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Ramblings of an unkempt man
Month: December 2019

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Month: December 2019

Plurale tantum and Sweaty Betty….

Plurale tantum and Sweaty Betty….

December 24, 2019 History / Odd / Words

For some unfathomable reason, I have just received an email inviting me to buy Christmas presents at a shop called Sweaty Betty, which for the uninitiated is an outlet selling fashionable sports and fitness clothes for women – in some cases so beautifully designed that customers are inspired to take …

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Misopogonistic Santa`s

Misopogonistic Santa`s

December 22, 2019 History / Odd / Words

Christmas is the season when strange men in red hats and white beards lurk and loiter in every shopping arcade. It’s therefore the time when the word misopogonistically really comes into its own. Misopogonistically is an adverb that means with a hatred of beards. Sample sentence: “No I don’t want …

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The rather odd history of the Christmas Tree….

The rather odd history of the Christmas Tree….

December 17, 2019 History / Odd / Words

You have probably gone out and after much cursing put a dead treeĀ  up in your living room. This is, if you think about it, rather strange behaviour on your part. What’s stranger is that the tree you’re buying is the Tree of Knowledge that was planted in the Garden …

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Who`s ahead in the polls?….

Who`s ahead in the polls?….

December 12, 2019 History / Odd / Words

It is election day in the Uk today and people on the television keep asking who is ahead in the polls. The question ‘Who’s ahead in the polls?’ is a delicious and savoury pun, because a poll is a head. Or it was. Shakespeare used poll to mean a head …

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Myrrh and Santa Claus….

Myrrh and Santa Claus….

December 9, 2019 History / Odd / Words

What exactly is myrrh ? The answer is that it’s a kind of aromatic resin that you get out little thorny trees in the Middle East. The reason that the Magi turned up with a bunch of the stuff is partly that myrrh was just a nice standard gift. It …

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Foolscap paper and dead lawyers…..

Foolscap paper and dead lawyers…..

December 2, 2019 History / Odd / Words

Foolscap paper is one of those things that I’ve never really been sure about and to which I have never devoted even the idlest of my idle thoughts. I had never, for example, noticed that it’s a contraction of fool’s cap. But it is. That’s odd because foolscap is an …

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