Sunday 4 March 2007

BY THE LETTER

In the spirit of the Victorian parlour game, "I love my love with an A" (and all the succeeding letters of the alphabet), quite a few bloggers are currently making lists of their likes and dislikes using a letter given them at random by a fellow blogger...

Following my own list of ten Likings and Loathings beginning with the letter 'D', I was requested to pass out a few letters to friends; so I did and here's what came back...

I gave QENNY the letter 'R' and (on the plus side) he came up with such 'R's as 'Ribaldry', 'Razamatazz, 'Rainbows' and 'Roger' --- as in 'Jolly Roger' and pirates generally! You can read the full list on his blog posting The Letter R; although my friend Buttons was more than a little upset to find 'Rabbits' topping the list of dislikes - as well as very scary references to 'eating' and 'r*bb*t st*w'!!

Anyway... moving swiftly along, it gives me pleasure to publish the responses of two regular, blog-less, readers...

SCROOGE was given the letter 'H' and decided - in a fit of abstemiousness - to limit himself to five likes and four dislikes. Here they are...


SCROOGE's Likes...

Happy - I have to be happy; so much so that I do a poorly paid job to be happy at work. I'm scared of not being...

Homestead - a company that deal with people who can't do websites and help them to create one very easily! I have three but if there were more time, I'd do 103.

Heart - this rules my life. If I had any logic in my head I'd be more successful, but I insist on following this organ to the bitter end.

Hazel - the missus and the love of my life, without whom nothing would be possible. She puts up with all the stupidity I throw at her and somehow carries on.
Hope - that round the corner, something even better will come along. Talk about being greedy!

SCROOGE's Dislikes...

Hotmail - why does it take so long to load up and why do they allow people to offer me investment opportunities in Nigeria and fake Rolex watches so easily?

Hate - because I inevitably come out of it worse than the object of my detestation.

Harry Potter - which I've never quite grasped but which now seems to be hyped out of all proportion.

Hype - that thing you add to something that isn't very good to make people want it.





GILL went for the full ten likes and dislikes with her given letter, 'P' and here they are...

GILL's Likes...

Philip but I am not going to expand on this!

Primroses: Harbingers of spring, I love the delicate colour and the lift they give my spirits, especially when seen on railway cuttings in an otherwise dreary journey.

Poetry: From teenage romanticism [Rupert Brooke whose photograph lived under my pillow] to more recent appreciation of the wit of Wendy Cope.

People: I insist on finding the majority of people good and kind, and they are!

Peanut Buter: But only the crunchy kind!

Purple: Since I am heading rapidly for a disgraceful old age I am going to start wearing more purple.
Paper: Blank and beautiful and inviting great thoughts.

Pens: Any kind but especially fountain pens to go with paper above.

Paperbacks: Which let me read entertaining rubbish and suffer no guilt when I pass them on or throw them out [I couldn't do that to a hardback].

Presents! At Christmas and birthdays I am about 4 years old. I love getting presents, I love unwrapping them, the content is less important than the parcel!


GILL's Dislikes...


Pollyanna: The "glad game" always made me feel distinctly sick.

Pettiness: Of all kinds. It is small minded and small spirited and often represents some ghastly need for power or to win.

Parking: I do not have a car, but I have to cope with endless discussions between car owners about how they should be allowed to park absolutely anywhere with no regard to the pedestrian, how demonic traffic wardens are [aren't they just doing their jobs?], and in particular drivers who think it is OK to park across pavements even though this means wheelchairs and pushchairs have to use the road to get round them.

Parties: Love small gatherings where I can talk to people [and hear what they are saying] hate big noisy parties I always want to go home [and sometimes do].

Party politics: The system that takes well meaning dedicated people and turns them into mendacious self seeking monsters.

Prisons: Since I have to visit these in a profesional capacity I know they are dirty, soul destroying, violent, dangerous places The punishment is supposed to be loss of liberty, not loss of dignity and destruction of the soul. Am happy to discuss this with anyone who believes the tabloid "Holiday camp" mythology.

Picallilli: Why does anyone want to eat raw cauliflower dyed bright yellow and tasting of the worst kind of vinegar?

Paperwork: Of the beauracratic kind, symptomatic of a world of number - crunching and targets and used to exercise control.

"Phlying": Sorry, I know this is a cheat! But I don't understand how all that metal stays in the air. Can cope if I sit in an aisle seat with a good book and pretend I am on a train.

Piffle!: "Wallpaper" conversation, illogical argument, droning...... [yes, I confess, I do it too!].

[Images: Scribblaphy; Upper & Lower Case Magazine; Art Design and Sign; British Library]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I don't think Gill would like me. I'm very much a Pollyanna.

Brian Sibley said...

Right! So, you've alienated Gill and made a life-long enemy of Buttons... Not doing too well really, are you Qenny?? ;-)

Diva of Deception said...

too late for a letter?

Brian Sibley said...

Your letter, Mandy, is 'C'. So, C what you can come up with for that... :-)