Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Tom Keeley was widely rumoured to have narcolepsy by the 1980s, and he was widely talked of as falling asleep in class. I only had him as a relief teacher and I think he stayed awake, but many wondered why he was driving a minibus to away rugby matches.

When it came to antics in House, Bob Sillett in LHB had no problems with keeping order, but Mr Critchley and Mr Clarke (called 'Commie' Clarke because he kept a picture of himself in Red Square on his desk, albeit he insisted in vain that he was a Liberal) had terrible problems. With the former, someone let off a 'French banger' in a pack of EC intervention butter in the day room one Saturday pm. The explosion was very loud, there was a huge cloud of smoke and butter splattered all over the ceiling, completely impossible to reach to clean. He came in attracted by the noise, and went away satisfied with the explanation that we had dropped a bench when setting them up to watch TV. He even did nothing when someone let off a banger in a cocoa tin next to him as he played chess with a pupil. He was a very nice chap, and deserved better than us.

eucsgmrc wrote:

sejintenej wrote:I did notice Michael's " te absolvo." above - were the Romans that way inclined or is the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian avoidance of the second person singular a recent invention?

I'm trying to stop myself picking nits, but slapping my own wrist doesn't seem to be helping ... so

It's true that French and Spanish and so on do use the plural (vous and so on) to address singular people with due respect, but they do still have "tu" and the like for familiar people. It's English that has adopted the plural "you" for all and sundry, and given up the singular "thou" completely.

Not quite, as a youngster in the 1970s, with a grandparent in Barnsley, up there 'thee', 'thou' and 'thine' were the vernacular forms for singular 'you' amongst the working classes.

Portuguese varies between Brazil and Portugal, and in Portugal, like Spain, a third-person singular is used 'O Senhor/A Senhora' for 'You' in very formal situations, and a 'tu' form in informal speech.

MrEd wrote:
Portuguese varies between Brazil and Portugal, and in Portugal, like Spain, a third-person singular is used 'O Senhor/A Senhora' for 'You' in very formal situations, and a 'tu' form in informal speech.

A few months ago in Andalucia I was surprised to find that the third person Usted/Ustedes was little used any more. (To be honest in over a week I never heard it used!)
Brasilian Portuguese is very different to European Portuguese - we have a very good Portuguese friend (his daughter is our honourary neice) but we have to talk in French even though I spent 20 years working in a Brasilian environmentand and in Brasil.
We had a range of about five or six polite** address forms from Brown (the lowest) to David to voce through to O Senhor to Doctor (to a well educated person who might not even have gone to Uni). We also used voce / voces a lot to equals or those slightly better. We never used tu to anyone and coleagues on the phone to their (? this was Brasil!) wives would not use tu.
(Oh, and there are huge differences within Brasil - my São Paulo boss could not understand when I spoke Carioca (Rio de Janeiro language) whilst Gaucho (southern states) has 20% hoch Deutsch words)

** as opposed to words you don't let your mother hear of which we have plenty in English.

MrEd wrote:Tom Keeley was widely rumoured to have narcolepsy by the 1980s.

It was a defence strategy against his wife's godawful cooking!

Avon wrote:

MrEd wrote:Tom Keeley was widely rumoured to have narcolepsy by the 1980s.

It was a defence strategy against his wife's godawful cooking!

No, he was narcoleptic before he got married. (Can't comment on her cooking, but she was a dietician, so that doesn't bode well.)

michael scuffil wrote:

Avon wrote:

MrEd wrote: (Can't comment on her cooking, but she was a dietician, so that doesn't bode well.)

She put Lucretia Borgia to shame. To this day there are household staples I can't eat owing to her ministrations.