Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Going back to the original point of this thread, I'm reading a naval war novel at the moment, and all matelots of the Jewish faith are openly referred to, as, "Four-By-Two's' !

darthmaul wrote:So where is the Mason's lodge beneath Big School then...? I want to plant a bomb...Anyway.

I think the greatest 'cause for concern' in the school for being un-PC is definitely the 'dubious' sexual orientations which people assume. Was full manhandling a fellow lad's rear-end acceptable and not frowned upon? Otherwise I'm in deep....

So does Mark Thomas, from yesterday's education section in the Independent.

Under the buildings not the people.

J.R. wrote:Going back to the original point of this thread, I'm reading a naval war novel at the moment, and all matelots of the Jewish faith are openly referred to, as, "Four-By-Two's' !

But that's 'just' rhyming slang, and would probably not have been intended as an insult. When I was very young we had a large black cat called Nigger. In my family's defence, we all loved that cat, and his name was never used in a derogatory way - even when used to describe our Nigerian neighbour (who may, or may not, have seen things in the same way as my grandparents).

The Australian Broadcasting Company regularly refer to the Pakistani Cricket Team as 'The Pakis', and even after living here for close to 20 years, my immediate reaction is one of horror.

Political correctness: it all depends on where and when you are .

Caroline

If I were a black person living in Britain, I'd name my kids 'Nignog' and 'Coon' so that all those agonisingly-politically-correct schoolteachers etc. would have no choice but to call 'em Nigger and Coon in front of all the other kids (whilst at the same time lecturing all and sundry to the effect that such words should NEVER be used).

Mind you, they'd get called by their surnames at Secondary school, wouldn't they? So I'd have to change the family's surname to Wog, I suppose.

Spoonbill wrote:If I were a black person living in Britain, I'd name my kids 'Nignog' and 'Coon' so that agonisingly-politically-correct schoolteachers etc. would have no choice but to call 'em Nigger and Coon in front of all the other kids (whilst at the same time lecturing all and sundry to the effect that such words should NEVER be used).

Forgot to mention the black romney ewe I hand reared when we were living in NZ.

We called her Spook, a term not used down under, and then a couple of Londoners moved in next door, laughed uproariously and dobbed us in to the rest of the town.

Caroline

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:

Spoonbill wrote:If I were a black person living in Britain, I'd name my kids 'Nignog' and 'Coon' so that agonisingly-politically-correct schoolteachers etc. would have no choice but to call 'em Nigger and Coon in front of all the other kids (whilst at the same time lecturing all and sundry to the effect that such words should NEVER be used).

Forgot to mention the black romney ewe I hand reared when we were living in NZ.

We called her Spook, a term not used down under, and then a couple of Londoners moved in next door, laughed uproariously and dobbed us in to the rest of the town.

Caroline

Spook is also an 'in-term' used by Special Branch and refers to members of M.I.6 and M.I.5 !

Guy Gibson, of Dambusters fame had a black labrador called Nigger !

J.R. wrote:Guy Gibson, of Dambusters fame had a black labrador called Nigger !

But not in the film if I recall rightly?

Katharine wrote:

J.R. wrote:Guy Gibson, of Dambusters fame had a black labrador called Nigger !

But not in the film if I recall rightly?

I'm not sure about that. Someone must have it on DVD ! The dog was run over and killed some time after Gibson's death. Incidently, I've just finished a book about 'Bomber' Harris and hardly anyone who knew Gibson particularly liked him !

J.R. wrote:

Katharine wrote:

J.R. wrote:Guy Gibson, of Dambusters fame had a black labrador called Nigger !

But not in the film if I recall rightly?

I'm not sure about that. Someone must have it on DVD ! The dog was run over and killed some time after Gibson's death. Incidently, I've just finished a book about 'Bomber' Harris and hardly anyone who knew Gibson particularly liked him !

My memory from the film is that the dog was run over just before the big mission and that Guy Gibson asked someone to bury the dog that night at the time that he would be flying over the dam/s - the inference being that if he was going to meet his maker they would be buried at the same time.

Now, if I could just remember where I parked my car this morning .........

I think you are more correct Caroline.

From the book I recall that the dog was killed while they were on the mission and Gibson was told when he returned.

I have heard that he was arrogant too.

As far as I recall, Guy Gibson's dog was named in the film, as 'Nigger' was rather integral to the story, being the codeword which was transmitted when the Möhne dam was breached.

The dog was killed the day before before the mission, hence Gibson's choice of the name as the codeword to designate the destruction of the prime target.

Every time I've seen the film the dog's name was 'Nigger', although I believe an updated version has been released (probably in the U.S.A.) without the offending name.

It may be offensive these days, but the codeword is an established historical fact, and should not be erased from the records any more than 'Overlord', 'Market Garden', etc.

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:We called her Spook, a term not used down under, and then a couple of Londoners moved in next door, laughed uproariously and dobbed us in to the rest of the town.

Caroline

I'm so severely retarded, I don't even know what dobbed us in means.

I also don't understand the use of the word 'spook' here.

Pretty impressively ignorant, huh?

(Never expect too much from a fat git from Chesham Bois, okay?)


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Spoonbill wrote:

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:We called her Spook, a term not used down under, and then a couple of Londoners moved in next door, laughed uproariously and dobbed us in to the rest of the town.

Caroline

I'm so severely retarded, I don't even know what dobbed us in means.

I also don't understand the use of the word 'spook' here.

Pretty impressively ignorant, huh?

(Never expect too much from a fat git from Chesham Bois, okay?)

The two terms of spook have been described above.

'dobbed-in' can be also described as 'grassed-up'

I think we used to refer to it as 'sneaking'

J.R. wrote:

Spoonbill wrote:

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:We called her Spook, a term not used down under, and then a couple of Londoners moved in next door, laughed uproariously and dobbed us in to the rest of the town.

Caroline

I'm so severely retarded, I don't even know what dobbed us in means.

I also don't understand the use of the word 'spook' here.

Pretty impressively ignorant, huh?

(Never expect too much from a fat git from Chesham Bois, okay?)

The two terms of spook have been described above.

'dobbed-in' can be also described as 'grassed-up'

I think we used to refer to it as 'sneaking'

I think that only one meaning of 'spook' was given - that of a spy/MI5 operative, as in the BBC series.

However, in a time long ago, when I still lived in South London, West Indians were termed Spooks. Since my Spook (romney ewe) was black, it seemed like an appropriate name.

Dobbed in may be a solely antipodean term - I've spent half my life here and get confused about who says what, and what means what in which place . I have gone completely blank on what we used to say as kids, but it means to drop someone in it, to grass them up, etc.

Best wishes

Caroline

I'm sure the first time I heard "dobbed in" was on Neighbours - which would suggest that could be how it reached the UK?