As a fumbling newcomer:
re.toodle oooooh: in the USA, U of Mich in the 60's, this was a somewhat afftected way to breeze off appearing breathlessly busy. 'Toodle Pip' has been introduced to me thru Brits using eBay---I think there is tongue-in-cheek humor along w/ the affectation there. As to "wing & a prayer"--I believe there was a song in America during WWII by that title and it did indeed refer to the WWII flying heroes whether Canada,
USA or UK. Ta ta.....

whizzper

Right you are, lad.

Written by Harold Adamson in 1943, the song "Coming in on a wing and a prayer" is as follows:


We're coming in on a wing and a prayer
We're coming in on a wing and a prayer
Tho' there's one motor gone we will still carry on
We're coming in on a wing and a prayer
What a show, what a fight
Yes we really hit our target for tonight
How we sing as we fly through the air
Look below there's a field over there
With a full crew abroad and our trust in the Lord
We're coming in on a wing and a prayer.

Can anyone tell me where I may have formed the mental association I have between the "toodle pip" type of phrase and "the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible"? I wonder if the phrase has some currency among the barbarians who follow The Hunt, or whether it's just my egalitarian prejudices showing through?

1. From a Blackadder episode called "Captain Cook":

George: Tally ho, pip pip, and Bernard's your uncle.
Blackadder: In English we say "Good morning."

2. From E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898):

Tally-ho! is the Norman hunting cry Taillis au! (To the coppice). The tally-ho was used when the stag was viewed in full career making for the coppice. We now cry “Tally-ho!” when the fox breaks cover. The French cry is “Taïaut!” 1

3. I have no objection to illegalizing fox hunting in the Mother Country, so long as open season on the leaders of the Labour Party is allowed to replace the innocent fox in the hunt.

>as open season on the leaders of the Labour Party is allowed to replace the innocent fox in the hunt

Oh, I don't know, that Willam Hague and some of the Tory chaps are such good sports, I'm sure they'd only be too happy to take the place of the fox. They way the press behave in this country, many politicians wouldn't notice the difference. Toodle pip. What ho.

These ideas seem positively top hole. What what?

In fact, they're dashed good. Demmed good, even, if I may say so, because that would leave only the LibDems with their brushes. Yoicks. Forrard!

today's wwftd is: tantivy
"The English country gentleman [riding tantivy] after a fox -- the
unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable."

> I wonder if the phrase has some currency among the barbarians who follow The Hunt

Oscar Wilde certainly didn't have in mind that his "country gentlemen" would pick up this phrase!?

Anyone notice that Whizzper, the poster of the original message at the top of this thread, posted once and dropped off the face of the earth? He also twiddled the knobs such that he/she would not receive private mail. Jackie, as the chair of the Newcomers Committee, should do something about this.

Father Steve, you read my mind! I was just thinking I'd write and say there are some interesting new comments, when I got down to your post.

Whizzper is definitely a neat person, though like me not easy with computers. Since you put that you couldn't send,
which I assumed was as a new private message, I tried
replying to the old one I had rec'd. I didn't get a page
saying the message could not be sent, so I hope it was.

It amazes me how being across the pond can turn what seems to be a simple conversation among those in the know into complete gibberish. I have not the slightest idea what has been said.

See? Jackie truly IS the Mother Theresa of this board.

Xara writes: "It amazes me how being across the pond can turn what seems to be a simple conversation among those in the know into complete gibberish. I have not the slightest idea what has been said."

There, there. I suggest that there are two forces at work here: (1) the geographic distance and (2) the distance in time, as many of these expressions are somewhat antique.

The rememdy is to read all of the Jeeves and Wooster stories by P.G. Wodehouse, all of the short stories of H.H. Munro, all of the works of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde ... that sort of thing.

The rememdy is to read all of the Jeeves and Wooster stories by P.G. Wodehouse, all of the short stories of H.H. Munro, all of the works of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde ... that sort of thing.

Gosh, Steve wants me to be busy reading for quite some time, it seems. He must be planning to do something sneaky behind my back. I'll be soo toodle pipped from all that reading that I won't have a wing & a prayer of ever catching up on reading here to catch his toodle ooh!

You could also see if you can find any films which feature Joyce Grenfell - she was a master (is is OK to say that a she was a master, oh who cares?) of the toodle-pips. A wet afternoon with a mug of cocoa and some old St Trinians films would sort you out. A quick romp through the "Famous Five" books by Enid Blyton would have you craving lashings of ginger beer in no time!

To keep things even, we could all sit with a root beer and watch John Wayne movies, whilst practising the kind of walk that you do when you've forgotten that you no longer have a horse between your legs. We could round it all off with a few old Ronald Regan movies.

We could round it all off with a few old Ronald Regan movies.

I know that typos are off-limits, for which I am profoundly grateful, but I was still a bit leary of this particular misspelling.

> oops Regan

I wasn't planning on wandering off into the Exorcist!

The way to total enlightenment is not a short stroll down a level path.

oops Regan

Goneril but not forgotten?

In reply to:

---

oops Regan

Goneril but not forgotten?

---

Thanks, Mav! I tried along similar lines when I said that I was leary of that typo, but I scored a miss, a very palpable miss.

>The rememdy is to read all of the Jeeves and Wooster stories by P.G. Wodehouse, all of the short stories of H.H. Munro, all of the works of G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde ... that sort of thing.<

Well, i hate to admit this, but given my anti british very anti-posh upbringing, stateside no less, when i first read wodenhouse, i didn't understand it! I had no idea of what they were talking about, and saw no humor. Now Xara might be smarter, or have been exposed to more upper english culture (maybe she has been watching PBS Masterpiece theater for years) but if she didn't follow the thread, she might not follow the books either. They presume you know a bit about upper class english culture and golf. I admit to growing up thinking BloodyBrit was one word-- and Bloody was always tabu at home, except when attached to brit. My mother in paticular seem very reluctant to admit anything from GB was good. The only "good" english writer where really irish (Joyce, Yeats, Swift, Wilde, Shaw...) And good whiskey came from Ireland, Scotland and Canada-- the only alcohol from England was gin, and it was medicial!

But watching-- and pbs did broadcast the Jeeves and Wooster series --blockbuster might have it, or your local public library. and yes, the lovely girls of St Trinians--- but it is sometimes a foriegn language--certainly a foriegn culture.
So forget the reading for a moment Xara, and rent some tapes.