The 'swivel-eyed loons' are back! But have you ever wondered where that fine old description of shire Tories comes from? Allow Mr Slang to enlighten you... My apologies to those who find such things of world-shattering, albeit momentary import, but I am at a loss to see quite where we are ... Read More...
Mr Slang
If you're looking for a double entendre, Mr Slang is just the man to give you one... Those who, gazing at last week’s cab-referrent illustration, could tear their eyes from what Joyce, a connoisseur of such things, would have termed Judy Geeson’s ‘frillies’, would have noticed the strapline: ‘He gets more ... Read More...
Gantville cowboys, Butterboys and Sandy McNabs - Jonathon takes a ride through the world of taxi jargon (but doesn't, of course, go sarf of the river)... I am in a cab. The cabbie asks what lies in store. I explain that he is taking me home, which in my case is ... Read More...
Introducing the philosophising cab driver seen by the British wartime establishment as 'the ideal representative of the working man', and sent off on propaganda tours... The DNB fails to take note and he exists in Wikipedia merely among the listings of those who appeared on Desert Island Discs (1943, playlist includes: ... Read More...
Jonathon's latest Hero of Slang is a highly influential poet who wrote 'more frankly about sex than anyone in English before the 20th century'. Be warned, by clicking Continue on this post you'll be unleashing a fair torrent of 17th Century filth... ‘Rouse stately Tarse And lett thy 31165 ... Read More...
Mr Slang has a new toy, and he intends to play with it... I have a new toy. Given that my imminent birthday (Saturday) will bring me a scant five years from the Biblical prescription, this worries me. The idea, that is, of a toy. Or, were I not still wondering ... Read More...
Slang provides 135 synonyms for death, and 235 apiece for 'die' and 'dead'. Jonathon Green goes in search of the Grim Reaper... Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead. So have the celebrants pronounced, but doesn’t singing that render one a Munchkin and surely the only useful time for a dictator to ... Read More...
Ebullient, unembarrassable and the model for Rat in The Wind in the Willows - Mr Slang introduces the remarkable lexicographer Frederick Furnivall... Fink, Frith, what next? asked John Halliwell. Two F-words, we must have another. So here he is: Frederick Furnivall (1825-1910), bearded, pink-tied, vegetarian, oarsman, controversialist, muscular Christian socialist, midwife ... Read More...
The latest in Jonathon's irregular (and irregularly numbered) Heroes of Slang series is actually a heroine... I took Maths O Level in late 1962 and passed. It was my last encounter with the subject. Only geography from which I was removed having managed to claim the wooden spoon three terms in ... Read More...
This week Mr Slang takes us back to 19th Century America and a remarkable 'Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature, and the Stage’... ‘I’m a Salt River Roarer! I’m a ring-tailed squealer! I'm a reg'lar screamer from the ol’ Massassip’! WHOOP! I’m the very infant that refused his milk ... Read More...
