Something Rhymes with Purple - Chum (Recorded live at Chichester Festival Theatre)

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

It’s the second instalment from our live show at the Chichester Festival Theatre and in this episode Susie and Gyles take us through the revolving doors of the language of hotels. Gyles re-visits his days as an MP as we uncover the origin of the word ‘lobby’ and Susie reveals the icy reason why at 15, she aspired to be a hotel manager! Fortunately for us, Susie instead decided to become a lexicographer and takes us on a few further visits to hostels and chamber chums with detours to pickets and prisons along the way. The 1000 strong crowd at Chichester put Susie and Gyles to the test with their questions (transcribed below) and came up with some very inventive definitions for Susie’s Trio. Questions from the live audience - TRANSCRIPTION:  Sarah Brocker, - “Where does the word Trug for a garden basket come from?” David Lambert, Chichester - “What is the origin of the word ‘Flapjacket’, it sounds as if it should be made of surgical steel doesn’t it?" Audience member 3 - "At university, I used the word ‘somewhen’, and people looked at me like I was stupid?" Audience member 4 - “How do you pronounce Gif?” A Somethin' Else production.  To buy SRWP mugs and more head to.... https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple If you would like to sign up to Apple Subs please follow this link https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/something-rhymes-with-purple/id1456772823 and make sure that you are running the most up-to-date IOS on your computer/device otherwise it won’t work. If you would like to see Gyles and Susie LIVE and in person on our Something Rhymes With Purple UK Tour then please go to https://www.tiltedco.com/somethingrhymeswithpurple for tickets and more information. Susie’s Trio: Griffonage - sloppy or careless handwriting Cachinnate - loud cackle Cancatevate - to heap stuff into a pile Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello and welcome to another episode of the award-winning Something Rhymes with Purple, hosted by me, Susie Dent, and my wonderful co-host, Giles Brandreth. This episode was recorded in front of a fantastic live audience in Chichester in Decembercember it was so much fun to thank you again to all of those who came if you're based in the uk and would like to join us live then we've got three more dates coming up two in london and one in newcastle so please go to tiltedco.com forward slash something rhymes with purple for tickets or you can follow the link in the programme description. Because of the mic setup, some of the questions in the Q&A are a tad on the quiet side,

but don't worry, we've transcribed them into the programme description if you need anything clarifying. Also, you'll notice that for my trio, I've handed over responsibility to the crowd with some very funny and creative results, but that's coming up later. For now, we pick up the action just after the interval in Chichester, and it's over to Giles. We are back, and so are you, which is actually very gratifying. Thank you so... Oh, most of them have returned, actually. It's extraordinary.

If you've just joined us because you've just tuned in, this is Something Rhymes with Purple. Because people do do this. They wait around outside and they see the crowd, and if the theatre isn't totally full, they try and sneak in during the interval, holding an old ice cream box as though they've just had an ice cream.

So there will be a few people here who weren't here for the first half. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. I'm Giles Bounder. This is Susie Dent. We're celebrating the English language. And Susie, what do we want to talk about today? Well, I thought we would talk about hotels because... Hotels?

You and I travel around the country a lot. I go up to Media City to record Countdown, which means I stay in a hotel up there. And we've never actually covered it. Media City, so we know where that is. Where is that? Media City is in Salford. Which is a suburb of Manchester.

No, it's just outside Manchester. It's a place on its own right. Yes. Yes. So I thought we could go through the revolving doors of the language of hotels. I love that idea. And see what's behind them. Could we begin with the word hotel? I do travel a great deal. I usually stay at one of Lenny Henry's places. Though I've never met him there, but I must say... Good beds. Premier Inn.

Good beds. Good beds, and you know where you are. Yes. Because everyone seems exactly the same as every other one. And I think they also designed the open prisons that I visited. No, that's not a bad thing. It's good that people are in an open prison, should be properly and comfortably looked after.

That's as it should be. Anyway, go on. Okay. What is the origin of the word hotel? The word hotel actually began with the Latin hospitalis, which gave us all sorts of words in English. So it gave us hospitality. It gave us a hospital, which was where originally pilgrims, travelling pilgrims, were given hospitality, board and lodgings.

And it gave us hostel, which was the sort of cheaper form of lodging, and then hotel, which was a more expensive form. So lots and lots of words in English. And it's one of those words, I remember this, I went to the French Lycée in London when I was a little boy, and I learned that when you see a French word with a chapeau, it's a circonflex, a little hat, you know, on the O, it often indicates that the next letter is missing. Yeah. So hotel was hostel. Yes. So that often happens, doesn't it? And hôpital as well. And there are other words like that where the hat. Yeah, the little hat, the little chapeau, you're absolutely right. But I've got something to ask you. When you were an MP,

I've got something to ask you. When you were an MP, did you used to lobby people? Because the origin of lobby and lobbying is quite fascinating, and it really developed in North America. But were you a lobbyer? The people sitting out there are marvelling. Could this man possibly ever have been a Member of Parliament? I have to tell you, when I was a little boy, when I was a very little boy, I wanted to be prime minister. And I was, for a while, a long time ago, a member of parliament for the city of Chester. And I remember the division lobbies, and I'm familiar with the phrase, lobbying someone. And people, certainly from my constituency, came and lobbied me on different issues. I don't know the origin of the word. But what about being lobbied in the commons itself? issues. I don't know the origin of the word. But what about being lobbied in the commons itself?

So... People, yes, people, you know, a group of angry farmers would turn up in their Jaguars to complain about the price of potatoes or the milk marketing board. We used to get those outside OUP. I'm sure I've told you this. We had the Potato Council ask us to take couch potato out of the Oxford English Dictionary because it was derogatory to potatoes. I'm sure I've told you this. And they wanted it to be called the couch slouch instead. And that's quite a good word, a couch slouch. Yes, because they were saying actually potatoes contain lots of vitamins, etc. And couch potatoes suggest that they are actually just all about slobbiness and sloppiness. This is not what we came for, obviously. Or you came for.

Well, to lobby someone, to go back to that, actually goes back to North American legislature where people would come and actively, you know, supplicate, I suppose, or entreat the members of Congress to change the law to their benefit. So they literally would gather in the lobby and that is where that comes from. So is the lobby an ante room? I mean, in the hotel, you think of the hotel lobby

as the place where people... Yes. And I suppose in the House of Commonsons you have the central lobby where people would go and this American lobby in the houses of congress yes is where they would gather exactly and you also have the foyer as well don't you in a hotel and foyer is actually linked to the Latin focus and the focus was the hearth because the hearth was the heart of a home essentially and so the foyer and the focus are seen as the sort of you know the destination point if you like of a particular place very good i thought the foyer had some sort of farming connotation to

do with where a manger would be a foyer oh and to do with but maybe i'm wrong well obviously i'm wrong well i don't know. I don't know. Because you are the lexicographer. No, no, I'm going to look it up. The old fool who turns up. OK. I'm going to look it up, yeah.

Let's check that out. A foyer. I've got a farming field where people forage for food, where oats are eaten. And that's in the foyer. Doesn't get this in the dictionary. It just says, based on the Latin focus, the domestic half. But, you know, you never know, because particularly in dialect terms,

it might have a completely different meaning that corresponds with yours. Thank you. This is what I tend to do on Countdown, when somebody comes up with a word that is clearly not going to be in the dictionary. And if they look really crestful, then I will say, well, you know, you'll probably find it in a historical dictionary. That's what I'm going to say. And quite often you will, to be fair. So anyway. So that's the foyer and the lobby as we go into the hotel. Yes.

Through revolving doors, often. Yes. Well, you tell me, what do you associate with hotels? Well, I, when I was a boy at this school, Bedales, we talked about, I read a novel by a Thomas Mann called The Confessions of Felix Kroll. It's an unfinished novel, but in it, there is a character who earns his living as a waiter in a hotel and is a bit of a confidence trickster. And I think when I was a child, I fantasized about living in a hotel as a waiter? I wanted to be a hotel manager until I was about 15. That was what I wanted to do. Because I loved staying in hotels.

It was a rare treat for me. And I loved ice machines. I was, yes, it wasn't a dictionary. It was an ice machine. That was, this was how exciting my life was. Rather reminiscent of Theresa May's great happiness running through a field of wheat. We now have Susie Dent playing with the ice machine.

Yeah. And why not? What I did discover, though, because I have occasionally lived in hotels, is that most hotels have a secret floor, a floor above the top button on the lift, where often the staff are. In old Victorian hotels, there's a sort of secret floor

where the most incredible shenanigans go on. So give me other words. Chambermaids. We shouldn't really call them chambermaids anymore, they're probably housekeepers, aren't they? I would say. But the housekeeper probably has a different role from the chambermaid. This is the person who looks after your room. So I don't know, are they called chamber chums? I don't know. Well, that's where chum comes from. So the word chum was originally a chambermate. So somebody with whom you shared a room. A chambermate was your chum. You shared a room with a chambermate. So let's stay in the hotel. We've got up. We've got a dumb waiter as well, remember? A dumb waiter. I know what that

is. That's one of those lifts that goes up and down between floors and takes food and drink up. Originally, actually, what is now called a lazy Susan, if anybody knows what a lazy Susan is, that was what a dumb waiter meant. It was a revolving thing. And there's a lovely story attached to it, which I think is legend, accounting for a lazy Susan, is that Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Susan,

always complained that because she was the smallest and the youngest, she would always be served last. And so she never really got as much as she would like to. So he designed this revolving thing. That's the story, but I don't think it's true. No, I like that. A lazy Susan, a dumb waiter. Oh, why weren't dumb waiters?

Up the spout. This is, yes, not in the pregnancy sense, but if you say... No, I think that's up the duff, isn't it? Well, there is up the spout as well. I think up the spout is something quite different. Do you know where up the duff comes from? Where does up the duff come from? Up the duff comes from a duff, plum duff, which was a pudding. Yeah. And if you were up the duff, you were in the pudding club. Oh. Yeah, and duff is a variation of dough, so that's where that comes from.

Up the duff. I think up the spout is something quite different. Yes, so if you say the TV's up the spout, that looks back to pawnbrokers' lifts, which are called the spouts. So essentially, when somebody brought in an article, it would be taken up the spout to another room where it would be kept until it was redeemed if the person came and paid their money back.

So it was kind of lift or shoot that it was... But if it remained up there all the time, it was considered to be up the spout. In other words, it wouldn't come back. There will be a handful of people here in this audience in Chichester old enough to remember when you could go to a general store and you gave them money and it was sent on a wire. Yes, people recognise it.

Remember this? A wire? You pulled a pulley and it was sort of, the money was sent all the way up to the cashier and then your change was brought all the way down. Do some of you remember this? Let us older people applaud ourselves for being alive. Very interesting.

Oh, I've never heard of that. Yeah? Oh, it's a strange old world. And you paid with coins, you know? Yes. What are coins? What are coins? Yes. Bounds, shillings, pence. Marvellous. People said good morning. It was a different world.

Concierge. Did you ask me about the concierge? Concierge. Concierge goes back to a word that actually meant a fellow slave. So it was somebody who shared the workload, if you like. And then because this person was seen as being sort of, you know, below the role of a guest, I suppose, just as a slave would be below the role of the boss, it was transferred. But it's slightly strange.

But then it made me think of ciao in Italian, because ciao goes back to Italian dialect schiavo, meaning I'm your slave. So when someone says ciao, Bella, you're saying I'm your slave. As in your servant's servant's mom. Exactly. It's kind of courtesy, I'm your slave.

So a concierge is a fellow... A fellow slave, yes, consclavis in Italian. So the concierge is there. You go into reception. There is a receptionist, which is somebody is after reception. Yes, reception from receiving. So what you do at the reception. There might be a bell hop.

Oh, yes, somebody who hops when the bell rings. Oh, so you arrive, they go bing, and the bell hop arrives in a little uniform to the... They don't have bell hops anymore, do they? They don't have bell rings. Oh, so you arrive, they go, bing! And the bellhop arrives in a little uniform. They don't have bellhops anymore, do they? They don't have bellhops. They used to have. Do you even know what a telegram is? I do. I never received one, but I do.

When I was young, when I was at university, my wife, I used to send her a lot of telegrams. They were like the texts of their day. And you would send a few words on a telegram. And they used to have singing telegrams as well in America. I know that. And they would, because I was once at a party in California and a telegram arrived and the boy came literally on a bicycle with a uniform, like a bellhops uniform, when you think of it, with little buttons up the front. And he went in holding this telegram. And the woman, who was a bit tipsy, it was her birthday, said, sing me the telegram, you're the singing telegram

boy. And he said, I don't want to sing the telegram. And she said, tipsy, it was her birthday, said, sing me the telegram, you're the singing telegram boy. And he said, I don't want to sing the telegram. And she said, it's my birthday, you sing the telegram. The boy said, I don't want to sing the telegram. It's my birthday, you sing the telegram. So the poor boy stepped forward in his little uniform, opened the telegram and sang, tra la la la la la, your sister Rose is dead.

That is so dark. It is very, very dark. So, the bellhop. What else do they call those boys who come in the bellhops? Um, valets, I suppose. Oh, valets. Now, I think the correct pronunciation of valet in English is valet. I think one should say valet, not valet.

But, I mean, it is a French word. In the way that we wouldn't say Paris, we'd say Paris. How would the royal family describe that? Would they say valet? They would say valet. Well, they would actually say staff. And you have your car valeted, don't you? You have your car. You don't have it valeted.

I'd say valet. So what's the origin of that? That's simply from French. But valet is Latin. It means goodbye, doesn't it? Oh, valet. Yeah, that's slightly different. Well, I'll probably discover it's not different at all, but I'm going to look it up now. This is what I do in the podcast, people who don't know,

because Giles always says that I know everything, but clearly I don't. Well, OK, so first of all, the dictionary gives both valet and valet. Late 15th century is when it came into English from French and it's related to vassal. So again, it's the idea of being a servant. A slave at your servants. Yeah, very good.

A retainer, if you like. When, occasionally, whenever I go to a hotel, they always say, we've upgraded you. And I get the same rumours I would have got anyway. They always say that. Oh, we've upgraded you. They never have. But I was somewhere last week when I would have got anyway. They always say that, oh, we've upgraded you. They never have. But I was somewhere last week when I got a whole suite.

Nice. As a result of Covid, the hotel was empty apart from me. But I had a sitting room and a bathroom and a bedroom. Suite. Why is it called a suite? Because it flows and it follows. So it's a kind of harmonious group. So it comes from suivir in French, which is to follow. It's, yeah, the sort of passe-participant, I think, suite, followed.

So a bathroom that's en suite follows through from the bedroom? Yes. And originally, if it was en suite, it was all about kind of harmonious decoration rather than one room sort of annexed to another, if you like. In the days of the chamber pot, I'm playing now to the older people in the crowd, you used to go to a hotel and in a sort of bedside cupboard there would be a chamber pot.

That was known as the tout suite. Suite, en suite. We're now invited to stay at a boutique hotel. That's another French word, aren't we? Yeah, actually, that goes back to the Greek. The idea is that it is something sort of small and delicate, but it's also a place where you can buy things. Obviously, if we go to a boutique, you go to a shop in France, and it's related to the bodega in Spanish countries too. So again, that's had quite a journey.

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Yes, well, I have got a few in already. From people here today? From Sarah Brooker from Henfield. Sarah, where are you? Oh, my goodness. The lights are going up all over. You're going all the way up there as well. Sarah.

Oh, she's over there. Okay, what's your question, Sarah? Where did the word trough from the Golden Basket come from? Ah, trough. Ah, a trough. It's a dialect version of trough. Trough, not trough.

A trough. Because trough is one of those many confusing words in English that is spelt O-U-G-H, even though it doesn't sound anything like it. It's a version of that, simply. Very good. Yeah, thank you for that question. Then we have David Lambert from Chichester. Oh, David. Oh, there we are. Oh, look at that, David. That's a good, strong voice, David. You know what Mussolini said? Give me a balcony and I will take a role. This is your moment, David.

Look at him, look at him. What is the origin of the word flapjack? It sounds as though it should be made of steel, doesn't it? Yes, a flap. It's very close to one of my least favourite words in English, which is flange. Having said that, I love flapjacks. Flap is a version of flip because you flip them over in the pan,

or the original flapjacks anyway. And jack, as we've so often said on the podcast, is a generic name that is applied to all sorts of trades and all sorts of utensils, from lumberjack to steeplejack to jack of all trades. And so a flapjack is simply something that you flip in a pan. I'm afraid it's as mundane as that, but they are delicious. Thank you for that, David.

Thank you. Can we take a couple more? We've got time for that? Yes, why not? As the microphone's coming, I'm thinking of the court case where in the 1990s, I remember this, where they came to a halt because the documents hadn't arrived and this was in the days when we had fax machines remember those um and the the judge said you know well the documents aren't here well whether it's one key document well fax it up and learned counsel said yes it does rather my lord

hello Hello. I've gone to university, I repeatedly use the word someone and all of my tears just because I thought it was stupid. What is this word? This is someone. S-O-M-E-W-H-E-N. Yeah, someone. As opposed to somewhere over the rainbow, someone being...

Sometime. How interesting. It's gorgeous. It's one of the old markers of time that I really love. And so many of them have slipped away, but some of them do persist in dialect, which is great. Some of the other ones that I love, and I try and slip in,

but I sound very pretentious when I do, is yestreen for yesterday evening. A senite is the old English for a week, seven nights, just as a fortnight was 14 nights. We've lost senite. We've lost the overmorrow which is a straight translation of übermorgen from German. The day after tomorrow I'll see you on the overmorrow which is just beautiful. So we've lost so many of these and I feel very sad

that we have so I would say keep using some when because it's gorgeous. Let's make that our campaign for 2022. We've been wondering what to do. But I think bring back some when. Some when, some how. That's lovely. Yeah, it is gorgeous. Do you know, just a good kind of reflection of the way that we, as people, approach things. Because the word soon originally meant straight away. But now we use it to mean kind of, you know, at some point.

A bit like directly in Devon. Directly means anything other than directly. It means sort of manana. But anyway, thank you for that. I love someone. One more question before we get to your trio. Thank you. You're down here. Hello?

Do you have a personal preference on how to pronounce git or jet? Ah, I remember when this first came out and I had to talk about it on the radio. So I was told 10 seconds before I went on air that this is what they wanted to talk about and it was on an email and I thought, I have no idea whether this is GIF or GIF. What is the word?

A GIF. Oh, as in, explain what a GIF is. It's basically an online little... I thought it was a small plastic lemon. You squeezed it onto your smoked salmon. I'm going to tell you what the dictionary says. I bet it was a small plastic lemon you squeezed it onto your smoked salmon. I'm going to tell you what the dictionary says, I bet it says both. I know. I do Twitter, it's those little pictures that pop up. Yeah.

Ten seconds, the little... Animated pictures. Yeah. I would say... Is it an acronym or an initialism? It says GIF first of all and then GIF is the second one. It always does this, it's like Scone and Scone I'm afraid. And this is how it defines it.

A lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images. But anyway, it comes from, is it graphic interchange format is where it comes from. So it's a hard G to start with. Oh, but I think it should be GIF. I think it's GIF. Graphic information format.

What do you say? GIF, there you go. I think GIF. And also, by the way, I do think it's GIF. Graphic Information Point. What do you say? GIF. GIF, there you go. I think GIF. And also, by the way, I do think it's scone. Scone. Scone.

Oh, oh, oh! Shall we have a fight at the end of this? Let's get everybody who says scone on this side of the stage, those that say scone on that side, and then we'll sort of all have a, oh, what fun that would be with jam and and... Cream! We can decide whether we put the jam on first or the cream on first. Oh dear.

What do you say? I say scone. Do you say scone? I say scone. Everyone says scone. Do you say scone or scone here? Scone. Scone. Well done, brave woman over here. I think that's a scone over there. Brave lone woman. Scone.

OK. Tommy, you wanted to say something? When it's on the plate, it's a scone, and when you've eaten it... It's gone. Oh! Yay! Would you stay behind afterwards? I'd like to write some material for me. Shall we do your trio?

OK. So the first one was griffonnage. Griffonnage. Have you heard of that, Charles? Griffonnage. Is it spelt G-R-I-F-F-O-N-A-G-E? It is. So it's not to do with a griffon, but maybe claws, griff, les griffes are claws.

Oh, I like that. I don't know. Well, Cathy and Jane Garfield-Fletcher. Oh, yes. Cathy Fletcher and Garfield-Jane. Anyway, they're two people. So, the griffonnage is a pilgrimage to Rhys Jones' house. Very nice.

Now, Hilary Bower from Burton Park in Duncan says, when a cat needs your knees while also purring using her griff. Oh. That's also called pingling, by the way. What's it called? Pingling. Pingling. Ping pingling, by the way. What's it called? Pingling. Pingling. Pingling, we'll explain that.

And a griffonnage says, Josh Howlett from Bognaweges is something you should never ask. Griffonnage. Oh. I give the prize for that one. Okay. And it's clever. All right, that is griffonnage.

It actually means sloppy or careless handwriting. Oh, griffonnage. Oh, terrible griffonnage. How actually means sloppy or careless handwriting. Oh, griffonnage. Oh, terrible griffonnage. How interesting. Sloppy or careless handwriting. So, the next one that we have is cacinate. Oh, we know this one. So, C-A-C-H-I-N-N-A-T-E, cacinate.

I'm not sure what it means. Is it, says Colin Carter, cacinate, a baby that shoots out of the mother's uterus so quickly it catches the midwife off guard? I think cacinate was what he was thinking there. Peter Grigalis, what a great name, from Hampshire, says that cacinating is digitally storing information for later use in a marital row,

usually over a year hence. Love that. And cacinate, or cacinate, says David Cunningham from Bognor Regis, what we used to use is money, innit? So he was thinking of cash-a-nake. Yes. Love that. I think David's going to get that one. The applause suggests that he wins the prize.

Well done, David. Remind us how we spell this word. C-A-C-H-I-N-N-A-T-E. And is it, as I was trying to do earlier, a kind of laugh tone? Yes. It's very loud, actually. Loud cackle. Loud cackle is a cash-a-n to do earlier, a kind of laugh tone? Yes, it's very loud, actually. Loud cackle. Loud cackle is a cachonation.

Yes, there are all sorts of... There's another... The contemptuous laugh is a fleer. A fleer? Yes, which I love as well. Is that a... And a boffler is a hearty laugh that comes from the stomach. That's what we want. Boffler. Boffler.

OK, the last one was cancatovate. Cancatovate. C-A-N... There's only one reference of this in a very old dialect dictionary. Cancatovate. Yes. C-A-N-C-A-T-I-V-E. Yes.

So Paula Hare from near Chichester says, is it to hop vigorously to get rid of your swollen ankles, a.k.a. cancles? Cancatovate.illips from hillhead says is it a dance originated by french cats at the meowlin rouge i love that can catavate very nice and the peter edgler from fontwell says is it the opposite of cannot? Cannot dodgervate. Cannot doggervate. I like that.

Cannot doggervate. I think I like it. It's a dance originated by French cats. What's your name? Yes. So thank you, Jessica. I can tell you that to cancattervate actually means to heap stuff into a pile.

That's a useful word. Cancattervate. Cancatterate, yeah. Very good. Do you have a poem for us? I do have a poem for you. Today happens to be the day that we're here live in Chichester, but if you're listening to this on the podcast,

it's the day when we recorded the podcast, happens to be the birthday of William Blake, the great poet. And I knew that already, but I didn't know what piece of Blake to read until I arrived here today and saw by complete chance that you were wearing a tiger. Tiger, tiger, very bright. Tiger, tiger. And everybody probably in this room knows

that in the poem, Tiger, Tiger, William Blake spells the word tiger with a Y. And this is because, I'm right in thinking, aren't I, that orthography, spelling, really hasn't become established in the early days. It's really in the last 200 or 300 years that we've taken so that it was possible to spell tiger, if you wanted, with a Y or a 9. Oh, before then, before Caxton really started printing,

spelling was all over the shop. And as I always say, Shakespeare spelled his own name differently on the same document quite often. So, yes, it was completely chaotic. And he spelt this with a Y too, I think. And the reason, if you see the poem printed, they still print it with a Y, because mostly with old spellings in Shakespeare or Milton or any of these people, where the spelling was various, in modern they regularize it don't they they give you modern spelling but never with this poem tiger tiger by william blake and the reason being that

he was an artist and he actually did illustrations to go with his poems and the elegance of the y is such that he established that this is what it should look like so here is an author speaking to us and actually dictating to us how the word should be spelt. Orthography actually means correct writing. Ah, not. So what's correct spelling? It's the same thing, really, correct spelling, because the writing kind of encompasses it all. But orthopaedics means straight children, believe it or not. So the idea is that an orthopaedic surgeon would straighten children's bones originally.

Gosh. Wow. Anyway, the poem I'm going to read is Tiger, Tiger by William Blake, read on his birthday. Tiger, tiger burning bright in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder and what art could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand and what dread feet? What the hammer, what the chain, in what furnace was thy brain, what the anvil, what dead grasp, dare its deadly terrors clasp, when the stars threw down their spears and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see, did he who made the lamb make thee. Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Beautiful. You can get in touch with us by emailing us. It's purple at somethingelse.com. Purple at somethingelse.com. Without a G. The G is dropped. Something Else with Purple is a Something Else production.

It was produced by Harriet Wells, Lawrence Bassett. We've had Andrew Quick. We have Sam Hodges. We have had a host of people helping us today. And he's not here, but Gully is ever-present in our hearts. He is absolutely brilliant, even if he never shows up. Lovely. And most of all, we have you, and we thank you, Purple People, for loving the language as we do. Thank you.