On the Stately Homo...
On the decline of the stately homo:
It's the end of the world. Quentin Crisp has died. He had a lot of very strange opinions - and a blue rinse - but he will be much missed.
On swear words:
Just a little piece on the use of the word "badger". Pippa had a car. The car was old. It didn't go very fast. Pippa had a twin sister called Bella. Bella and Pippa had overactive imaginations. The engine of Pippa's car was described as being powered by badgers. The badgers had names - I forget what they were.
So this charming little imaginative fiction comes to public attention when the car is being driven up a hill. Pippa declares she is about to "whip the badgers", and places a delicately heeled foot firmly onto the accelerator.
"Whipping the badgers" becomes, very quickly, a phrase that generates widespread hilarity due to its similarity with certain expressions referring to the stimulation of the male genital by its owners hand.
Keep in mind my brother sometimes reads this weblog.
"Perhaps", people say, "this is the female equivalent! And perhaps, therefore, to call someone a "badger" is to be almost as offensive as to refer to them by the commonplace vernacular for the organ in question. What a jape!"
There's a discussion all about swearwords on the Nexus at the moment (which includes another version of the "badger" creation myth), started by a devilishly foxy young actor. Frankly, you'd think he'd have better things to do with his time...
