Little things please little minds . . .
While sipping my second restorative mug of tea this morning, I chuckled quietly at the good-humoured badinage, subsequently removed, between Janus and Christopher on the subtleties of ‘council’ versus ‘counsel’.
But I almost spilt the scalding contents when I moved on to read Mr Mackie’s splendid gaffe ‘from whence’. And with relevance to Charterhouse, too. An old Kingstonian would never perpetrate such a solecism. 🙂
If you need an explanation, there’s absolutely no hope for you.
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Categories: Grammar & Linguistics, Humour
Hi Bearsy
It’s a bit of a (or alternatively an) (hoi) polloi sort of thing, really, I prefer my writing to flow to my own cadences and I do not really care if it offends strict rules. Apart from apostrophes, of course.
And I also offer common Jock usage in my defence. If it’s good enough for the Kirk of Scotland, it’s good enough for me.
http://www.cgmusic.org/workshop/smpsalter/psalm-121.htm
1 I to the hills will lift mine eyes,
from whence doth come mine aid.
2 My safety cometh from the Lord,
who heav’n and earth hath made.
Gentlemen, as Alice was reminded, I am older and must know better; in this case unable to utter a pleonism which a Roman would never have allowed.
I shudder too when I hear ‘both’ being added to statements about two parties. ‘The two lads both shared the bag of chips.’ Don’t you? It makes you want to really shout, innit? 😬
Oops, it’s pleonasm, as every schoolboy knows.
Hi Janus
Sorry that I missed the ‘council’ v ‘counsel’ badinage. It sounds like it must have been hilarious. Why was it removed?
JM, Christopher asked me to save his blushes.
Oh, the horror! They’res just no hope for me and my spelling error’s. I swear I didn’t mean to confuse council with counsel, its just that I didn’t drink my coffee yet that morning.
Their their, C! Dont fret. :-.)
Thank you, Janus! Your so kind. I wood not no what two do waif myself.
The predictive text thing on iPad will drop you in it if you’re not careful.
‘An old Kingstonian’ must refer to Kingston Grammar School which now apparently is independent and fee paying (since 1978 according to wiki) – good for them, better than being destroyed as a comprehensive. Bearsy, you must have been there when it was a proper grammar school.
Simon Raven, the indirect source of this post, obviously had some regard for grammar schools.
The Hon Edwin Turbot MP.
‘You there,’ he barked at the third cadet he came to; ‘who won the Battle of Plassey?’
‘Clive, sir,’ said the Cadet, who luckily belonged to one of the Grammar School platoons and so had a working acquaintance with history.
From Sound the Retreat. S Raven (1971)
Yes, jazz. Luckily there are a few left which are not fee-paying but the entry academic requirements are very demanding.
Unless one of your parents is a politician.