Rog here again, guest posting for Margaret while she’s away in Seattle. (Isn’t that where Frasier takes place? I feel like I know it already!)
Yesterday we were discussing some arrangements to watch the phones here in my office, as we’re expecting a few more calls than usual next month. My boss (who’s female), instead of saying ‘we need extra hands to man the phones’ said: ‘we need extra hands to man, or woman, the phones’. How do you woman a phone? Is that what you do just after jumping the shark? At what point does PC language become ridiculous? I despair sometimes!
It struck me today that there are lots of wobbly buildings in York – that’s York, in England, where I live (a quick side grumble: nobody over here ever says that we live in ‘the UK’ – we say we’re English, we live in England (or Scotland, or Wales) – this ‘UK’ thing is a recent development that seems to have started over in the US (USA? North America? It’s all so confusing!), probably in Texas where they think that England is just a state or something. It’s not – England is a country, like France, or Sweden, or whatever. I’ve heard Tony Blair use the expression ‘here in the UK’ from time to time, and it just makes me cringe when he says it – anyway, I digress!)
Where was I…? oooo yeah wobbly buildings. York is a very old city, still full of medieval buildings of all shapes and sizes, the street layout being an intricate network of small lanes and passageways – just like Ye Olde England that you see in the shop scenes in Harry Potter (that street where he bought his wand in the first movie looks exactly like a number of streets in York). With the great age of lots of these buildings, some have moved and shifted over the years, leaning a little this way or that, with doors and floors at crazy angles. I like that! Whenever I see a wobbly building, I want to look inside it, to see if it has wobbly walls.
Reminds me of a rhyme my mum taught me when I was a kid, whenever we had jelly. It went like this: "wibble wobble wibble wobble jelly on a plate!". Tell it to all your friends…
Comments
Roger, It looks like the world went on vacation as well.
England, isn't that near Boston? And York, thats in Pennsylvania, right. ( http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=York,+PA )
Your remarks about wobbly buildings reminds me of my home. Sure, it may not be hundreds of years old, but it still has that sinking feeling around it. Nothing here is square or plumb (vertically straight).
wobbly is definitely good. I embrace wobbliness.