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Routirort

This pic is taken on our travels to a wondrous part of the world.

The only clue you get as to where is that predictive text called it "Routirort"!

I entered the Flythomascook Photography Competition:

Anonymosity

I've recently been reading the internet, in case you've missed it there's been some good stuff on it.

One of my favourite parts is the comment sections where people with no knowledge of anything will comment on a subject with a degree of confidence that eludes some of the most intelligent people on the planet.

Another interesting point is that some of these commentators will post anonymously, as though putting a name to their inanities may make it less meaningful. What encourages people to take ten minutes from their busy schedule and then comment that what they have read was pointless and they don't want to read anything like it again is beyond my simple mind.

I realise I very rarely post anything serious or of note to encourage comments, save for my occasional reminiscences of bygone Pizza Express pizzas so I am saved this particular internet oddity.

I do know some people who are the most mild mannered individuals you could ever meet yet put them in front of a computer screen and they argue with anyone about anything in the most vociferous (if you can be vociferous without speaking) manner.

So that's the internet for you, it's largely words and pictures in various forms and people with opinions about stuff that they mostly know nothing about, politics, relationships, medicine, history, religion, education, humour and fish.

Going Bo-Bos - Rhyming slang

So an old British expression said to kids around bedtime is "going bobos" for going to sleep, now various sources around the internet seem to offer some strange origins of this expression. I have no firm knowledge or confirmation from any source but believe it to be from Cockney rhyming slang.

Bo Peep is rhyming slang for sleep, so "Bo Bos" derives from that, if you can't get to Bo Bos, try counting some sheep, it might help Little Bo Peep to know how many there are.

Here is Little Bo Peep, followed by her nursery rhyme

Little Bo peep has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them.
Leave them alone and they'll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.
Little Bo peep fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were all still fleeting.
Then up she took her little crook
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they left their tails behind them.
It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side
All hung on a tree to dry.
She heaved a sigh, and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she could,
As a shepherdess should,
To tack again each to its lambkin.

Me Old China

Step right this way for another bit of Cockney rhyming slang.

If you've ever seen your actual bona fide East End market stall (not the ones in Eastenders that sell fruit, flowers, CDs and occasionally clothes when they remember to stock it and who's running it) you may have seen a stall with a bit of crockery and a nice chap at the back stamping "China" on the bottom of them, as he sells you a genuine authentic piece of replica Wedgewood and hands it to you in a carrier bag that probably won't make it all the way home and you'll have to go back and get another one, he may say

"There you go me old china"

He isn't actually referring to the China but he is using a piece of Cockney rhyming slang for the word "mate", yes, China = China plate = mate.

Here is a piece of China with a couple of very close Chinas on

This very important entry was brought to you with the letter C and the number 7.

Cockney rhyming slang - tea strainers

A recent point of interest on BBC Radio 2's Ken Bruce Show has been about Cockney rhyming slang for shoes being "tea drinkers", despite the more valiant attempt of listeners to get a meaning from this, my genetically Cockney mind said that the person who said this has their rhyming slang in a tangle.

Tea strainers is indeed Cockney rhyming slang, so here's a pair

If you do choose to buy a pair of tea strainers and you are being served by a Cockney you are likely to get a pair of trainers and not a pair of tea strainers. As interchangeable objects you may be on tricky ground, whilst it may be possible to make a cup of tea in a pair of Reeboks, I'd definitely struggle getting my size 10s in a tea strainer.

Peter Sellers' A Hard Day's Night

Beatles' producer George Martin had been producing comedy albums for EMI prior to working with The Beatles. He had worked with Peter Sellers and subsequently Sellers recorded a number of comedy versions of Beatles records, including his Shakespearean rendition of A Hard Day's Night, it was much better than my own attempt at soliloquising Eleanor Rigby 45 years later of which there are no recordings.

Cockney Rhyming Slang - On your tod

Being on one's tod is to be alone, this derives from Cockney rhyming slang.

James Forman Sloan was known by the name Tod, born in 1874 he was a world famous horse racing jockey with great successes on both sides of the Atlantic.

Born in the USA his successes there led to his demand in England where he rode horses for the then Prince of Wales and had victories in the 1000 and 2000 guineas, the Gold Cup and the St. Leger, the only major race to elude him was the Derby.

Such was his success in the UK that George M. Cohan wrote a musical about him, Sloan being immortalized as the character Little Johnny Jones who was the "Yankee Doodle Boy" of the famous song.


In 1915 Sloan wrote an autobiography "Tod Sloan By Himself", whether the title of the book came before or after the rhyming slang is not clear, although if it was after I'd have called the book "Tod Sloan, on his tod".

and Here's Mickey Rooney singing Yankee Doodle Boy

The Wombles

My knowledge of The Wombles is limited to the TV series of the 1970s and the songs of Mike Batt, I may have read the original novels written by Elizabeth Beresford, but the voice of Bernard Cribbins and the catchy tunes are more vivid in my memory than the books. I even went to see them live in concert in Wimbledon AND I had an Orinoco suit.

According to her page on Wikipedia Beresford grew up surrounded by some of the greatest writers of all time, who were friends of her parents (also writers), HG Wells, DH Lawrence, Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw are amongst those listed.

The TV series were narrated and all the characters voiced by Bernard Cribbins, there were 60 5 minute episodes made, the narration style, with Cribbins telling the stories and being the characters seems quite primitive in times of CGI, yet it gives some truth to The Wombles ability to create things from what they find, a slick cartoon effect would not feel right for The Wombles, the stop go animation is perfect. The later 1990s series had countless voice artists and writers and may not have had the feel of the original, but the characters proved popular and a further 52 episodes were made.

Mike Batt's music for the show has remained popular to this day with albums still being released and even an appearance at Glastonbury. The songs were big sellers on release in the 70s, with several top 40 hits. Sadly Mike Batt rarely works with the Wombles these days preferring to count the bicycles in Beijing.

Elizabeth Beresford and Great Uncle Bulgaria

 So here is a bit of Wombles, wishing you a Wombling Merry Christmas and an episode following.

Friendly policeman on duty in Poundworld

So Christmas is a busy time of the year for cardboard cut out policemen.

Hopefully I'm not giving any security issues away.

Given that he is a cardboard cutout, I wondered why he couldn't look a little more sinister, or even why he needed to be a policeman, they could have had a cyberman, Darth Vader, Phil Mitchell, Anne Widdecombe or Dr. Price, my old French teacher, he used to terrify me.

Famous Christmas songs by Jewish songwriters: Winter Wonderland

In a new and probably short lived series of bloggery, comes Christmas songs by Jewish songwriters.

The American Jewish songwriters seemed quite happy to pen a song on any subject matter, so Christmas was always going to get a look in, some of the most celebrated Christmas songs were written by some of the greatest songwriters who happened to be Jewish.

The Jewish Felix Bernard, co wrote Winter Wonderland with Richard B. Smith (religion unknown!). He was born in Brooklyn, New York and was the son of German and Russian immigrant parents.

So wander through this Winter Wonderland with Tony Bennett

The Fivepenny Piece's Weight Watchers

Long before Sarah Ferguson had become a spokesperson for Weight Watchers, there was a song by Lancashire singing outfit The Fivepenny Piece.

My parents loved this group, they were fun and funny. Their folk music style was pretty popular with songs of Lancashire and Lancashire folk, they were doing for Lancashire what Chas & Dave were doing for London. Songs of Fred Fanakapan, I'm in Love with Angela Rippon, I'm Powfagged, Stalybridge Market were part of their popular touring shows.

A later addition was this undervalued gem, Weight Watchers ("I LIKE CHIPS")

Giving my arse an headache

Just watching the semi final of the Junior Apprentice and during Lord Sugar's summing up, for some reason an old expression my dad used to use came to mind "you're giving my arse an headache". I actually thought my dad had made it up until I heard it used in an episode of Only Fools and Horses. If you hadn't worked it out it is used when someone has a touch of verbal diarrhoea.

Bernard Cribbins' Right Said Fred

Like quite a lot of classic British comedy songs Right Said Fred was produced by The Beatles' producer George Martin.

The removal men in the song are reminiscent of Laurel & Hardy's delivery men in their Oscar winning film The Music Box.

The now iconic star Bernard Cribbins had a hit with the song in 1962, it spawned the name of the pop group Right Said Fred. Cribbins has been in a Dr. Who film and  the TV series, an episode of Fawlty Towers, narrated the Wombles, three Carry On films (yes I included Columbus), he was even the voice of Tufty on the road safety ads.

Anyway Right Said Fred, here's an animated version in Lego!

Catching Genumphs with Chic Murray

I'm currently reading about the comedy giant that was Chic Murray. I'm sure there will be a post about him over on my comedy bio blog.

I've known some of his material and his act, but this gave a good workout to my chuckle muscle.

"I saw a wee man jumping up and down, clapping his hands together, I went over and asked him what he was doing, he said "I'm trying to catch Genumphs", so I said to him "What's Genumphs?" he said "I don't know I haven't caught any yet".

Thank You Very Much - for the Aintree iron, birds and bees and love

I write this on Thanksgiving day in the USA. Whilst I've been in the US and shared some special Thanksgiving days with my wife and her family it is a day that is hard to get. After all the British much prefer to say 'sorry' than thank-you.

The rather spiffing 1960s Liverpool trio of Roger McGough, Mike McGear and John Gorman, The Scaffold said it quite well in their song "Thank You Very Much".

The list of things to be thankful for being the Aintree iron (apparently writer Mike McGear has no idea what that is), birds and bees, the family circle, Sunday joint, cultural heritage, some other stuff and love.

So here's the song and me giving thanks for love, birds and bees, my growing new family circle and my missus

NHS hospital in association with Coca-cola

Obviously not a reason to be cheerful. One of the biggest causes of obesity, diabetes and countless other ailments, manages to have pride of place in an NHS hospital.
I'm not sure if it's one step up or down from having a doctor sponsored by a tobacco company.
If we want to educate on healthy eating and drinking, surely hospitals should lead by example and have healthy food and drink?

Fred Karno

For the last few days I've been strangely fascinated by Fred Karno. I say strangely as I've known about Karno for some years. He was responsible for Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin going to America and for their early comedy education, both gave him credit for much of their early comedy knowledge.

Yet researching Max Miller, I saw Karno's name as having worked with Miller in the 1920s. The two men didn't particularly get along and Karno had an interesting take on how to keep dancing girls smiling when they were on stage. I have also read of Karno's casting couch, but he was a fair bit more than that too. By the time Max Miller came across him Karno had been one of the wealthiest men in the country, he'd bought an island, built an entertainment complex and casino on it (Karsino). He spent £20,000 in 1912 on a boat that is used today as a recording studio by Dave Gilmour!

In 1926 he was declared bankrupt and penniless he started again. Married with 8 children Karno had a mistress for 25 years who he also called his wife. He even crossed the Atlantic and Chaplin tried to find him work, which he eventually found with the help of Stan Laurel at The Hal Roach Studios. Karno wasn't happy with not having things done his way and ended up going back home and back in the theatre and eventually making some films there, which were again the ruin of him.

He ended up his days running an off-licence after a donation from Charlie Chaplin to fund the operation.

An amazing career that had started in the circus as an acrobat, he had runaway to join the circus after failing to become a plumber.

I'm sure I've got a more accurate post in this fascinating character. It seems odd that the last book about him was written 40 years ago and there doesn't seem to have been any great film portrayal other than in films about Chaplin (John Thaw played Karno in "Chaplin").

Bobbins - Cockney rhyming slang

I've known the word "bobbins" for quite a while. It is largely used in the North of England and the wondrously crazy Frank Sidebottom used to say it a lot.

Frank Sidebottom, he's just seen something bobbins.

Bobbins means anything of a poor quality, but the root of the word is in Cockney rhyming slang, here's a clue.

Bobbins of cotton is rhyming slang for rotten, which is odd as bobbins are "reely" good.

Laurel & Hardy in Politics

With thanks to The Laurel & Hardy Forum.
A recent thread discussed Laurel & Hardy's (lack of) politics. Perhaps them not having any clear political thoughts (as for the characters in the films, no clear thoughts) has led to newspapers and political parties using their image to lampoon politicians. Over 60 years after their last film they still get wheeled out to mock the politicians of the day (usually over economic failings).
The first two are from the US, the rest British politicians, from PM John Major onwards. Given what a good Stan Laurel George W. Bush makes I'm surprised that was the only one I could find.