Tag Archives: stroppy

It’s been too long . . .

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I have been fearing riots in the streets in protest against my long silence. Fortunately the continuing Russian aggression against Ukraine, Azerbaijan’s attack on the residual Armenian enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh, Hamas’s attack on Israel and its consequences have, I suppose, distracted would-be rioters.

So why am I writing now?  I have several reasons.  First, and of least interest to anyone outside my family, today is the 150th anniversary of my great-grandfather’s indenture as an apprentice to Joseph Newton, carpenter/builder of Harlow in Essex.  The indenture hangs on my office wall as a reminder of the value of diligent study, hard work and ambition.

Second, I want to put on record my disgust at Hamas’s brutal attack on Israelis, and at the equally brutal response and uncritical support that has been lavished on Israel by its traditional allies.  I am convinced that both sides’ actions result from the well of hatred that successive Israeli governments have been digging deeper and deeper for 75 years.  I have only contempt for Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accelerated the illegal colonisation of occupied Palestinian land and publicly rejected a two-state solution.  Sane, decent people of all stripes agree that Israelis and Palestinians should have their own states, side-by-side, each capable of economic and political sovereignty.  Jerusalem should be run by an independent authority answerable to the UN – that’s just my opinion.

The third reason is to share with you the news of yet another career change.  Being an influencer just wasn’t working, so I signed up for a 12-week online course in script-writing with La Trobe University.  I’ve just submitted my third and last assignment and am nervously awaiting my tutor’s assessment.

If my new career takes off, my books will be valuable collectors’ items.  Well, they should be, but since e-books can be reproduced limitlessly at zero cost (to the nearest cent) they probably won’t.  But just in case, do go to the ‘Books’ pages of this blog and buy them feverishly: Goldiloxians (comprising the entire Eeks Trilogy), Bobby Shafter, Farley’s Bend and Household Management for Men.  Unfortunately e-books don’t make great Christmas presents, unless you print them out and bind them.

Finally, this is a reminder that the Stroppy Git Award for Meaningless Drivel (aka ‘the Stroppy’) will be announced on my birthday (17 January) and nominations will close at midnight GMT on 15 January.

#$&% !

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I’ve blogged before about the coy use of asterisks and other non-letters to write a rude word without actually write a rude word. This habit gave birth to “the F-word” and “the C-word” and “the N-word”. I decry this. If you want to write “fuck” just do it. If you want to use less coarse language, write “copulate” or a more precise and acceptable word to substitute for one of the ocean of other meanings that “fuck” has acquired.

Judge Judy in Judgement

I came across a new alphabetical euphemism in a recent Guardian Weekly: “the P-word”. It was in an article about racism in English cricket, specifically in Yorkshire. There was no glossary or footnote to explain this neologism. Can you, dear reader, explain it to me?

On the other hand there are some highly objectionable words that seem to pass muster. I am a fan of Judge Judy (deep down I think we all are) and I just finished watching an episode in which a plaintiff referred to the defendant as “white trash”. This manages to be doubly objectionable:

  • It reduces an individual and a whole social class to the status of rubbish.
  • It implies that all non-whites are trash, so a modifier has to be applied only if the person being insulted happens to be white. “Black trash” would be a tautology.

It takes flair to insult so many people with only two words; or stratospheric stupidity; or mega-misanthropy.

Another such word in “bogan”, which exists only in Australia I think. It is defined as “an uncultured and unsophisticated person; a boorish and uncouth person.” No-one’s sure of the origin of the word, but there’s a Bogan River in New South Wales. Anyway, there’s no way of using the word in a non-derogatory way. Thus it is different from “larrikin”, “rascal” or “Pommy bastard”.

While we’re on the subject of the injuries sustained by the English language, don’t forget to submit your entry for the 2022 Stroppy Git Award for Meaningless Twaddle (aka The Stroppy). Closing date: Saturday 15 January (noon GMT). Announcement of the winner: 17 January.

Age of Entitlement

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This is my first post at StroppyGit.  The name says it all.  I’m a stroppy git, mainly because I’m getting old.  Bits of me don’t work as well as they used to.  Things don’t taste as good as they used to.  Nobody speaks the Queen’s English as they ought to – except the Queen of course.

But more than anything else, I’m stroppy because of all those old gits I see everywhere.  Not me, the other ones.  I’m stroppy because, in the words of our Treasurer (I’m Australian and our Finance Minister is called the Treasurer), there’s a pervasive Culture of Entitlement and old folk are at the heart of it.

Of course we’ve all worked hard to earn our decriputude.  And we’ve paid our taxes.  Most of them anyway.  But now we’re living too long, retiring too early, and expecting the middle-aged and the young to support us in the manner to which we have become accustomed, largely through running up debt that the middle-aged and the young – and indeed the yet unborn – will have to pay the interest on forever.

I’ll have more to say about this, but what do you think?