Bangkok Post – Can’t be much enjoyable being an unsatisfactory duck

From Washington we have actually been listening to the expression “lame duck” a fair bit recently, yet it has not obviously been a conversation concerning the wellness of the waterfowl populace in the American resources yet a recommendation to Joe Biden as he finishes his last term as head of state.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary ineffective duck describes somebody “continuing in a post, but with little power, influence or enthusiasm.” The expression evidently goes back to the 18th century and came to be an acquainted term at the London Stock Exchange relating to not successful financiers that could not pay their financial debts.

People might well ask why it was ducks and not various other birds which were unfavorable sufficient to be landed with the “lame” tag. After all it’s rarely favorable public relations for the usual duck. You just need to take a look at a duck and words “lame” occur. The options are not really enticing, nonetheless. A “hamstrung heron.”,. “pickled parrot”, “plastered partridge” or “incapacitated ostrich” do not fairly develop the called for photo similarly as the inadequate old duck.

One description is that ducks were generally a prominent target for searching explorations in which several of them were fired yet not always eliminated, which left them ineffective. Unfortunately in this ruthless globe the ineffective ducks after that came to be “sitting ducks” and eventually “dead ducks.” And afterwards it was just an issue of time prior to they were resting on the table as “duck l’orange”.

Gourmet shock

Duck included in a well-known Fawlty Towers episode “Gourmet Night” in which Basil (John Cleese) tries to present nouvelle cuisine to bring in a much better course of clients, or as he so eloquently places it,”no riff-raff” Unfortunately his desire for exquisite happiness are obstructed by an intoxicated cook. At one phase we are also dealt with to the memorable view of Basil posing a duck.

Eventually Basil educates visitors they are restricted to a selection of Duck With Orange, Duck With Cherries or the interesting Duck Surprise which ends up being duck without orange or cherries. It will certainly come as not a surprise the exquisite evening was not a success.

Howzat!

It is not just in national politics that the English language is unkind to ducks. In sporting activity it’s a word no cricketer wishes to listen to. When somebody is out for a duck it implies they were disregarded without racking up a run. Even even worse is a “golden duck” when you are out initially round. I sadly recognize everything about this, having actually endured that destiny a lot of times.

For the interested, cricketers initially called nought a “duck” due to the fact that a duck’s egg is a really comparable form to the number no.

Gershwin and Miles

I really did not understand this year noted the 100th wedding anniversary of the George Gershwin timeless Rhapsody in Blue till I review John Clewley’s helpful column in Life (19/11). It was among the very first cds I got as a young adult in the very early 1960s. My mum was thrilled as she was obtaining fatigued of the very early Elvis hits et cetera of the rock-and-roll “racket” I was paying attention to on the radio.

It had not been long prior to I acquired the Porgy and Bess cd by the stunning jazz trumpeter Miles Davis with the Gil Evans band. I bear in mind the very first time I played it to my daddy he reluctantly confessed was “an improvement on the usual stuff” I paid attention to although he had not been crazy about the ” trumpeter’s squeaky bits”.

I still play the cd regularly. It consists of fantastic analyses of Summertime, It Ain’t Necessarily So and I Loves You Porgy

About Elvis …

I need to describe my referral toElvis Back in 1956 when I had actually currently been loaded off to bed, my older bro Eric was downstairs in the kitchen area adjusting in to Radio Luxembourg and the incredible audios of Heartbreak Hotel and Don’t be Cruel came roaring up the staircases. I had actually never ever listened to anything like it. Later there was Hound Dog andJailhouse Rock It was raw, unrestrained therefore various to the fluff I had actually been raised on.

Alas, a couple of years later on I was sorry to see Elvis selecting the Hollywood motion picture path and regretfully much of his tunes came to be as dull as his movies. He was a hero though.

Living in hope

You might remember that previously this month Collins Dictionary introduced “brat” as its word of the year, a not specifically enticing offering I could state.

Now Cambridge Dictionary have actually thought of their very own word which they state was searched for almost 130,000 times this year on their web site. The word is “manifest” which Cambridge specifies as “to utilize approaches such as visualisation and affirmation to assist you visualize attaining something you desire, in the idea that in doing so will certainly make it most likely to take place.”

Sounds like a verbose method of claiming “hope for the best”.

Food for idea

One of the Cambridge runner-up words for 2024 was “ecotarian” which evidently implies a “person who only eats food produced or prepared in a way that does not harm the environment.” That seems like somebody that can come to be an exceptionally uninteresting visitor at a supper celebration.

Anyway, having actually simply consumed a plate of bacon and eggs I think that eliminate any kind of insurance claims I could need to being a budding “ecotarian.”