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Thanks for the recommendation re: Tallis. I'll definitely have a look around this cultural void I reluctantly call home. I refer to the town I wound up in, not the Country or the City of Vancouver which is my real home. Here, unless the movie/book/recording is not a 'best seller' it is usually difficult to get. I've had to order books and CDs. This is a Country and Western town . My brother in Vancouver kindly sent me both TNS and DH. I don't think I can talk him into strolling through the classical aisles though.

If we're in a bragging mood, I have a good one. Once (in Vancouver) my girl friend and I went to see Ella Fitzgerald in a supper club setting. Our table was so close to the stage I could touch it. She put on a marvelous show (could we expect less?) and left for her dressing room. As we were preparing to leave, a gentleman came to our table and said "Miss Ella would like you ladies to stay for the second show as her guests". Well, I thought that was just the greatest! I don't know if it was her manager or the club's manager but we did stay for the second show. The only problem was, they served liquor between shows and there was quite a long break. I had to take a cab home. 'Nuff said.

She was a very gracious woman - we exchanged a few words although she spoke in a whisper (I guess to save her voice for what G~d made it for?). All in all, it was a very nice experience. It was more than nice. It was something I occasionally (is that one 'l' or two - it doesn't look right)brag about.

See ya,
~ Linda ~

Oh! How wonderful! The CBC has an up-coming interview with Tom Wolfe. I wonder if they will discuss his laundry list?

probably he's trying to promote his forthcoming book "The Bonfire Of Laundry Lists"

I swear by his seminal work on hand washing his delicate argyles in exotic, foreign lands, 'Everything You Wanted To Know About Sox, But Were Afraid To Ask.'



Albert just swears.

Byron! Why didn't you tell me that before? I had so many opinions on that monumental work. We could have had some real head-butting discussions.

Dear Mr. Byro,

I just wanted to thank you for inventing those nifty ball-point pens. I have a special "lucky" one for bingo at the day centre.
Mrs. Trellis
North Wales

Mrs Trellis,

so good of you to take time off from writing to Humph on Radio 4.

Should Mr. tom d. stiller ever show up in this thread again, I have a question conerning a lyric he wrote in the Tribute to Joe thread (I think).

tom: is that the song by an old group called "Hot Chocolate"? They had a follow-up (or maybe this was the follow-up) something about Every Door Swings Both Ways? The Louie, Louie thing was an inter-racial affaire de l'oceur? Pardon my bad French. I'm trying to learn new languages by just looking at things. I expect to get many wrong. It doesn't matter though, because, as some say, the language of the future will be 'bad English'. I didn't say it, the hidden they said it.

Anyway, the lyric/poem was responded to by C2. I guess I could poke around in the attic and find the answer but if you should check in, you could just tell me. That would be easier.

Should Mrs. Linda Lakeside ever show up in this thread again...

"Brother Louie" was a song by "Hot Chocolate" (not related to Scout Hot Chocolate by the way). They had a couple of more or less hits "once below a time" (when "I was young and easy under the apple boughs / About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green"):

An English funk, soul and disco group, Hot Chocolate was formed by Jamaican born vocalist Errol Brown and bassist Tony Wilson in 1969.

The group scored a large range of both minor chart appearances and smash hit singles including the Top 10 hits 'I Believe In Love' (1971) and 'Brother Louie' (1973) which started them on their chart topping spree of Billboard 40 hits from 1975 to 1978.

Other single smashes include 'Emma' (19'74), 'Disco Queen' and 'You Sexy Thing' (1975) which was a worldwide smash and was written about lead singer Errol Brown's so to be wife. Their first Number One was 'So You Win Again' in 1977,with their last US hit being 'Every 1's A Winner' 'in 1978

While their hits slowed in the years to come, they returned to the charts in 1982 with 'It Started With A Kiss'.


Errol Brown continues to record and tour, and is set to appear in Australia in September 2004 as part of the Best Disco In Town tour.

Cheers for now

Tom

PS: Before you have "to poke around in the attic" I better mention that the "once below a time" and "young and easy" quotatations are from Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas

linda_lakeside wrote:as some say, the language of the future will be 'bad English'. I didn't say it, the hidden they said it.

Henry Mencken wrote:"He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of dogs barking through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abyss of pish and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash."

- Henry Mencken, on Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding, however, was the 29th POTUS.

Looking around in today's world, I'd like to put it that way: Sometimes the future is in the past.

Tom

As a casual visitor to the 'future is bad english' thought, (only the thought, mind you, not anything else here) my first mental reaction is to raise the name of Thomas Hardy. For me, his language is dripping with the souls of loving words, which he weaves together in sentences short, medium and long. Mostly long.
My enjoyment of his work is enhanced by his poetic use of language and the mastery he has of hidden code for love, sex, lust and trauma, that are subjects for which, his readership at the time of publishing, were forbidden to speak of in 'polite' company.
His imagery is masterful and like a worthy oil painting, full of depth of colours upon colours upon colours. I had excellent teachers who opened up the world of Hardy's english for me. I was lucky.


I know, I know, there are other equally outstanding writers. George Eliot, Theodore Dreiser, E.M.Forster........but it was Hardy's name that popped into my mind as I read linda-le-pool's quotation, on the future of language.

Hello tom, Hello Byron,

First, thanks tom for sparing me a trip to the attic, cobwebs and all that. You certainly did pick the correct link to enjoy on a cold, frosty night while sitting by the fire. RE: the Hot Chocolate/Brother Louie query - I can hear it in my head even as we speak. Out of context (in your post, forget which thread) it sounded familar but just out of my reach.

I would certainly not like to be the victim of one of Mr. Mencken's opinions. It's a very good thing for most of us that he does not frequent this forum. Well, if he did, I guess most would think it a 'board name' or they would re-evaluate their 'is their a great beyond' beliefs. He at least made his hmmmm Oh! I know! childish tirade entertaining! I'd like to jot down a few of those comments for future use. Not on this forum, of course, but maybe for when my dear, aged Granny writes me my Christmas letter. However, I believe my dear Granny is now having a nice talk with Mr. Thomas. Hopefully she never runs into Mr. Mencken. Thank you for including the author of the piece you quoted (Dylan Thomas), otherwise I would indeed be poking around the attic looking for the creator of those lovely lines. No, I wouldn't be poking around the attic. I probably would have concluded that the lines were yours.

As for my bad French - it would seem that even though I read the package labelling (in Canada all labelling must be in both English and French), I just can't seem to get the hang of it. I think there are probably better ways to learn French. A woman cannot live on gratis mais (more probably mais au gratis, or some such thing) alone. As for the affair of the heart attempt - well my stab at that had a more phoenetic outcome even though I've seen the French equivalent of heart written many, many times. I think I would do better at trying to learn English. So, in my quest for a better understanding of that, I have had many a good suggestion, indication, directions on how to use a library, etc. However, for the time being, I will read what I'm now reading, at least until I finish the book.

Mr Byron: Please note my use of the word Mr., in your case, I probably would have said Hey, Mister, but in this world of political correctness and my current terror at leaving posts, I think I'll stick to Mr. for the length of this post, which is lengthly enough already. Thank you for your input, I shall take all the names of the nice writers, put them in a hat, and then pick one out. Of course, it stands to reason that I could write the name, say, Dr. Seus, on all of the entries, but it's my hat and I'll conduct my selecting in the style that I choose. However, having said that, I have always found that your choices of those literate, are, indeed, literate.

On that note, I shall take my leave or Excuse moi, il faut que je part. I will now go to my little room and read Itchy and Veronica by candlelight. I thank you both.