Ok so last night was good: the second Leicester meeting of Left Unity saw 13 people (hope that’s not an omen!) in the back bar of the excellent Duffy’s, who very generously allowed us to meet there for free. We had some general discussion about the way forward, and then Sheila fed back from the national meeting last week, with some help from me. We proceeded to a decision on how our local group is to be represented at national meetings and decided on a small group which would combine continuity with maximising representation. So it was a good meeting and only slightly marred for me by the aberrant glottal stop.
Now as you all know I’m a fussy old bint when it comes to grammar and stuff – not quite a Grammar Nazi but certainly a Grammar Tory (oh dear!) – and just as the aberrant apostrophe annoys me in writing, so the aberrant glottal stop irritates me in speech. There is nothing whatever wrong with the true glottal stop – when people say ‘bu”’er’ instead of ‘butter’ or a lo’ instead of a lot. If that is a natural part of your speech then I have nothing whatever to say against it. What I find irritating is the aberrant one, where people use the glottal stop in order to indicate solidarity with a certain group. I think people should just be who they are and speak how they speak. I’m middle class: I grew up in a vicarage, my mother was a teacher – and I’m not ashamed of it.
So there! Moving on…
The Reduced Lyric Company
You’ve heard of the Reduced Shakespeare Company: well here’s the –
what do you mean, you haven’t? You should have heard of them. Oh, all right then – here’s a link:
http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/
So, now we’ve done that, here’s something of my own invention: the Reduced Lyric Company. Nothing to do with the Lyric Theatre, this is an idea which struck me this morning when Mark (for it was he!) inexplicably uttered the word ‘WIBNI’.
Now, as you know, I am used to hearing six inexplicable things before breakfast, and I tried to ignore this one but it wouldn’t go away.
‘What the hell is WIBNI?’ I asked, rather testily.
‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice If…’ he explained.
And although my immediate thought was, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if you stopped coming out with these things?’ it started me on a train of thought. For that is the first line of a Beach Boys’ song:
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/beach+boys/wouldnt+it+be+nice_20013925.html
and that set me off. So, who can guess what these famous lyrics are. Come on, now – the first to comment gets a prize. I don’t know what it is yet – but something…
So, what are these?
YWAOMM
ILMHISF
TGGGOH
SLYYYY
?
Go on, give it a go. Comment below – you know you want to. I might even give you a guest blog spot, to say whatever you want…
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 