Some actors fall from grace. Others just fall, literally, falling from the stage. Sir Ian McKellen, playing Falstaff in a performance at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, was carried away in a fight scene and fell off the front of the stage, a dangerous thing to do when you are 85! The audience was sent home. Yesterday evening’s performance was cancelled so he could rest and recuperate but he’s expected back on stage, possibly today. He’s lucky he didn’t break some bones. What a trooper!
Here are some Olde English words, courtesy of a friend of mine, a retired teacher of English:
“Sennight” - a week, made up,of course, of seven nights. Think of Spanish “semana”, Italian “settemana”, even French “semaine” all contractions of “seven mornings”.
“Yestreen” - last evening - to go with “yesterday”.
“Ere yesterday” - the day before yesterday. We need to resurrect that word. The French have “avant hier”, and the Spanish have “anteayer”.
“Overmorrow” - the day after tomorrow. Another useful word. And again, the French have “après-demain”, and the Spanish have “pasado mañana”.
We do still have “fortnight” for two weeks or fourteen nights. Isn’t language fascinating?
Technology is amazing. I was reading about “smart doorbells”, which allow you to see who is ringing the bell and decide whether or not you fancy opening the door. Or you can talk to the caller without even bothering to open the door. For example: “Danny Chambers, a Liberal Democrat candidate in Winchester, said there were benefits to smart doorbells for canvassers, including not just being able to talk to someone when they’re in the next room but when they are 1,000 miles away.
“I knocked on this door a few weeks ago but got no response. I tried their Ring doorbell and the man who lived there answered.” Chambers said he engaged the man in small talk, asking where he was, thinking he was perhaps just in the next room or sitting in his back garden. “He wasn’t even just out of the house, he was out of the country. He was sitting on a beach in Spain. He called his wife over and they both chatted to me for five minutes. They were lovely, and I think I got their vote.”
I suppose that this long distance feature would let you pretend to be at home when you’re not, preventing potential burglars from being aware that you are thousands of miles away. This assumes, of course, that you don’t mind having your holiday disturbed by ringing doorbells.
Here’s another example of the benefits of such doorbells for election canvassers:
“After a day of campaigning for Labour around Hertfordshire, Alistair Strathern went through his emails and found a message from a resident of Bendish, a village with a population of just 57.
The sender wrote that they had moved to Bendish in 2017, and in the time since had not had anyone campaigning in elections ever knock on their door. They said they had just missed Strathern when he knocked but after reviewing their Ring footage they had seen it was him, red leaflets in hand.
The resident did not ask him for his policies or what he could do for them personally, they just wanted him to know how much it meant to them that he had bothered to try to speak to them, or even venture to their small village when it seems everybody else had forgotten.
“In the seven years I’ve lived here, no candidate has ever visited. So thank you, it’s REALLY appreciated. You will have my vote.””
It’s not always positive, however, as Lib Dem Danny Chambers relates:
“one of his fellow Lib Dem campaigners knocking on a door and being asked to present his rosette to the camera. Upon seeing the yellow on his lapel, the campaigner said the resident proceeded to hurl abuse at him for the best part of 10 minutes, all from the comfort of his sofa.”
On the subject of the election campaign, according to this article, independent candidates are targeting specific MPs who have ideas opposed to theirs. The specific example is MPs who supported decriminalisation of abortion, a move to prevent women from being prosecuted, even going to prison, for being suspected of having an illegal abortion. This motion, by the way, was not voted on as the general election was called. Anti-abortion campaigners have led to MPs such as Stella Creasy seeking police protection. Such is the modern world - violent threats against people whose opinions you disagree with!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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