THE BRITISH THREAD II

Never underestimate the linguistic laziness of the Anglo-Saxon.

No carpets here Mac. I'm a clean living sort o' guy.

Don't you know how filthy carpets are. They harbour all sort of vermin and detritus.

And shifting heavy furniture on carpets is torture.

I never knew how many books I had before these last few days.

I might tell you more about it all when I calm down.

Ich hab' faule Dinge auf Deutsch auch gesehen.

So Darren Clarke won the British Open at Sandwich (Royal St. George golf course), and announced plans for partying, with expected use of the Auld Claret Jug to hoist some Bushmill's Black. T'was a bit of a boost for the elders of the game.

Only you could pick a fight with someone about carpets. I must admit, part of me is impressed

I'm not at all sure that the black stuff he was referring to was Bushmills. A pint of that would kill most mortals.

My son and his fiance gave me ham and eggs today, after I did some handiwork at their place, and they had some HP Sauce which was made with Guinness. Very nice it is, but maybe a bit too much sugar in it.

And we called Livorno, Leghorn. And Vlissingen is Flushing.

I don't know why.

Ahh, I still wonder. I figure it might take off the silver coating..

Because we can't be bloody bothered, the same way the Americans on Ellis Island gave immigrants names they could be bothered with, instead of the ones they came over with.

Guinness is what you take to a party if you don't want anyone swiping your booze.

So now the Met have arrested Mrs Brooks and people are wondering why, why now, why not last week. Or better, next week.
And the obvious conclusion is that the Met are smarting about the rough ride their top brass got at the parliamentary committee hearings last week, and they want to
a) seem to be in charge, and in control of events
b) spike some of the committee's guns
c) deflect attention away from what they were up to in all of this
d) try to make sure Mrs Brooks is gagged and can't dob them in next Tuesday.

What a can of worms, and a parcel of rogues.

How dare you, haud yer wheesht. The Auld Jug is solid Scottish silver, of course. It's awfy wee, but the real deal.

Mr Gilmour was convicted of public order offences the other day and jailed. Ian Tomlinson's killer is still at liberty.

Good to go, then!

Good point. The Met moves in mysterious ways.

One thing these two cases have in common is the way the Met has lied and protected its own. I'm not exactly happy with the way the CPS has behaved either.

And who will succeed Sir Paul Stephenson? 'Your' Peter Fahy?

To be quite honest Walter I don't know. The Met does have a greater reputation for corruption than the other forces. I don't know how much changing the man at the top can do, it's about changing the culture. Don't ask me how you do that.

Oh, don't be silly. We've got a town in New Jersey called Teaneck. A fine old Dutch family name. We just corrected the faulty Dutch spelling of Ten Ecke.