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Carpal Tunnel
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I wrote some rather conservative advice to a younger churchman in the Mother Country and received an e-mail response which accused me of being "naff." In cross-pondian terms, this is not a good thing, is it?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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No. Tacky, uncool, square.
Whoops, sorry Tsuwm. I was called away mid-post.
Last edited by Bingley; 01/18/2006 7:06 AM.
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Any idea how old this word is?
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Carpal Tunnel
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> how old It formed an essential ingredient of Ian La Fresnais & Dick Clements' script for Porridge which starred Ronnie Barker as a convict - it allowed a swear-word euphemism on prime-time (Sunday evening?) family TV. I seem to remember it gained even further prominence when it was adopted by Princess Anne on one notable occasion when talking to a journalist. Ronnie Barker always claimed to have coined the word, but I believe it actually comes from Polari, the gay and actors' coded language. Although probably backronymic, some commentators have claimed it was code for "not available for fucking"; whether true or not, it certainly was used to describe straights in Polari.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Holy cow, maverick; I had no idea. [aunt nells perking up] have you ever met a waiter, bartender or, indeed, drag queen, who hails from Rio or Madrid, Paris or Rome? Well--no.  It's interesting, isn't it--the many many different points of view people have? Ex.: ...the difficult years between the trial of Oscar Wilde and the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. (ea) My first response was: they were? Okay--now I know that the British have Cockney rhyming slang, and polari (Polari?); do we US'n's have anything comparable? I mean, a kind of code-language, not simply regional idioms.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Thanks for that link, tsuwm. Reading all these words makes me feel my knowledge of fancy words is not enaff, or just naff.
Last edited by Logwood; 01/18/2006 2:50 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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hehheh - as a straight American woman I'd guess your perspective on those years *would be a bit different to that Grauniad writer's!
Did you notice the lovely credit-line to the article?
colin, horn, erection […] Colin Richardson is a former editor of Gay Times.
He’s not only horny by first name but also the son of a Dick!
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Pooh-Bah
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>son of a Dick
Aren't we all.
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Well, not really," said Louise Brown, as she went off singing, "All I want is a womb somewhere. . .."
TEd
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Pooh-Bah
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A misunderstanding arose on safari, And a beating commenced, I am sorry To say, by a moodge with a bat, Speaking only nadsat, On a poor molly well versed in polari.
Last edited by Alex Williams; 01/18/2006 3:45 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
hehheh - as a straight American woman I'd guess ...
You are?! Coulda fooled me...
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Carpal Tunnel
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as a straight American woman I'd guess ... yes, how else?! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd got the Colin/colin bit, but missed the son of a Dick!
The word Polari reminds me of the song Volare... [not relevant to anything icon]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Richardson => son of Richard => son of Dick => Dixon / Dickens => zum Teufel gehen. La.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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Dickens => zum Teufel gehen
?
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Dickens == the devil ; Teufel == the devil (auf Deutsch) :- lit. 'go to the devil / hell' ...
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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