Monday December 21st 2020

09:00 First job today is to phone Virgin Mobile to find out why my insurance premium on my shiny new smartphone has not gone through to them - what madness! That's my work for today done haha!

10:30 We go for a walk on the local football field - there's rain in the air, but it isn't proper really wet rain, which is nice.

we go for a walk on the local football field

11:00 We come back and relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa. I look at my smartphone and the quora website. People have been talking about Donald Trump's English - some say it's "Queens English" - which is quite different from "the Queen's English", needless to say haha!

According to Jon Bourgetti, The consensus is that "it's 100% pure middle class Queens, New York. Trump speaks in the simple patois of Queens too. Trump gives nicknames, uses much profanity, uses Queens binary lowbrow coarseness like “'big league” “stupid” “losers”. Good things are “incredible” “tremendous (tremendously)” . Bad = “zero”. Trump says “millyun” often. It’s either zero or a millyun for President Trump . . . no in between. To say “expensive”, Trump says “a lotta money”. Fine things are “classy” or “high class”. For “like”, Trump says “a fan of”.

Jon adds a useful glossary of "Trumpspeak":

 "gunna" = going to 

"lotta" = a lot of

"tagethuh" = together 

" 'em" = them 

"ya" = your 

"heez got" = he has

This gives me a bit of a shock, because I often say most of these glossary phrases like that too. Perhaps I've been listening to too many of his speeches, but I'm not sure - the jury's  still out on that one.

11:30 I continue browsing the quora website. I've noticed for years that the UK is frequently out of step with the majority of the rest of Europe, and I've never really fully figured out why. But it comes out time after time, this time in a series of "sociology" maps on today's quora website. Sociology is something I've never really got to grips with in my long life - perhaps it's time I started. Is this a good debating point? [No! - Ed]. 

Map 1: The "Hajnal Line" - the red-brown line going down the middle of this map. The UK doesn't do too badly on this map - there are at least a few Continental countries that we're in the same group as.

According to Collin Spears, in countries to the West of this Hajnal line the average age of marriage for women was 23 or more, men 26, spouses were relatively close in age, a substantial number of women married for the first time in their thirties and forties, and 10% to 20% of adults never married. East of the line, the mean age of both sexes at marriage was earlier, spousal age disparity was greater and marriage more nearly universal. {??? - Ed} 

This so-called "Hajnal line" appears on two more maps on the website.

Map 2: the traditional family systems of Europe - here we see that most of the UK is now becoming far less typical of the continent in general. 

[??? - Ed (again) ] 

Map 3: measures of so-called "individualism" versus "collectivism" - by Map 3 we're becoming a real freak country compared to our neighbours.

[??????????????? - Ed]

But what does it all mean? Our European partners will be glad to see the back of us when Brexit finally happens, that's for sure. My god!!!!

19:30 Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Seminar on zoom. I settle down on the couch and listen to the radio, the latest programme in the series "You're Dead To Me", which casts a humorous historical light on various topics. Tonight's topic is LGBTQ history.

A disappointing programme for me, as a language buff. I saw some advance publicity that said that Greg and his two guests were going to shed a humorous light on so-called "Polari", a private language used by gay men in London, but in the programme there's only about 30 seconds on that, the rest is about general LBGTQ history, and the history of liberalization from the legal standpoint etc - quite interesting in itself but not my primary focus.

Apparently Polari is a mix of Romany, Cockney rhyming slang, "backwards slang" where words are pronounced backwards [obviously! - Ed]. thieves' cant, theatre language and Italian - my god, what a mixture!!! 

There is discussion about whether any Polari words have made it into the mainstream language. I recognise "naff" meaning "useless, of poor quality", and "to scarper" meaning "to run away, clear off". Another Polari word is "slap" meaning "make-up", which I vaguely remember hearing. But there isn't a lot.

The idea of Polari was that gay strangers could quietly identify themselves to each other as being gay, which was a particularly useful function at at time when male homosexuality was illegal. Now that it's been mostly legal since the late 1960's, I wonder if the use of Polari has declined? 

I remember that in the popular 1960's radio comedy show "Round the Horne" starring comedian Kenneth Horne, there was a sketch each week by two characters "Julian" and "Sandy" (Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams), who apparently were speaking in Polari, but for me, listening as a teenager, all that went over my head slightly, I have to say.

21:00 Lois emerges from her Bible Seminar, and we watch our two favourite TV quizzes, Only Connect, which tests lateral thinking, comes first. After that we see the first of a special series of Christmas editions of University Challenge, which features not current students but "distinguished alumni" of the colleges or institutions concerned - none of which Lois and I have ever heard of, but no surprise there! 

We don't usually bother to watch "celebrity" versions of standard game-shows and quiz-shows, because we normally don't have a clue who the so-called "celebrities" are - oh dear, we're getting old, no doubt about that !!!!

One further snag about these "celebrity" editions is that presenter Jeremy Paxman's introduction of the teams takes a long time - we measured it as 6 minutes our of the programme's total of 30 - my god!!!

Lois and I have an okay evening, however. We find that we can answer about a third of the questions, and we also get 5 questions right that the teams strike out on, so not too bad.

1. Rated as the UK's "best value tourist attraction", what is the Norman cathedral that overlooks the River Wear?

Distinguished alumni: Fountains Abbey

Colin and Lois: Durham Cathedral

2. Indian musician Ravi Shankar won his first Grammy award for the 1966 album "West Meets East", a collaboration with which leading violin virtuoso of the 20th century?

Distinguished alumni: Stephane Grappelli

Colin and Lois; Yehudi Menuhin

3. A daughter of Nix or Night, according to the poet Hesiod, which figure of Greek mythology did Henry Fielding describe as a deity who was thought to look with an invidious eye on human felicity and have a delight in overturning it?

Distinguished alumni: [pass]

Colin and Lois: Nemesis

4. Which ancient philosopher gives his name to the paradox defined by the dictum "No one does wrong willingly"? 

Distinguished alumni: Zeno, Plato

Colin and Lois: Socrates

5. 2020 saw what anniversary of the births of the prime ministers Robert Jenkinson and George Canning, the philosopher Hegel, William Wordsworth and Beethoven?

Distinguished alumni: 200th, 350th [say what?!!!! - Ed] 

Colin and Lois: 250th

The contest ends with St John's College Oxford on 180 points and Christ's College, Cambridge on only 50 points. Presenter Jeremy Paxman has some harsh words for Christ's College at the close, but Lois and I suspect this "banter" may all be in fun - although we're not totally sure! But it is Christmas, after all !!!!!

22:00 We go smugly to bed - zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!