Something Rhymes with Purple - Grockle

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

It’s time to delve into the inbox once again and dedicate a whole episode to answering your queries that come in each week. A massive thank you to all you Purple People for keeping us on our toes�� if there’s something word-related that has been puzzling you then please do the same as Sammy, Dave, Cat, Rebecca and many more by emailing us at [e-mail]. They asked: where does the term ‘grockle’ come from? Why would someone be the ‘spitting image’ of another? All will be revealed as we hole up in ‘a/an hotel’ whilst telling ‘Jack Robinson’ to ‘sling his hook’… A Somethin’ Else Production. Susie’s Trio: Shackbaggerly - slovenly Causey-webs - a person who neglects his/her work to hang out on the street Whindling - putting on a voice to convince your boss you are ill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Amex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. Hello, my name is Giles Brandreth and I'm sitting in the sitting room of my friend... Susie Dent. We're here in Oxford and we're going to give you a podcast all about words. We call it Something Rhymes With Purple because, as you'll probably know by now, but you won't if you're new to this, something does rhyme with purple. It's the word... Well, there's another one.

Oh, no. So the one that we've been talking about is herple, which is to walk with a limp. But there is also kerple, which is a Scots word, and it simply means your buttocks. It's usually the rump of a horse, to be honest. But yeah, your buttocks. And then also it can be the leather loop passing under a horse's tail and buckled to the saddle. So we should really be calling the podcast Lots Rhymes with Purple, but we're not. Some things rhyme with purple. Today we're going to be dealing with your emails and your queries and your tweets and messages to us. One of my New Year resolutions was to try to relax about emails.

New Year resolutions was to try to relax about emails. I love getting the emails here because they're all on a subject and we've got a time to answer them. But overall, I'm a bit overwhelmed by emails and I'm not good at replying to them either promptly or at all. I try, but I'm thinking perhaps I shouldn't, not to these ones, but the ones I get personally. I've got things to do, like you, Susie. I've got books to write, TV series to film, shows to plan, a tour to deliver. Yeah. And I'm reminded of something that my hero, Oscar Wilde, said. Because, as you know, I'm the president of the Oscar Wilde Society. He said when he was the editor of the magazine The Woman's World,

had been called The Lady's World. He changed the title to The Woman's World when he became called The Lady's World. He changed the title to The Woman's World when he became the editor. And this is what he said. I have known men come to London full of bright prospects and seen them complete wrecks in a few months through a habit of answering letters. There you go. It can be oppressive. It's not just new technology. It's been there forever. It has been there forever. But the letters we've received, we're very pleased to have received because they are to the point. They are to the point.

Who have we heard from and what about? I would just say that quite often we don't always read the bits where people say they're enjoying the podcast because it seems a bit self-congratulatory. But they do mean a lot, those messages, the fact that you're enjoying the podcast. You also sometimes say that there are things that you find annoying. Please keep going with that. We are more insecure than you realize. Susie, you probably realize that Susie thinks she's insecure.

I'm actually even more insecure than Susie, but I don't seem to be. Are you? Oh yeah, I'm terribly insecure. No, I'm terribly insecure. And I'm also very nervous before a performance. You know, I earn most of my living. But that's good.

I mean, that's been proven that the adrenaline is helpful. Yes. Ah. Yes. I think it's when you go on and you're very blasé that it's... Oh, fine. Yeah. Because I do, as you know, a lot of speaking, public speaking and after dinner speaking

and hosting award ceremonies. And I was doing one the other night and I thought, oh, I've been doing this for literally half a century. Why is my tummy churning? Why have I got the butterflies? Why have I had to go out to the loo at the last minute? This is ridiculous. You've got to grow up.

No, no, I think it's good. I still feel the adrenaline in the nerves when the countdown clock starts ticking after all this time. So I think that's a good thing. But this is a whole episode that is dedicated to our purple people's questions. I hope I've said that correctly. Right from around the world,

which is just so nice to get an email from somebody who's on the other side of the globe and is managing to listen. So thank you. Should we kick off? Kick off. Okay. This one is from Sammy Cox. Hi, Susie and Giles. I know Giles hates preamble. That's a good word. But I have to start my very first email to you with, I'm loving the Purple podcast. Thank you very much, Sammy. When I was young, about the mid-late 1980s, my parents moved our family from London to Poole in Dorset. Dad used to talk about the grockles that descended en masse upon the town and surrounding every area every summer. I wondered, perhaps, is it a word that we brought from the London area with us or is it used nationally? Do you know about grockles? I've heard the expression, he was a grockle. Yes. And I don't think it's a very

flattering word, but I don't know the origins or anything about it. I have family in Devon, and they are always talking about the grockles in the summertime. Now, if you look up in the OED, which I have just done, it will tell you that the origin is unknown, which is very annoying because we're not completely sure where it comes from. There was a radio show, I think, which featured the Grockles. There was a comic as well. I know that in Cornwall, Grockles are called emmets, which comes from a dialect word for ants.

But it was an invented word in a children's comic, which was then popularised, I think, by a film called The System in the 60s. So it's quite old, but quite, well, it might be like Nerd. We talked the other day about Nerd being a word coined by Dr. Seuss. Grockle, it sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Grockle. But why it was then turned against tourists, I'm not sure. But Grockles and Emmets, you certainly haven't made it up, Sammy. It's used very much, certainly in Southern Britain, I think. I'm not sure about up North. Any purple people from other areas within Britain or, you know, anywhere in the world, please let us know what you call tourists. Let's face it, there's a

bit of a lexicon of insults for tourists, isn't there? Dave McCartney has been in touch. Hi, Susie and Jaz. My wife and I both love listening to your excellent podcast and have a couple of questions for you. First, when we hear someone say, that bloke is the spit of Giles Brandreth, poor thing. We know spit comes from spitting image. Yeah. But where does spitting image come from? Well, this is the point where Giles will tell us that there was a puppet in a very famous political satire, a programme which was just brilliant. When was its fitting image?

Eighties? Eighties and nineties. And this was when you were in Parliament, wasn't it? It was. Fluck and Law were the people who created it. That's it. We talked about this on the show before. And do you actually have your puppet?

Did you buy it in the end? I didn't buy it. It went for much more money. I was going to buy it if it was knocked down for 100 quid. Yeah. But it went for hundreds. Mrs Thatcher, of course, went for tens more money. I was going to buy it if it was knocked down for 100 quid. Yeah. But it went for hundreds. Mrs. Thatcher, of course, went for tens of thousands. Yeah.

Can you imagine that? I have in my room, in my office, I have a really spooky, sinister piñata made in my image. And she's absolutely terrifying. I'll show you afterwards. It manages to keep people out of my office. But she doesn't look very good. And she was used on the 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, the comedy show. I collect lots of props from that programme. It kind of reminds me of a spitting image puppet. But where

it comes from, it was originally, and we're talking 19th century here, the spit and image, which then the more people said it and the more quickly they said it sounded like spitting image spitting image but why we can see what an image is that means exactly like but where does the spit element is the idea you are so like someone else it's as if you've been spat out of their mouth which is quite strange or spat out of your father's mouth for example that was the idea i think one of the reasons i didn't want to have the spitting image in my house too is i would find it a bit eerie. I don't... Yeah, they are quite creepy.

You said the other day you don't like dolls. I've known over the years a number of ventriloquists. Yeah. I used to know Ray Allen, who had a ventriloquist doll called Lord Charles. And you went to visit Ray and Lord Charles would greet you from the corner of the room. Ray was nowhere near him, but he managed to throw his voice and Lord Charles would speak to you. And there are people who do keep dolls. In fact, you and I, you mentioned nine out of 10 cats does countdown. Eight out of 10 cats. Yes. Inflation. Cats down, cats down. Cats down, that's what it's called, which is a Channel 4 programme. We both do Channel 4 programmes. I'm doing a series about canals for Channel 4 and I've done Gogglebox, as you know. So I'm doing a series about canals for Channel 4 and I've done Gogglebox, as you know.

So I'm tuned to Channel 4. And the other day I turned on and there was a programme on Channel 4 about a man and his collection of sex dolls. And he had all these sex dolls and people, apparently there's a boom in them and they are now AI, they're sort of animated. So that's why I don't have any sex dolls at home,

animated or otherwise, nor any spitting image puppets. Nor me. Just on the ventriloquist thing, it reminds me of the fantastic film with Anthony Hopkins in it called Magic, one of the scariest films I've ever seen. But do you know where ventriloquist comes from? Vent being the stomach. Ventry, yes.

So it's speaking from the stomach because the first ventriloquists were not people who could throw their voices, but they were people in whom was thought to reside an evil spirit. So they were said to be possessed by a demon, which would then speak from its stomach, from their stomach in this sort of horrible, scary voice. Right back to Greek and Roman times. When I was a child, on the radio, there was a ventriloquist who had a dummy called Archie Andrews. How does he work on the radio? Exactly. He was brilliant on the radio. I then was taken to see him in the flesh.

And his lips moved all the time. Because of course, it's easy to do on the radio. Absolutely. How strange. Right. Who else has been in touch? Quick one here, because we do get asked this quite a lot, and we have covered it before in an episode called Tosspot, I think. But we've been asked by Jenny Drummey about flammable versus inflammable. And essentially the in in this is simply an intensifier. It's usually used as a negator.

So inexpensive means not expensive, etc. But it's simply an intensifier. So inflamm inexpensive means not expensive, etc. But it's simply an intensifier. So, inflammable means very flammable. But because of the confusion, I think highly flammable is now being used and you will rarely find inflammable on anything these days. Jenny is writing to us from Fairfax, Virginia, which I imagine is in the United States of America, an American state. And I'm struck by it because years ago I went to see a wonderful play starring Eileen Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave about Virginia Woolf, the English novelist, and her friend Vita Sackville-West.

And it's a serious play. And I remember sitting in the stalls and behind me were two very unhappy Americans who were not enjoying this show at all, this show, Virginia, where were the songs they kept muttering. They were really disappointed. Just two women up there just talking, two women talking. And it became clear during the interval when I engaged these couple in conversation that they had come to see this show called Virginia because they assumed it would be a sequel to Oklahoma. Oh, amazing. Fantastic. This one from Christopher Harris, who says, One reference that has always puzzled me is the use of patsy to describe someone as a fall guy. Most notably, Lee Harvey Oswald always maintained he was a patsy shortly after his arrest

in the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippett. I can't find any reference as to whom Patsy may originally have been. Well, thanks, Christopher. Again, one of our etymological mysteries, because we're not completely sure, quite often names are used generically for a particular thing. Robin, famously for the devil or for goblins as in Robin Goodfellow or Hobgoblin, Hob being a nickname for Robin. Patrick is almost certainly at the heart here of Patsy, but quite why we don't know. I mean, you will find Patrick in the now, I guess it's insulting to call an Irishman a paddy, but certainly that was obviously a riff on Patrick there. But there is, I think Christopher mentioned that there is a possible Italian origin suggested online,

and that's right, it may be associated with the Italian pazzo or pazzo, meaning crazy. But I think the OED thinks it's almost certainly a riff on Patrick, but why? We don't know. Good. So more work to be done on that. Yeah, always. And more work to be done on condoms. Oh, now I was thinking about condoms this week. Right. Because I've been introducing my grandchildren to a television series called

The Thin Blue Line. Do you remember this television series written by Ben Elton? No. With a wonderful cast led by Rowan Atkinson. It's set in a police station. It's hilarious. And The Thin Blue Line is the line that separates the police and civilians, right? I think that was the idea. That's the idea. Yeah. Thin blue line. It's hilarious.

And I love it. I know Ben Elton. I think he's a bit of a genius. In fact, I've just been to see, and I recommend, if you're anywhere near London and can get tickets, going to see his Upstart Crow, which is all about Shakespeare, starring David Mitchell. It's sensational. He is amazing. At the Gielgud Theatre in London.

David Mitchell's on Cats down. Ben Elton, plug over. Thin Blue Line is wonderful. The episode we watched last week with my grandchildren had a joke in it about the then commissioner of police who was called Condon. And there was a confusion about, you know, the police commissioner called Condon. And there was a confusion about, you know, the police commissioner called Condon. Was it the same word as condon? Which had me having to explain to my grandchildren what the joke was.

Okay. How did it go? Enough granddad humiliation. Right. I mean, if you've seen... Because they knew it all already. If you've seen a granddad dancing, I can tell you, a granddad explaining a condom to grandchildren is even more embarrassing.

I can well imagine. So what is Kat Miller writing to us about? Without wanting to sound deliberately provocative, Kat says, I once heard there's not really any history of the word condom and nobody really knows where it's from. I obviously tried to look it up and completely failed to find any info. It's been irritating that ever since. Thanks, Kat.

It is unknown. I wish I could say where it comes from. I'm being a bit of a party pooper in this episode. Most people who want to find the etymological beginnings of condom say that it's from a physician called Monsieur Condom. But we have not been able to trace any doctor who was the inventor of the sheath, as it was called. It's from 1706, though,

so it's not a new thing. It's a sheath, that's the word. Yes, see, that's another example of a man's name. I was talking to my grandchildren. Rubber Johnny. That's another, you know, why Johnny? No one knows. That sounds like talking to my grandchildren. Sorry. Rubber Johnny. That's another, you know, why Johnny?

No one knows. Ah, that sounds like a song, doesn't it? Rubber Johnny. Be my rubber Johnny. Only in your head, Charles. Right. Have you got any more? You've been a bit of a party pooper so far.

After the break, you can tell us the origin of party pooper before Rebecca Holt inquires on the expression, sling your hook. We're going to sling our hook now while we have our break. Okay. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic.

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Now this comes from a shirt that I bought him that I know he doesn't like. So I'm testing him by... This is brilliant. Yeah, by finding out when he discovers that the shirt has got a big patch out of the back of it. Wow, and which area

of the shirt is this taken from? Bottom right. Okay. Listen now in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all good podcast apps. Welcome back, Purple listeners. We are endeavouring to answer your questions, although so far I've had to say that we're not completely sure about the origins of many of the words and phrases that you're sending into us. But I've still enjoyed the digging and the archaeology of it.

I've given you an easy one. Party pooper. You use the phrase about yourself. Yes. You and Lawrence, our producer, actually both correctly guessed that it might come from the 1940s. And it does. So first record is from a gazette from Iowa that was an American in origin where it is simply a killjoy as it is now and the poop bit might be a riff on nincompoop and nincompoop doesn't come from non-composmentis

which a lot of people think it um we don't again we don't know but it might be a riff on a french word nicodem which meant a simple or naive person. And the poop bit, again, there was a noddy poop as well for somebody who just nodded and didn't really know what they were talking about. And nicodem is related to Nicodemus? Nicodemus, exactly right. Who is a biblical figure? Exactly. Probably simple and naive. I don't know my Bible well enough. Secret or timid adherent. A nicodem was used for a Protestant living in a Catholic country who concealed his or her faith to escape persecution. So somebody timid and then from then on was seen as being slightly foolish.

And I think I've said to you that nice originally meant ignorant. It comes from the Latin nescius. The cius bit is linked to science, which is all about knowledge. So it was somebody who didn't know. Originally, it was somebody who was so humble, they didn't have that knowledge and then nice with it. That is nice in the sense of likeable. What about nice in the sense of precise?

Yeah. A nice distinction, a precise distinction. Yeah. Do you know what? It's so strange, the word nice. I mean, more than almost any other word I can think of, it has changed faces throughout the centuries. So first of all, it meant foolish or silly, ignorant. Then it meant lascivious, lecherous. Then it meant extravagant of dress. And then it

meant elegant of dress. And because of elegant, it meant refined. And that's where you'll get the refined distinction, the nice distinction there. And then somehow that came to be a reflection of good character very weird but if you trace it through in the oxford English dictionary you will get completely lost and eventually it became nice one of my favorite biscuits that lovely nice nice biscuit but it's kind of damning with faint praise if you say that's a nice dress depends how you say it yeah that's quite nice I think in America maybe it's more generous oh that's a nice dress yes that's quite nice. I think in America, maybe it's more generous. Oh, that's a nice dress. Yes. As quite in America means very.

It does. Whereas over here, it modifies. Whereas over there, it amplifies. Absolutely. Sling your hook, Susie. Yeah. There's a letter here from Rebecca Holt. She says,

Dear Susie and Giles, I love Something Rhymes with Pebbles so, so much. And we love you, Rebecca Holt. We're thrilled that you're reading so many, you're reaching so many ears all around the planet and not at all surprised. You are all brilliant. You're not supposed to read that bit.

We are supposed to read that. The all bit, that's including Lawrence and maybe even Gully. Anyway, I'd like to know the origin of the phrase sling your hook. I'm sorry, it's a little unpleasant, but curious to- Oh, it's not. No, it's not. No, no, it's just nautical phrase where your hook is your hook. I'm sorry, it's a little unpleasant, but curious to... Oh, it's not. No, it's not.

Oh, is it not? No, no, it's just nautical phrase where your hook is your anchor. So if you sling your hook, you pull up the anchor and you get on your way. Ah, people do now set, you know, get out, sling your hook. Yes, yes. It's just basically get out of the way. But that's... And quite often on the seas, if you slung your hook, is that the right past tense?

Then you would go off in a hurry. Have we yet done a complete nautical episode? Because we could go down to the docks, you and I. Yes. And we could, couldn't we? By and large. There's so many. Oh, it's just, yeah, ridiculous. Ship shape, Bristol fashion.

Yes. The C has given us so many words, but sling your hook is one of them. So thank you, Rebecca Holt. Angela Larkham has written in, replying to our request for grammar anomalies. Am I correct in saying that it is an hotel, not a hotel? I was taught that, but my husband says I'm wrong. Well, to save you going to the relate meeting, Angela, to get this sorted out between you and your husband,

I have written a book called Have You Eaten Grandma? And it's essentially about the life-saving importance of correct punctuation, grammar, and good English. And this is one of the issues that I've dealt with in the book because it concerns a lot of people. Should it be a hotel or an hotel? Many people believe they should use the indefinite article an instead of a and speak of an hotel or an historic event. They are wrong. We use an in front of a spoken vowel sound regardless of spelling. So it's an animal, an orange, an idea. And because the h is silent in an air, as in air to the throne, an hour, an hour of time, an honour, to receive an honour, where the H is pronounced, we use an A. So it's a house, a hippopotamus, a hare.

Do you know why the confusion came about, though? I do. OK. Well, but you tell me and I'll tell you if I think we've... Well, essentially, it used to be an hotel and it used to be an hospital. And because of that, that's where people put the N on because it was a silent vowel, not a spoken one as it is today. In the 18th century, pronunciation was different and people pronounced hotel, hotel, going down to hotel.

And that's where we get the H from rather than the H, but the H, of course, is coming back as a pronunciation of H and really gets on people's nerves. I get lots of letters about that. Yeah, it does, doesn't it? But it's all circular. So it's a hotel, a historic event, a horrific happening. They are correct today.

Yeah. So I hope that is resolved, the difficulties in your marriage. Do feel free. We do provide a counselling service. Do we? Oh, yeah. Oh, the difficulties in your marriage. Do feel free. We do provide a counselling service. Do we? Yeah. Oh, well, my wife does. She'll sort them out.

Listen to your wife. That's the essence of our counselling service. So there we are, husband. Listen to your wife. But in this instance, your husband's right and you're wrong. I now have an email from Craig Roberts. Now, Craig is a real friend of Countdown. I know I've mentioned him before on the show. He listens to us every week. And he and his beautiful guide dog, Bruce, come into the Countdown studios frequently. I think you've met Craig, G the same as the H in ghost. The H in ghost famously put there by a Flemish typesetter who worked for William Caxton, who didn't like the look of our old English word

and then lobbed an H in to make it look more Flemish. And the answer, Craig, hello, was that no, it's been there from the start. It's thought to come from a Greek word for the name of the river Volga on whose banks rhubarb grew. And that was R-H-A. That was the Greek for rhubarb. So the H has always been there. Oh, I like that. I have another great one here. Good. And I'm touching on all the mysteries that word detectives are faced with. This one about Jack Robinson. This is from Catherine Banbury. I'm curious about the phrase, quicker than you can

say, Jack Robinson. Who was he? I'm from Lancashire, but do other counties have their own Jack Robinson? Oh, so many theories about this one. And we've been puzzling over it for centuries. So Francis Grose, who wrote a dictionary in the 18th century, around the same time as Samuel Johnson was collecting his, he defines it as a reference to an individual whose social visits were so short that he would be leaving almost before his arrival was announced. That's what was his theory. My favourite theory, and there are at least 10 of them, is that it was a reference to Sir John, nicknamed Jack Robinson, who was the constable of the Tower of London in the 17th century. He, at the same time, was a judge in the nearby city

of London, and he could condemn a felon in the city, transport him to the tower where he commanded the execution so quickly it would be faster than you can say Jack Robinson. So a little bit dark, that one, but that's one of the theories out there. The question you have to ask is, why did it take 100 years for the phrase then to become embedded in the language? You know, but who knows? It's a fascinating story. But we, like Monsieur Condom, we will not probably ever find out who the original Jack Robinson was. Well, Jack Ramey has been in touch from Baltimore in Maryland. He heard us refer to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the other day. Well, Merriam-Webster have come up with a list of 10 words that they say are uniquely English.

These are words that have not made it to America. Oh, can I try one of them? You try one of them. And Jack is telling us that he listens in Baltimore, Maryland. He understands everything we... I like the way you say Maryland, because that's how it's pronounced, isn't it? Maryland. He understands everything we say I like the way you say Maryland because that's how it's pronounced, isn't it? Maryland. Everything. He understands everything we say. And he wonders...

Apart from... Oh. Well, and he wonders whether we know what the words might be on this list. Can I have a guess? Yes. I'm going to try Wally and Boffin. Boffin is there in the list at number nine. Okay. Wally isn't, but he's only given me the top 10. Okay.

I'll give you the top 10, shall I? Yeah. Pratt. That comes from the bottom. A single but it was called a Pratt the top 10. Okay. I'll give you the top 10, shall I? Yeah. Prat. That comes from the bottom. A single but it was called a prat. Whinge. Nice. They don't whinge in America.

Isn't that interesting? Well, they do, but not that word. They don't call it that. Knackered, which sounds like an American word, apparently is uniquely English. Oh, very English. Goes back to old horses. Yeah.

Jiggery-pokery. Oh, yes. That's from a Latin phrase that was recounted by magicians, a bit like hocus-pocus. So it was a Latin tag that they used. Plonk, as in cheap wine, not as to plonk something. They are plonking things down. Yeah.

They don't have plonk meaning cheap wine. That's from Van Blon. Chunter. Yeah, I don't know where that one comes from. Something that is twee. They don't have the word twee in America. Gormless, they don't have. Gormless, we see that came from the Vikings, remember? Something that is twee. They don't have the word twee in America. Gormless, they don't have. Gormless. We see that came from the Vikings. Remember, full of gorm.

So you can be full of gorm. You can be gorm-like, which is to have an intelligent look about you. And if you gormed in, I don't know, 13th century, you took great heed of what was going on around you. So if you were gormless, you didn't have a clue. Number nine in Jack's list is boffin, which you guessed. And number 10 is pucker, which I think of as an Indian word. Ah, well, pucker is

in P-U-K-K-A. Yeah, it was brought back by soldiers returning to Blighty after Imperial rule. So it's interesting it's not gone over that. You know, our listeners

would be impressed if they could see you because all of that, all those answers came fresh from your head. Sometimes you do have to look things up. I do. There you weren't.

You were just riffing. Where's riffing come from? I was riffing. Yeah, riffing on a guitar. I'm not sure we know the answer to that. See, I don't know everything. I didn't mention twee. That's just Charles' pronunciation of sweet.

Thank you, Jack. Thank you, everybody, for getting in touch. Do keep in touch. It's purple at somethingelse.com. We can't answer every question, but we do try our best. And we may, a few weeks from now, have another episode where we try to catch up with all your queries. Yes, please do keep coming. We always have three, a trio of words from you that we may not know that you would like to recommend to us.

And I often dip into the wonderful English dialect dictionary because there's some real gems in there. And I love this one because quite recently I mentioned the word cover slut. And a cover slut was an apron or a pinafore centuries ago, which you put on to hide a tear or a stain in the garment underneath. Don't we all do that? and i think you would do this if you were shack baggily shack baggily means left in a loose disorderly manner or slovenly shack bag you're looking a bit shack baggily there charles i love that one um that's my first second one is causey webs causey just being a dialect word for the causeway or the pathorsiwebs is a person who neglects his or her work and is too much on the street. Yeah. So to make Corsiwebs is to basically go and hang out on the street rather than the office. And the third one, possibly related to work as well. If you've ever kind of called up

your boss when you just fancy a duvet day and you do that kind of feigned groaning because you have humdudgeon, being an imaginary illness, then you're windling. Another one from the dialectic for me. Stop windling. What kind of world do you live in where people have duvet days? Oh, I long for duvet days. I don't have them very often. It's just where you just watch a good film, read a good book.

I couldn't bear it. I don't think I've ever, unless I've been ill, stayed in bed all day. I would find it so awesome. No, I'm the same. I don't think I've had a duvet day for a book. I couldn't bear it. I don't think I've ever, unless I've been ill, stayed in bed all day. I would find it so awesome. No, I'm the same. I don't think I've had a duvet day for a decade. And of course, when I was a child, we didn't have duvets. No, what would you have had?

We had sheets and blankets. Okay. And you know, the Prince of Wales still has sheets and blankets. Well, I think most posh people do, don't they? I don't know. I don't know that many posh people, but I do. Do you have a duvet now? I do have a duvet.

But I haven't had a duvet for years. You remember, I was born in Germany, went to the French Lycée. So I've been a duvet aware since the 1950s. Okay. But we hope some of you may be listening to this tucked up in bed. Yes, snorkeling away. Beneath your sheets and blankets. Yes.

I'm going to share my quotation with you this week. Please do. It's from Satchel Paige. Paige's six rules of life guaranteed to bring anyone to a happy old age. One, avoid fried foods that angry up the blood. Two, if your stomach antagonizes you, pacify it with cool thoughts. Three, keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. Four, go very lightly on the vices, such as carrying on in society as the social ramble ain't restful. Five, avoid running at all times. Six, don't look back.

Something might be gaining on you. Oh, yes. That's quite sinister, actually. Also, I don't know how you can jangle quietly, but I like the idea. It'm jangling. It's that kind of jaunty. I'm jangling. You're trying to dance. Remember, he was a great baseball player. Picture him, the great Satchel Paige. Yeah. My hero.

Oh, it's time to say that it's the end. Please don't forget to give us a nice review if you've enjoyed today, of course, or recommend us to a friend. And if you have a question you'd like us to answer or just like to get in touch, you can email us at purple at something else dot com. Something Rhymes with Purple is a Something Else production produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production from Steve Ackerman and Gully. Nice.