Word-play

It's an accepted fact (I think) that families develop a sort of language of their own.  Certain words or phrases take on meanings that are different from normal and peculiar to the family members.  Sometimes completely new words are introduced, often out of what a toddler has said when trying to emulate the adult sounds that surround its growing up.

The same is true of other groups than families, and the phenomenon also includes sayings that are particularly common, or over-used in the group, and - in my experience, at least - word games not found anywhere other than in that office.

A format that I sometimes use fits into this general spectrum.  I will say, "Words like ...... and ...... come to mind!", filling the gaps with two or three words from a familiar phrase, saying or proverb that is well-known, and leaving my listener to understand the full significance of my remark by recognising the whole expression from my clues.

An example of this bounced back at me this week, when someone asked me, "hoist and petard?".  I recognised the full expression, and had to agree that the occurrence I had just related was a consequence of my own comment some while previously.

A few months ago, I had agreed to deliver some political leaflets in the roads near my home.  Thinking that the untidiness of the way they had been folded detracted from the message they carried, I commented about this to the person who had brought them to me and offered, should another occasion arise, to fold them myself.

Weeks passed, and more leaflets needed to be delivered.  A boxful appeared and, after taking out sufficient for my requirements, I folded the rest to be collected a few days later, and then folded and delivered my own.  Last weekend found me briefly helping to man a street stall, after which I brought home a box of 2,000 leaflets, which I folded over the weekend.  When they were collected on Monday, another, smaller box replaced them on my floor, which are now folded and ready to move on next week.

It did sound as if I were bemoaning the loss of some of my free time this week but that was not the case. It was a simple task in what I hold to be a good cause, the execution of which was in some ways therapeutic.

I hope my readers will agree that it has provided a lighter alternative topic for this blog than the terrible events of Monday evening that have dominated the week's headlines.  While a matter for much thought, prayer and sympathy, there is a limit to what more can be written about them.