Legoise?

It’s always fun to invent new terms, but is it wise? For example, what would you take it to mean if you were told that something was to be “lego-ised”? (And when you saw the post title did you think it was French, with the “oi” representing a “wa” sound?) Let me know what you think before you have a look at the “answer”.

The Perfect Gift

In Smiths during the Christmas holiday I was surprised to discover that one of their main book categories is “Tragic Life Stories”. (I was looking – in vain – for the Science section.) What’s going on here? Schadenfreude? Simply relief that there are people even worse off than ourselves?

God forbid that there should be a happy ending anywhere…

The Birmingham Position

Now that I’ve started supporting the abolition of the possessive apostrophe, I was delighted to discover that my council has been standing up for this position against the grammar nazis. Although I don’t like seeing signs saying “Kings Norton” or “St Pauls Square”, the fact is that most people don’t notice, care or understand, and it’s about time we stopped kidding ourselves that they ought to.

I admired Councillor Martin Mullaney for going on the radio and putting the council’s position clearly and calmly, in the face of overblown attacks from the likes of John Richards. One of the latter’s silliest remarks was “It’s a simple rule and so many people get it wrong.”

Uh, kinda

A document called “Year 7 Languages Induction Course Information Booklet” has come into my possession – apparently from a secondary school in Sutton Coldfield. I like the idea that a school is educating its pupils about language; it’s just a shame about the misinformation…