Free range speech by Trevor Plumbly
Nutter mutter An English sports presenter’s been hauled over the coals for offering an opinion, as has the chair of Health NZ. It might be an age thing, but I’m beginning to believe that the freedom to say what you think is taking a dive; between racial sensitivity, gender identity and cultural protection, plus minority ‘add-ons’, it’s getting to be a bit of a minefield. Time was that, within reason, we were left to sort the harmless eccentrics from the dangerous loonies for ourselves, but these days social media aggrandises all misfits… Read More
GOBSMACKED! By Trevor Plumbly
Verbal schmerbal I feel a bit hypocritical knocking this one out under ‘Verbalberbal’; let’s face it, as a title it’s not the best use of ‘English as she is spoke’. In hindsight I would have gone for something more biting but tasteful, like ‘Wensleydale’ if you get my drift, but ‘verbal’ came up when whiz words were something of a novelty and now ‘it is what it is’ as they say, and that brings me to my point. The legal and medical fraternity once held a monopoly of evasive language, but since… Read More
Identity crisis by Trevor Plumbly
Don’t ask me, I only work here! Despite sight loss, I can still get all manner of stuff: audio books, podcasts, international news and as I’m writing this, the machine is spelling out the text for me. But when it comes to talking to somebody, especially corporate employees, I have problems; they’re pleasant enough, but they’ve got a sort of spray painted unworldliness about them that I find difficult. After having a credit card ‘compromised’, we rang the 24 hour number, the cards were duly cancelled and the replacements arrived in record… Read More
The age of the PMLs by Trevor Plumbly
And the meek shall suck it up! It’s a time for forgiveness and tolerance, but I reckon it’s getting a bit tougher. The odd ratbag doesn’t worry me much, most seem to have some sort of excuse for their conduct, but Power Mad Loonies are self-made and there’s no way I’m going to kiss any of those bastards under the mistletoe (metaphorically of course). We’ve got the UN, NATO and the rest of the alphabet soup of protective agencies to stop us from slaughtering each other, but there are also deluded PMLs… Read More
Reading, writing and reason by Trevor Plumbly
A codger’s lament I decided to let the brain off the leash this week and wallow in an old-fashioned moan. I’ve found that one of the gifts of age is the ability to use hindsight as a diagnostic tool for heaps of today’s ills. The popular conception is that age brings wisdom, but even in my case that’s not strictly true; however, for those keen to foster the myth, some subtlety of phrase dealing with younger folk is always a good option. For instance, I never use ‘in my day’ because kids… Read More
verbalberbal 