Canny lass

It's that Little Word 'for' that makes it confusing Foxy. It's a politicians favourite because it has so many different meanings. That makes it easy for them to wriggle out of things when the going gets tough. That sentence can be read in several different ways. What they want the reader to read is: Labour has delivered, is delivering and will continue to deliver to the benefit of Bedlington. What the reader should read is: Labour has delivered, is delivering and will continue to deliver on behalf of Bedlington. The failure to use the direct- and indirect objects (what's being delivered and to whom) only adds to the confusion. If we now add those the sentence could read: Labour has delivered, is delivering and will continue to deliver, on behalf of Bedlington, all Money intended for Bedlington (direct object), to the people of Ashington (indirect object). Isn't syntax wonderful! Just imagine what could happen if they learned to use the Word to!

If you find it fascinating you'll love a recent book by Barry Hobson Latrinae et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World. There you'll also find that single toilets were not at all uncommon in Roman times. The Word latrinae means just 'single toilet' while foricae is the latin Word for the multi-seaters - as Hobson calls them. Single toilets abound in roman ruins even today (probably because they were built like brick sh*t houses).

Have you been at that Sherry again Maggie!

Netty may not be native to Northumberland. I've Heard it used in both Yorkshire and Wales - but there can be lots of explanations for that. When we try to decipher the meaning of Words today it's all too easy to break the Word down into its modern day morphemes (Components of meaning). However, if we want to get anywhere near the truth we have to go back to the origins of the Word and look at the morphemes as they were when the Word was taken into the language. To give you an example let's take 'Bedlington'. If we break it down into modern day morphemes we'd get Bed,ling and ton and we can read whatever we like into that - hypothesizing wildly we could get something as rediculous as a resting Place for Heavy fish. If we break it down into old English morphemes (700-1100 BC) we get something quite different - Bedl, ing and ton. Then our hypothesis could also be very different. For example, the 'farmstead belonging to Bedla'. Bedla was a well used name during the period, ing was known to be a form of the genitive and ton was a very small plot of land. Language Changes all the time and ton as in Bedlington is, today, most often given to mean Town but when it first came into the English langauge, as tun, it simply meant an enclosure, a garden, or a yard. Over the following centuries it Went on to mean the houses and Buildings on that piece of land. Later its meaning changed to encompass the inhabitants and even later it changed again to include the administrative system in use with that particular piece of land, it's dwellings and it's inhabitants. A similar thing happened with the English Word cabin. If we trace it's origins we find that it has had all sorts of meanings - many of them now obsolete. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology,it started out as the Latin capanna/cavanna (spellings with -in appeared first in the 16th Century) and it meant, among many other things, cave. By the 14th Century it was being used in the meaning of a ships compartment.and in the 15th Century a rude habitation. First in the 17th Century was it being used when referring to that which we today call a cabin . In the case of our beloved 'netty' and its etymology, much depends on when it came into the English language or one of its many dialects. The net theory, I find hard to accept - but don't rule it out. Earth closets have been around for centuries. So has net. However, I'm doubtful if the two entities were ever to be found in one establishment. They belong to two different social classes, unless of course the Word 'netty, is relatively new. My own theory is still a loan Word from Latin, possibly via French, followed by abbreviation - in this case initial clipping (using the last part of the Word to serve as the whole). Just one Little question - why would anybody add a diminutive ending to the Word net?

Nothing to do with nets I'm afraid. The diminutive suffix in latin is 'ette'. It Changes with noun gender and becomes 'etti'.The diminutuve, as I'm sure you know, implies the meaning 'little' - so cabinetti, Little cabin.

Pete, the idea with the privacy screens in India is to preserve wömen's modesty but equally so to prevent men getting overly excited at the sight of a woman - as they do! So they are about keeping things in the dark, as it were, and preventing undue excitement. I Think I might be beginning to see a Connection here.

Netty = cabinetti. The Roman's name for closet.

Thanks Malcolm, it's Interesting to see that this Word stems from the screen used in the preservation of women's modesty. albeit in Turkey and not in India where I first came across it. I still can't see any Connection with it's use in British politics.

There was also the occasional 'cloot roond the lugs'. They weren't so nice!

I've Heard that name as well but I've no idea what a clooty mat is. Clooty dumplings I remember only too well!

Now that sounds more likely Bayardm. Thanks.

I saw a lot of it in India! Lovely silk or marble screens that hide women from men in public Buildings but I can't see any Connection here.

Just had Another Think about 'cleaky mats'. Could wor Jackie be talking about 'clicky mats'? I remember two sorts of mat making in my home. Proggy mats, using small 'clippings' and a 'progger', and clicky mats using long strips of cloth and a special tool that knotted the strip to the backing - usually hessian.

Flaas - flaws maybe?

Not to be confused with tjebble! The kitchen table.

I don't know about the mining term Cyevule but when you write it down as kjebble (Which we pronounced as 'shebble') it means 'chat'. A canny kjebble, a canny crack they both meant a good chat. My mother could also use it to us kids when we were arguing - stop your kjebble/kjebbling this minute!

Strong Words are great Words - when they eminate from strong feelings!

I remember it Maggie. There was Always a 'ging -beer plant' standing on the floor in our pantry. Very hush hush! It smelled like rotten eggs but the end Product tasted very nice. It was a bit like a sour dough. it had to be fed and divided once a week but obviously there was no flour involved. It was fed with sugar and ground ginger and there must have been yeast involved in the first 'plant'. I've been trying to get a recipe for this for years so I hope somebody here can help.

We freeze mackeril! Whole, gutted, cavity filled with dill stalks. Dipped in iced water and frozen. Removed from freezer when frozen. Dipped in iced water again and refrozen. Remove and wrap in Heavy duty foil or polythene. Keep up to 3 months. It is, as you say, better fresh but this method gives a fair result. When I lived in London I was very fond of the east-ender's 'pie and mash with liquor'. The liquor was a luminous green fluid poured over the pie and turned out to be the water in which they cooked the eels -later to be jellied. I loved it , till I found out what it was! The polish vodka isn't a patch on the Scandinavian! One of the most interesting ways I've seen of serving potatoes!

Of course we don't make raw herring but we do make many home-made dishes using raw herring - in the same way that people don't make strawberries but do make home-made strawberry jam. The food in the Picture - Kalles Kaviar - is not cod roe. The Product contains about 40% fish roe, of which a small proportion comes from cod. The remaining 60% is mostly oil so I wouldn't try frying it. Youngsters here are the same as youngsters in any other developed country. Of course they like fast food. Problem is that it's hard to get your hands on fast food here because of the long distances to outlets. "Reindeer bland", "stock"?? I'm afraid you've lost me there!

Finlandia vodka! That must have been an all time first for a Finn! Everything- and I mean Everything - is home made here.

These herring are not like those in Holland. Pickling, from a Swedish Point of view, involves the use of only minute amounts of vinegar, The preservative effect comes from loads of sugar and salt. Vodka, plain or spiced, is a popular ingredient at Xmas and Easter. Then there are all sorts of Spices and sour Creams that add flavour.

Such sad news! We've had many a good laugh here thanks to Keith's sense of humour and his wonderful competitions. However, on a more serious note I have to thank Keith for sharing his interest in astronomy with us, and with such enthusiasm that even I can sometimes .find myself star gazing . A very sad loss indeed! Warm condolences to the family.

It really is good fun, Brian, and we get a bit of the Xmas food prepared. The following week we do something similar when we get together and pickle herring for Xmas. Thank goodness that it has to stand a week Before it's ready for eating. That way I get to avoid it! Sausages and raw herring - I bet your all just dying to try a Swedish Xmas dinner!

I make my own sausage. I started about 20 years ago. Sausage, Believe it or not, is an integral part of Christmas dinner in these part!. Every year on the second sunday in Advent the four generations in this family squeeze into my kitchen and make 15 metres of Xmas sausage. Not all at once mind you! Half of them make 600-800ginger biscuits while the other half make sausage. We make a day of it with games and competitions and round the whole thing off with a 'no talent' competition. Prizes for the person with the most 'no talent' and the team with best times for sausage making and most biscuits from a kilo of dough. Great fun. Then theres a simple/sample meal with the newly made sausage. I don't use anything wild in sausages either Vic but we do eat game. Elk and wild boar. These last few years I've stopped eating 'bambis'. They are so much more beatiful in the garden than on a dinner plate. Like your wife, I feed them at the kitchen door but only during the Winter. Rest of the year they eat my flowers from the garden. Getting soft in my old age!