“Monoclo” fashion. A language question. M&S. Tolerance and understanding.

 Headline - to a fashion article, of course:-

Bored of your wardrobe? Try wearing one colour at a time

I skimmmed fhe article and discovered that the term the fashionistas use for wearing just one colour at a time is “monoclo”. Who knew? Apparently if you wear a blue jumper, for example, with black trousers, the jumper is just blue. However, if you wear it with a blue shirt, blue trousers, blue socks and blue shoes then you notice the subtle differences in the shades of blue. One of the fashionistas tried it out in the office, asking everyone to dress in “monoclo” and ending up, of course, with a much brighter office than usual. How well would that go down in a more conventional office than one inhabited by fashionistas? I wonder. 

Having teamed a grey skirt with a grey jumper this morning, I suddenly felt quite trendy. Not quite “monoclo”, however, as my tights are not grey and I have a contrasting scarf around my neck.mOn reflection, though, I think I must be well ahead of trend because I frequently dress “monoclo”: for example, purple tights, purple skirt, purple jumper, scarf in shades of purple, even purple shoes and a purple bag - each item a different shade of purple! I can even make the ear rings match! Not for nothing am I known as the co-ordination queen within the family!!

The headline niggled at me though. “Bored of your wardrobe?” I keep hearing “bored of” and it never sounds quite right. I want to say “bored with”. So I went to the internet and asked: Is it "bored of," or "bored with"?

This is what Professor Internet replied:

“Which of these expressions should you use: is one of them less acceptable than the others?

Do you ever get bored with eating out all the time?

Delegates were bored by the lectures.

He grew bored of his day job.

The first two constructions, bored with and bored by, are the standard ones. The third, bored of, is more recent than the other two, and it’s become extremely common. In fact, the Oxford English Corpus contains almost twice as many instances of bored of than bored by. It represents a perfectly logical development of the language, and was probably formed on the pattern of expressions such as tired of or weary of. Nevertheless, some people dislike it, and it’s not fully accepted in standard English. It’s best to avoid using it in formal writing.”

There you go. It’s not just me. I think it might be an Americanism!

I saw a post on social media about Marks and Spencer closing its Paris stores, probably yesterday. The person posting said: “We’ll miss them. They tried their best, but had no chance faced with Johnson’s determination to stop UK firms importing food into the world’s biggest single market …” 

I already knew M&S were pulling out of France. I never quite understood how they managed to sell English triangular packaged sandwiches to the French but I half expected them to keep their underwear departments open. For as long as I can remember, going back to a time when M&S clothes were labelled St. Michael, French friends have loved M&S undies. Imagine a French moue, not a pout but a moue, on the face of someone saying, with a French accent, of course, “Whenever I go to England I ‘ave to go to Marks and Spencer to buy some knickers. Zey ‘ave ze best knickers!”

They will be missed, I suppose, especially as travel is more difficult these days. 

On a more serious note, this is from the Forum for EU Citizens on Facebook, a forum where people share experiences of getting settled status and ask questions about related issues:

“Hi all, apologies if this is a bit off topic, I just wonder if anyone else has come across this before... I'm an EU citizen, I've been a freelance interpreter in the NHS for almost 7 years, today I was helping a patient book a (telephone) appointment with a doctor after seeing a nurse, they wanted to request an interpreter and the lady at reception said the law is that "anyone who has been in the UK for longer than 3 years can no longer ask for an interpreter as they should speak the language". She was nice enough to book one anyway, but she said going forward this option is no longer there for patients under these circumstances. Has anyone heard anything about this? Is this new or has this always been the case, but perhaps not enforced? My quick Google search didn't yield any answers so I thought I'd ask here! :)

So not only do some people in this country take pride in not speaking any foreign language, but now it is perfectly okay to be intolerant and unhelpful to people who don’t speak English well. Yes, if you have lived in a country for three years, you might be expected to have learnt the language but not everyone is gifted that way. And surely it depends on the circumstances in which you live. How many English people have lived for years on the Costa del Sol and still speak little or no Spanish? What has happened to my country?

There’s more. Here’s something from Zarah Sultana MP:

“In Parliament, I just asked Jacob Rees-Mogg how he sleeps at night knowing that cutting Universal credit will rob £1040 a year from 6 million families. 

His reply? “Things have to be paid for. There are limited resources.”

So let’s start by taxing him and his super-rich mates.”

Enough said. 

And finally, an extract from an article about the police:

“Police will have to work hard to rebuild public confidence after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, a minister has said, as Scotland Yard said people stopped by a lone plainclothes officer should challenge their legitimacy and could try “waving a bus down” to escape a person they believe is pretending to be police.”

I don’t know who the minister in question is but he, or she, has clearly never tried to “wave a bus down” in recent years. Even if he’s stopped at the junction, yards from the bus stop you failed to reach in time, a bus driver will usually tell you he’s not allowed to open his doors between stops! Out of date or out of touch, Mr Minister! 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!