Something Rhymes with Purple - Dwile Flonking

Episode Date: August 11, 2020

Cheers! This week we're looking for answers at the bottom of the glass as we drink in the history behind the fascinating names of the boozers of Britain. Like Chaucer's pilgrims we start at The Tabard before cantering through the rivalry between the Red Lion and the White Hart. We find a stowaway king inside the Royal Oak, a rather befuddled duck in Ambleside, and we wonder why Livery Companies always move in threes. Along the way there's time for Susie to get up on the bar and entertain us with her three words for the week and for Gyles to get soaked with Oliver Reed. A Somethin' Else production Please do get in touch via [e-mail] Susie's Trio: Vellichor - the smell of old books Umbriphilous - fond of the shade Bedinner - to give someone dinner. 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 this week's Something Rhymes with Purple. I'm still in Oxford, Giles is still in London. We are keeping to our podcast lockdowns and I think it's working quite well. I can see Giles in a little box at the top of my computer and I quite like this. I think it's quite intimate in some strange way. Giles, what do you reckon doing it on a computer screen, so to speak? It's very intimate and I like the intimacy.

I'm getting out and about in the world. I'm travelling around. I was on my tricycle, but also yesterday I went in my Tesla all the way to Newport Pagnell. Anyone who's been to Newport Pagnell from London will know that you take the M1 and you're supposed to take the Newport Pagnell turning. I unfortunately, in my beautiful car, pressed some of the right buttons, so I had the sat-nav working, but I didn't have the sound up. And consequently, my attention was distracted and I missed the Newport Pagnell turn-off. And then you have to go virtually to Northampton.

But is your Tesla working? We all want to know. Any more alarm buttons? The good news is my Tesla is working. But who needs a Tesla? Because I went to Aston Martin, where they showed me something called a DB5. Do you know what a DB5 is? I have no idea. Is it fairly Bond-esque?

It is Bond-esque. It's the car that James Bond used, I think, first in Goldfinger and then in a number of films. It's called DB5 because the man who bought the company after the war, Aston Martin, I think was called Sir David Brown, something like that. It's his initials. And it was the fifth model, DB5. Anyway, they've recreated this. And when it first came on the market in 1963, it was £4,300.

I said, I will buy one at the original price. I'm a vintage person. I'd like a vintage car at the vintage price. They said, well, would you like to see it first before you commit? I said, I would like to see it. So they produced this DB5. And it's beautiful. I sat in it. I drove it. It's very nice. It's got all the gadgets. It genuinely has got all the goldfinger gadgets. I'm not exaggerating. It's got a bulletproof screen that comes out of the back. It's got radar within it. It's got all the gadgets. It genuinely has got all the goldfinger gadgets. I'm not exaggerating. It's got a bulletproof screen that comes out of the back. It's got radar within it. It's got, believe it or not, it has got machine guns that come out of the front.

No. And do not tell me you were buying this for £4,300. Well, that's what I thought. Then they produced the managing director. He turns out to be called the president. Who do they think they are, the president? Anyway, the long and the short of it is they said that without the extras, I could indeed drive it off the forecourt there and then for £2,750,000.

No. £2,750,000. Without the extras. Without the extras. So they demonstrated the extras and they are pretty amazing. Smoke can come out of the back. And I said, oh, show me. And they pressed a button. The smoke came out. You could not see me. I was engulfed in smoke. So it was quite exciting. And I was there filming for the one show. So I've been back at work in a normal way. And I've been to a restaurant. I haven't yet been to a pub. Have you been to a pub yet?

Well, sort of. I have been to a pub, got a glass of wine and then gone and sat in a meadow. So I'm not sure that counts. I've not actually sat in a pub yet, but I feel the moment is nigh. How about you? I have not. My children have, and they tell me it's a little bit soulless because you have to sit at a table and they come and wait at you at the table. So it's rather like being in a restaurant, not a pub. And of course, people are loving to complain about the fact that nobody's quite clear on what the rules and regulations are. I say that this is deliberate. I've worked it out. They decided when they saw that the stay home thing worked so well, they thought, ah, let's do the new one. Stay alert. We need to help people with their mental challenges during lockdown.

Keep the synapses supple. Keep the brain working. Stay alert. Let's change these regulations every day. Let's have different ones in Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Let's change the rules in England. Let's have some rules in Leicester, different ones up in Manchester. Oh, look, a little bit of a problem in West Yorkshire. Let's change the rules in Bradford. This is being done deliberately to keep our minds active. So none of us can follow it, but if we concentrate, we can.

Yes. And it's really important. I mean, mean you know not just theatres of course we've talked about before having such a hard time but pubs too have really really suffered so in their honour really we decided didn't we today that we would talk about the origins not of drinking terms because we had a whole episode that you can find in our archives devoted to the treasury of english vocabulary when it comes to drinking i mean it is vast episode 15 it was oh is it episode almost a year ago toss pot i remember because i enjoyed shot clogs i enjoyed saying toss pot um before anyone asks a toss pot is somebody who tossed back their pot of beer and got drunk very quickly. So it was an insult, but it probably doesn't have the same origin as tosser and you can probably work that one out for yourselves. But we're talking today not about those things, really.

We're talking about pub names because we have got possibly the most notable and notorious historical watering holes in the world. notable and notorious historical watering holes in the world. Pub names are hugely significant, either for events that took place there or for some entirely unexpected piece of history. And I think the pubs are hugely important in our lives and our history and just the British psyche as well, don't you think? I do think. What's the first pub you can remember you, Susie Dent, going into?

How old were you? Who did you go with? Oh, we used to go to eat in our local pub where I was growing up and it was called the Four Horseshoes because it was very close to a farrier's. And in fact, it might well have been on the premises originally of a farrier. So fairly simple name, but great pub. My first recollection of going into a pub was when I was at school. I was very much a goody-goody, and as you can imagine. Me too.

And I'm exactly the same age as Prince Charles. And there was lots of hoo-ha in the paper because he, when he was a boy at school, was lured into a pub, I think, and ordered, not knowing what else to order, ordered a cherry brandy. He couldn't think of anything, poor boy. They said, what do you want? And he said, cherry brandy, please, sir.

Anyway, he got a cherry brandy. And some kids at school said to me, go on, let's go to the pub. And I thought, oherry brandy, please. So anyway, he got a sherry brandy. And some kids at school said to me, go on, let's go to the pub. And I thought, oh no, we're not allowed to get to the pub. I don't know where I was out of bounds. Anyway, they got me into the pub and I didn't know what to do. It was a really traumatic experience for me.

I knew I was breaking the rules. I was only 15. And for that reason, I don't think I've ever felt really cosy in a pub. Oh. Yeah. Well, maybe today we can restore your faith. Let's look at this as a therapy session. Tell me about the origins of the name of,

why do they have names? Tell me about pub signs. What's it all about? Well, just to start with the local tavern, it's been such a huge part of British community life since about the 11th century and so some of the most significant events in history have taken place within pub walls and within pub names you will find a millennium of events and attitudes and customs and bad puns so it's kind of the boozer is uniquely british i think and something definitely to celebrate. But we have mentioned before, I think when we were talking about drinking, we mentioned that in Anglo-Saxon times, one person could brew ale and their home could become a local brewing spot. So as a precursor

to the kind of pub signs that we know today, the Saxon brewer would grow a green bush outside his house. And what period is this? You say Anglo-Saxon, what years are we talking about? So we're talking 11th century, possibly. So about a thousand years ago, walking along a country path, you see a bush, a lovely bright green bush, and you think this dude is actually brewing some ale. To this day, you will find quite a few pubs called the bush. So it's quite possible that some of them are on the premises of these early saxon brewers and then in fact that might have been that might have been even about the 10th century because then you jump forward to norman times um so after 1066 it was the monasteries really that became renowned for the ale and that was primarily as a refreshment

for pilgrims so you know in in chaucer's Canterbury Tales, they all set off from the Tabard Inn in Southwark. And it's mentioned frequently within the text. So, again, you will find pub names that reflect the importance of that particular pub to pilgrims. So, you will find the dove, which was the sign of a monastic guest house, for example. So, they meet at the Tabard. This is Chaucer's Pilgrims. They meet at the Tabard Inn, which is actually a place where they sell alcohol. And they walk from London to Canterbury.

Some of them are on horseback, but most of them are walking. And they stop at these monasteries to spend the night and to be refreshed. I can't remember it well enough, and I'm sure our listeners can, to know how much pubs feature on the way. But certainly the tabard was key in terms of where they were setting off from. And incidentally, when they were on horseback, do you remember, I think I told you

about the origin of Canter, because they were heading for the shrine of Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. And these pilgrims on their way would be doing what was called the Canterbury Trot. So this was a slow trot of the pilgrims who could chat along the way.

I mean, I've always find a canter actually quite fast, but clearly this was a slow kind of canter. Yeah, so Canterbury Trot eventually was shortened to canter. How amazing! I love, do you know, this is why I love

Something Rhymes with Purple and I love you because you know so much oh that's right i can't wait to meet princess anne again in order to say to her uh because she's about the only horsey person i know uh this canter this cantering business do you know why it's called cantering i bet she does i bet she knows that she does know most things but not necessarily everything you know she met john cullshaw he told me this at some event. She said to him, what do you do, Mr. Culshaw? And he said, I'm an impressionist. And she said, oh, yes. Is that still fashionable, that kind of painting?

Absolutely true. Absolutely true. I love that. Anyway, so we are cantering to Canterbury. That's the origin of that word. Yes, and then you'll find other signs kind of welcoming pilgrims, if you like. So Christian symbols were quite key. So the lamb, the ark. Again, you will find quite a few of those today.

And then in the 14th century, a law was passing. It was towards the end of the 14th century that said all landlords must display a sign outside their establishment and the punishment for not doing so would they be have to forfeit their ale and many early pub names stem from this period it was quite a productive period inevitably because people had to choose their names lots of memorable popular images began to appear here so the plow the star and so on so you will find a lot of pub names that's still in existence today that feature from that time and then you've got loyalty to political causes i mean they really feature large so what what would you say would be the most popular pub sign or pub name in britain something to do with oak the royal oak yeah the

royal oak that's huge where i live yeah so that uh is that the king's arms perhaps is that king's arms absolutely so the royal oak um is supposed to commemorate king charles who of course is said to have hidden in an oak tree to avoid the parliamentary forces so charles ii and so there's oaks and royal oaks everywhere and in fact charles spent his last night as a free man in a pub in southwell in is it southwell or southell i'm not sure in nottinghamshire i think it might be southwell apologies to anyone living there and that was called the king's arms eventually but the king's arms honored whichever monarch was on the throne at the time. Yes, that's what I want to call it, the King's Arms, because it could be any old king,

except when you've got a queen up there. And interesting, we don't have the Queen's Arms, do we really? No, because it would be awful if you were some drunk to say, oh, I fell into the Queen's Arms last night. That would be an unfortunate... Or I fell out of. Indeed. Oh, I was kicked out. I was kicked out of the Queen's arms last night. Anyway. Another one that I think is at least in the list of the top most popular names in Britain would be the Red Lion. Of course. Everywhere. Of course. Everywhere. And what is that Red Lion? Well, that's got an interesting one because you have to look back to 14th centuries is when my history gets a bit sketchy. But John of Gaunt, arguably the most

powerful man in England at the time, his nephew took the crown as Richard II. But I think Richard II was 10 or something when he took the throne. So John of Gaunt was hugely powerful during the reign of the nephew. He left England to claim the throne of Castile. He married the Infanta of Castile. And the coat of arms, a Spanish castle, and a red lion was then incorporated into his own crest. And it's thought that many taverns and inns began to display John of Gaunt's coat of arms to show their preference for him. And it said then that Richard II responded by ruling that every publican and landlord close to London must display his own crest. And do you know what that one was? No.

The White Hart. Goodness. So, yeah. So, two big houses in competition there, the Red Lion and the White Hart. And that still goes on today. That's why they're still there today. So, people looking up at the pub sign seeing the White Hart have no idea that it actually dates back to the conflict between Richard II and John of Gaunt. 14th century. Yeah. And they've got the walls of the roses, which have given us all the roses, red and white, as well. The rose and crown, all of those. Before you get distracted by that, can you mention Eleanor of Castile?

Yes. Tell me about Elephant and Castle, the place. Yeah, we talked about this, I think. It's a brilliant one, this one. The most common popular story attached to Elephant and Castle, which is the name of a district in London, of course, is that it evolved from the name of Eleanor of Castile, as you say. She was the wife of Edward I. So I think this might have been a different infanta. But when she died, the king erected a series of 12 crosses across the country, marking each place her body rested

overnight during the funeral cortege. And this definitely happened. And in fact, the final Eleanor Cross gave a new name to Charing Cross. Now, a lot of people thought that Charing was Cher Rennes, dear queen, but in fact, it's not. It goes back to an old English cheering, which was the bend of a river because it's near the bend of the River Thames. But the cross definitely was in commemoration of her after she died. However, it's much more likely that the Elephant and Castle actually goes back to the worshipful company of Cutlers, who basically had a pub that was built on a site occupied by a smithy that had borne the same name and sign. And the smithy had connections with the worshipful company of Cutlers, whose coat of arms included an elephant with a castle on its back.

A bit like a, is it Howdah or Hoodah? Howdah. Howdah. Yes. They were one of many livery companies that have given their names to pubs, basically. So there was a pub that was called the Elephant and Castle because it was on the site of the smithy and the smithy was attached to this worshipful company.

Have you ever spoken at the Cutlass Hall in Sheffield? No. Well, please don't. It's a nightmare. It's a beautiful, It's a beautiful room. And they still produce the most amazing steel in Sheffield. It's fantastic. But the acoustic is a nightmare. My one joke is still going round and round the rafters up there. But you mentioned livery companies. Have livery companies given us a lot of pub names? Yeah, I think they have. So for some

strange reason, and I'm going to put this plea out to the Brilliant Purple people, because I think they will know the answer to this and I don't. They're very much associated with three. So three crowns is said to have been the crest of the worshipful company of drapers, for example. But they often have three in their name. And i don't know where that three comes from i'm now remembering you said what was the pub that i went to when i was at school i'm remembering the pub closest to the school gates was called the cricketers and of course a lot of pubs have sporting connections i mean i think of the fox and hound i, that's country sports. Yeah. And the bear goes back to bear basing. I mean, some of them are the most awful medieval, horrible practices that persisted for way too long.

But you're right. A lot of pub names will actually have those in the title. Not good. There's the Aunt Sally. That's a really nice kind of, you know, popular part time. I've never played Aunt Sally. Have you? What happens? Do you throw things at people? Yeah, you throw things. Oh, somebody is the Aunt Sally. Yes, I've been the Aunt Sally. Now this, you know you like a little bit of name dropping.

I do my best. Are you going to mention Una Stubbs? Because Una Stubbs, the brilliant actress who I know you will know, she definitely played, was it in Wurzel Gummidge? I think she played Aunt Sally. She did play Aunt Sally. Gosh, I dredged that one up. I do know Una Stubbs. She's the most lovely lady. I remember interviewing her about 20 years ago on the radio at a show on LBC in the 1990s. And she came on and I hadn't seen her for a while.

You know, we chatted. She was appearing in As You Like It. That's why she was on to talk about that. And then we were still on air and I said, know you're looking so well um how things how's the love life and she said well since you asked it's a bit impertinent but since you ask it's fantastic i said oh well please hear it she's young and she said i've met this guy um he's a little bit younger than me but not too much younger and he he's properly unattached. There's no unpleasant backstory. This guy is really good. And he's good looking. And he's generous.

And he's fun. He's got a sense of humor. And anyway, it's early days. But anyway, it's going well. So we finished the interview. I then take her out into the street to show her into a taxi. And I said to her, as I was saying goodbye, well, Una, I'm also great about your guy. She said, what guy?

I said, you're telling us. She said, if I hadn't got a guy, but I wasn't going to be humiliated by you on live radio, was I? Oh, good for her. Yeah, good for her. Oh, she's a great girl. I saw her recently, in fact, at the funeral of a lovely actor called Nicky Henson.

And I think she was married to Nikki some years ago. And anyway, she was looking, I have to say, right fit and is delightful and is the most brilliant person. So she was Aunt Sally. That wasn't the name I was going to drop. I, many years ago, many years ago, was an Aunt Sally at the Barclay Square Ball. It was a charity ball. And they got various, in quotes, celebrities, i.e. people you've hardly ever heard of, to dress up in a sou'wester and a raincoat and sit on a sort of bed.

And if they managed to hit the mark, the bed tipped up and you were dipped into a bowl of custard. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that somebody threw a ball so hard, I was indeed dipped into the custard. And guess who did it? Oliver Reed. Do you remember Oliver Reed? Yes, Oliver Reed.

Now, I remember Oliver Reed from his mud wrestle in D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love. Of course you do. Of course, that would stick in the teenage brain. It would. It might have been earlier, actually, but it definitely stuck in my mind. It would. In your case, the. Of course that would stick in the teenage brain. It would. It might have been earlier actually, but it definitely stuck in my mind. It would in your case. The film was made many years ago

in the 70s. It would have been a pre-teenage brain. But yes, Oliver Reed and Alan Bates in, was it Women in Love? Women in Love. The naked wrestling by the fireside. And they had to both of them.

It was not mud wrestling. It was, for some reason, mud came to my mind. Yeah, but it was by a fire, wasn't it? I remember that. You keep your fantasies to yourself. I love the idea. No, but the fire was key.

I'm sure it was key to Lawrence. Because it was all dark and murky as well. Yes. That's what it was. It was dark. It was murky. There was Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Starkers, and so Oliver Reed told me and Alan Bates confirmed it,

pissed out of their minds. In order to be able to do this. It was directed by Ken Russell. They got themselves, well, Ollie used to like going to the pub, too much so. In fact, when he threw the ball that landed me in the custard, so amused was he and so tipsy was he that he climbed into the custard himself to lift me from it, to rescue me. I last went to Oliver Reed's house. When I next went to the same house, guess who owned it by then? You'll never guess.

Roger Moore. No, Jim Davidson. Anyway, let's get back to the pub. Let's get back to pubs. As Oliver Reed would have wanted to. Should we take a break? Yes, and then I want you to go down to the Dirty Duck and the Drunken Duck and the... Oh, yes.

All those weird pub names. Also, I need to tell you about dwell flunking who dwell flunking not a name i want a bit of dwell flunking we'll take a bit of a break i've got to sober up wherever you're going you better believe american express will be right there with you heading for adventure we'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of the last day? How about a 4 p.m. late checkout?

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but I want to tell you about a new podcast I've made. How to Write a Book is for anyone who wants to get their story out there. Fronted by a best-selling author, a super agent, and a powerhouse publisher, this 12-week masterclass will take you right through from developing an idea to nailing the plot if you want to get all episodes at once and completely ad-free subscribe now listen now wherever you get your podcasts imagine a world a world just like our own, but importantly, not our own. Is it the alternate dimension or are we?

And does it have podcasts? The Last Post. Hi, I'm Alice Fraser bringing you daily news from a parallel universe. It's a sweet, sweet dose of satirical news coverage, some of which will sound pretty familiar. He defended him saying he broke the lockdown rules on a father's instinct. And I just think if Boris had shielded his a** as much as he's shielding Cummings, he might actually be in a position to give parenting tips. And some of it is just pretty weird.

Air and space is becoming much clearer, Alice. And it's quite shocking because there is no air and space. It's empty space. So join me every single day alongside great comedians from around the world, including Andy Zaltzman, Nish Kumar, Tiff Stevenson and Will Anderson. Good luck to you. This is Something Rhymes with Purple. I'm Giles Brandreth. My friend Susie Dent is with me.

Well, down the line she is. We're talking about pub names. I mean, pubs have got the sort of strangest pastimes, but absolutely brilliant, fun sounding ones. So there's kind of barrel rolling and there's black pudding hurling and there's nurdling apparently, which is a bit like pitch penny where you just have to throw pennies into a hole. And there's also something called dwell flunking, which I mentioned before the break. And I think this is particular to East Anglia. Two teams of 12 players take a turn to dance around the other while attempting to avoid a beer-soaked dweil. Now, dweil is like a floor

cloth. And that's what it means in Norfolk dialect. And flonk is probably a corruption of flong, which is an old past tense of fling. I love that. So dweil flonking, I mean, you wouldn't want to be at the end of the dweil, especially if it's soaked in beer, but it sounds a lot of fun. But there are some strange pastimes there and some strange pub names as well. You mentioned the drunken duck. I think the one that springs to mind, the drunken duck, I think it's in the Lake District and it's said to come from the landlady who discovered a duck that had completely passed out and brought it in plucked its feathers and was just about to eat it when it kind of came to and she realized in fact that it had been drunk from a barrel of beer that had broken open in

remorse it said that she then knitted some clothes to keep the duck warm while it regrew his feathers i've just checked it is ambleslice it's in cumbria so ones like that are so specific to a particular local story i love them have you been to the dirty duck in stratford-upon-avon no now why was it dirty it's correctly named the black swan but known as the dirty duck ah okay i like the dew drop in but is that a joke name the dew drop in joke there are quite a few quite a few puns you know and there's also you know kind of fairly sexist one like the nag's head and quite often you will find not a picture of a horse but a picture of a scolding woman um there are quite a few of those cat and fiddle that is said to be a mangling of Catherine la Fidèle, Catherine the Faithful, a nickname for Catherine of Aragon, married to Henry VIII.

So there's so many kind of theories applied to different pub names and who knows the truth, but they are fascinating. There's the Pig and Whistle. The Case is Altered. That's another slightly strange one. The Case is Altered. Name of a pub. Yeah. That, again, is said to be a mangling of things. So not actually really anything to do with the case is altered. It could be a legal expression or it could be based on a pub in Harrow and a phrase imported from Spain during the Peninsular War.

And in Spanish, a casa de Salta was a house of dancing, but more than that, it was a house of ill repute. But lots and lots of things attached to that. We must mention as well, because I know we must get to the purple people's questions, which are brilliant, but all those pubs in the country that have had some fantastic event happen there

or some really hugely significant moment in history. You've got the Eagle in Cambridge where Crick and Watson made the first public announcement of DNA, the discovery of DNA. And they apparently said, we have discovered the secret of life. The Eagle and Child, which is near me in Oxford, which is a beautiful tiny pub on St Giles, that was home to the Inklings, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and many others who met, they were all writers and they met in the pub. And the conversations that took their, you know, they probably influenced the development of English literature in the 20th century. Can I interrupt you though, to ask about the name, The Eagle and The Eagle and Child? Why is that the name of a pub? The eagle and child?

Yeah. It's a great image. It is. I think it was the crest of the De Vere family, but it was said to go back to a legend that a newborn child was picked up by an eagle and raised in its nest. So obviously a myth,

but it's very much part of a sort of old myth which gave rise to the pub sign and the name. So the Eagle and Child of the Eagle. What about the Freemasons Arms? There's one in Covent Garden where I think, and I think I made a one-show film about this, the rules for football, association football, were conjured up in the 1860s at the Freemasons Arms in Covent Garden.

Oh, I didn't know this. Do we know what the oldest pub in England is supposed to be? No, you tell me. The pub, when I was in Nottingham not long ago, they told me that the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which is a pub in Nottingham, is the oldest. But I wasn't sure that it was because that would date back, the old trip to Jerusalem would date back to the Crusades going to Jerusalem, wouldn't it?

So that's the 1300s. Yes, but remember the pub names came in a little bit later. So, you know, a lot of the pub names were based on things that happened earlier. So it's quite possible. It's quite possible. But yes, I mean, I also would love to hear the Purple People's local pubs and, you know, maybe we can look into theirs as well.

If you are new to this show, the Purple People is you, the people who kindly listen. And we just call you the Purple People because the show is called Something Rides with Purple. You can communicate with us simply by emailing us purple at something else dot com. That's something without a G. So if you've got the name of the oldest pub in the land, or indeed in the world, because we have a lot of international listeners, we haven't touched on any pubs in India, in Asia, in Australasia. Let us know and we will try and cover that at a future date. Have we heard from anybody this week? In fact, I speak about a couple of people.

Are they in touch? Yeah, we've had a really lovely one, which is in keeping with today's theme, in fact, from Ross McKechnie. I hope I pronounced that right, Ross. Just started listening to the show, so happy that I found it. Well, we are too.

He says, I once heard that the origins of the phrase steaming for being drunk, as in steaming drunk, comes from Glasgow. When all the pubs were closed on a Sunday, the only place that was allowed to sell alcohol was the Waverley paddle steamer which sailed up and down the Clyde. Men would spend the afternoon on the boat and return home rather intoxicated to be greeted by their wives asking,

have you been steaming? Good Glasgow accent there. Well done. That's the good thing about you. There's no instinctive stereotype. You just can't do it, can you? Anyway. So Ross, as I was wondering if this origin is widely accepted, do you have any further insights? Well, I did look into this, Ross, and I looked in the OED, which you will know is in my absolute Bible. And steaming drunk

goes back to 1892. So what you're suggesting here was around that time so it's possible but the oed the oxford english dictionary says it's more likely to be an ex a sort of euphemism for a stronger expletive so you know you will say flaming drunk they think that steaming follows the same pattern but But who knows? I love theories like this because so often there are kind of, you know, catalysts for words and phrases that may never get into the dictionary, but which are sort of popularly generally acknowledged. We've been receiving lots of medical jargon, Susie, after our Doctor Doctor episode a couple of weeks ago. Helen, who is a doctor in Wales,

so you can now give us, having given us your excellent Glasgow, you can now give us your... Oh, that is actually a lot better. I love the Welsh accent. She's a doctor in Wales. She got in touch to tell us about Ward H. Ward Heaven or Hell for a patient who has passed. Oh, these are euphemisms.

I remember that. Oh, we've had to move her to Ward H, meaning Ward Heaven or Hell. I think I've heard 11th floor for that as well. Whatever, you know, if a hospital stops at the 10th floor, they'll say the 11th floor. They've gone downstairs, down to the morgue. Oh, yes, the patients are not going with us. No, they've gone downstairs, meaning they've been moved to the morgue. Oh, dear. Oh, I like this one. We need to go and see Mrs. Brown, meaning we need to go for a coffee.

So that's what one doctor says to the other. I think it's time we went to see Mrs. Brown. Don't you agree? Oh, yes, of course, doctor. We also have from Mary Jensen, who wrote in to say that the best ones they used to use were TAPS. This is an acronym for thick as pig shit. Oh. And write on a prescription for a placebo ADT capsules.

I like this. Any darned thing capsules. That's cool. So presumably recognised for pharmacists up and down the land. And we couldn't wrap up the Doctor Doctor section without a quick joke. You love these jokes. I do. This is from Sarah Hewitt Clarkson. Doctor Doctor, I can't say my Fs or my Ts. Well, says the doctor, you can't say fairer than that, Ben.

Oh, that's actually brilliant, isn't it? Oh, I love that. That is very good. That is good. I'm so lucky in my life. I've met so many interesting people. And we might do an episode in a few weeks' time about, we might do a name-dropping episode. And we can each talk about the-

Oh, my goodness, I won't be saying anything. No, you will be. You've met everybody. You've met everybody. I'm so not- Or rather, they've met you. So it's on the other foot. But I've met a lot of people. And one of the people I met when. Or rather, they've met you. So it's on the other foot. But I've met a lot of people.

And one of the people I met when I was young, who I really admired, was the actor James Robertson Justice. Now, why do I associate him? We're talking about doctors. In the Doctor films, he played Sir Lancelot Spratt. He was the huge doctor. This is a generation gap. There'll be people listening who know exactly what I'm talking about. And I was going to tell you the amusing story about him being the first man I ever saw totally naked. But since you haven't heard of him, and you're

not interested in name dropping, I won't bother. We'll move quickly on. Because you've had a lovely, well, actually, we both had a tweet. And you had a lovely email with a beautiful picture of a baby. Oh my goodness. Yes. Do you have it there? Well, I mean, we all cooed over this one, didn't we? It's Simon Wadsworth and he says, Dear Jasmine Susie, thank you for reading out my email a couple of weeks ago. So this is when he needed some recommendations for his about to be born for reading. Do you remember? I do. And we gave lots of our favourites. And he says, Emmy unfortunately didn't arrive on the Friday the 10th as per her due date.

She kept us waiting for another 14 days. Born on Friday the 24th at 11.26pm. Congratulations. And he's just sent us the cutest, cutest thing. And he's got the book, Julia Donaldson, Poems to Perform, which is amazing. That was one of the ones that I think her stories are amazing and she's chosen lots um so we were really chuffed by that thank you simon and i tell you what we we did say that we were going to carry on with dr

johnson oh you must have and um he also had the most brilliant quote to do with pubs, actually, because he talked very much about how important pubs were and the sort of local taverns. He says, there is nothing which has been yet contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. So we would love to hear about your pub names because we couldn't possibly cover all of them. Well, there you go. And my wife is a favourite Dr. Johnson quotation. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. So there we are. That's her consolation. So what are your trio of words this week? Well, I'm going to start with a word that is not in the dictionary yet, at least not in the dictionaries that we would think of as being the kind of standards, but it is in a gorgeous book written by John Koenig called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, in which

he tries to capture the really elusive emotions in life with a single word. And this one is Velichor, V-E-L-L-I-C-H-O-R. He describes it as the strange wistfulness of a used bookstore. But I would use it given that petrichor is the smell of rain on hot earth. I would use it for the smell, the indefinable but magical smell of old books, velichor. I love that one. Another one is, we're recording this on an extremely hot, beautiful day. So I am Umbryphilus, U-M-B-R-I-P-H-I-L-O-U-S. Umbryphilus, I suppose. And it means lover of shade. Shade loving.

It reminds me that an umbrella was originally designed to protect against the sun, not against the rain. And finally, if you want to take someone to the pub and they do good food, you are bedinnering them. So to bedinner is to take someone out for dinner. I do good food you are bedinnering them so to bedinner is to take someone out for dinner i just think it's short pithy and i love all those verbs with be at the beginning well one of the reasons i love those three words and you mentioned there the shade the umbrella it's interesting when english people meet and maybe scottish welsh and irish people too the first thing they talk about is the weather. The first person to observe that was Dr Johnson. Several hundred years ago, he said,

when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather. And so it is. Something Rise With Purple is a Something Else production. It was produced by Lawrence Bassett. It was additional production from Steve Ackerman, Harriet Wells, Grace Laker, Jay, who's looking on today. And we can't see him today. I'm a bit worried about this.

Are you there, Gully? Where is he? Are you there, Gully?