was required to take it all the way to O level and then informed unilaterally that I'd be taking it to A level too, which was pure hell because I was the only one doing it, and it meant an hour a day for two years stuck alone with the awful old virago, who terrified me generally and openly disliked me personally, and no one to giggle with about it afterwards either. A brighter girl might have noticed that the fact that I was the *only* one to be doing this in either the Lower Sixth *or* the Upper Sixth might suggest that there were other options available, but I was a particularly dim teenager ...
Thanks for the comment, Francis, and you've reminded me of a piece of literary history that I'd forgotten. I'm a Wodehouse fan too, and when I read this I wondered if I'd misremembered how I first encountered the phrase. But then I realized I couldn't have because I learned this very simple phrase quite early on in my studies, which began in 1964, a time when nobody ever even mentioned Wodehouse's name because of that truly Wodehouseian situation during the War when he was detained in France by the Germans and - admittedly not very intelligently - broadcast some humorous radio pieces for them and was most unfairly branded a traitor. Cue an uproar and the subsequent title of He Who Shall Not Be Named - he was, and is, very much my family's style of writer, but I'd truly never heard of him. It wasn't until summer of 1965 that the BBC put out a very good series, The World of Wooster, with Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price, and gradually his work was re-introduced to society. But I'd certainly learned the phrase before then, so thank you for helping me rem acu tangere!
👍👍👍 THUMBS UP!!
Good one!
Although I did study Latin at school, it's always 'Xmas' that gets me going, or 'Tonite!', or 'while-U-wait'......
I have a perverse fondness for Tonite, Sharon, it's sort of appealingly sleazy and smacks of a cad with pretensions escorting a bevy of lovely ladeez to a tinsel-bedecked hostelry for a round of babychams - and your addition of the screamer at the end is a delicious touch. We're too politically correct here in America to say Xmas, we call it "the holidays." While-U-Wait, on the other hand ... ewwww.
It's me, Sheena but I don't mind really because I love to read your page.....
I'm so sorry, Sheena! If it's any excuse, I did know it was you, but there's another lovely woman called Sharon with whom I've also become friendly, and because I've never met either of you in person in this weird new world we inhabit, I do tend to confuse your names. It's remiss of me and I promise to do better in future. Meanwhile, do feel free to call me Gertrude ...
😂don’t worry dear Gabrielle (I promise I will never call you Gertrude), I have often been called Sharon in error and really don’t mind as it’s rather a nice name and makes me think of roses. Sometimes people mistakenly call me Sheila -
that’s another story….
I feel your pain, Sheena, and don't get me started on Gabs or Gabby, which you would be astonished how many people indulge in quite freely, although I'm not shy about stating my feelings for it. I have a whole circle of actually very dear friends in London who, if questioned, would insist that they always accord me my full name but ... just ... don't. It's very strange, but I tell myself that these are lovely and dear people and life is finite!
Very annoying
Remember her well
But shamefully us Alphas were not allowed to continue Latin after the first year ☹️
Oh, Angela, I'd forgotten that awful thing of dividing us, aged all of 12, into the perceivedly more academic stream and the perceivedly less, it was so unproductive and so plain old unkind. And what on earth was the point of making you learn Latin for a year and then stop? They'd stopped the a/alpha system by the time I arrived and just gone alphabetical (do remember that Miss Winthorpe refused to use the capital A for the 'a' stream because she said it was the capital for both a and alpha? I think she might possibly have needed a hobby), but I was required to take it all the way to O level and then informed unilaterally that I'd be taking it to A level too, which was pure hell because I was the only one doing it, and it meant an hour a day for two years stuck alone with the awful old virago, who terrified me generally and openly disliked me personally, and no one to giggle with about it afterwards either. A brighter girl might have noticed that the fact that I was the *only* one to be doing this in either the Lower Sixth *or* the Upper Sixth might suggest that there were other options available, but I was a particularly dim teenager ...
"rem acu tetigisti"
Despite my learning Latin at school, I learned that phrase from PG Wodehouse well before it showed up in Latin lessons
Anyway I think you put the needle in the dyke very well on this topic
Thanks for the comment, Francis, and you've reminded me of a piece of literary history that I'd forgotten. I'm a Wodehouse fan too, and when I read this I wondered if I'd misremembered how I first encountered the phrase. But then I realized I couldn't have because I learned this very simple phrase quite early on in my studies, which began in 1964, a time when nobody ever even mentioned Wodehouse's name because of that truly Wodehouseian situation during the War when he was detained in France by the Germans and - admittedly not very intelligently - broadcast some humorous radio pieces for them and was most unfairly branded a traitor. Cue an uproar and the subsequent title of He Who Shall Not Be Named - he was, and is, very much my family's style of writer, but I'd truly never heard of him. It wasn't until summer of 1965 that the BBC put out a very good series, The World of Wooster, with Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price, and gradually his work was re-introduced to society. But I'd certainly learned the phrase before then, so thank you for helping me rem acu tangere!