Missing in Action:
We shall return to our tour of notable bookshops next week. Dealing with crises, meeting several deadlines and riding to ground the contractors who are supposed to be remodelling my master bathroom have, at present, superseded nearly all else.
Nitting and Picking: I've been nitted and picked at for a lot of things, mostly for what apparently are (in the eyes of American editors) ghastly grammatical abuses or miscues in my writing. Well, I'm not sorry. I may live in this country but I am still a Briton, and I shall bloody well use the Queens English if I so choose. If editors wish to change my words and thereby (quite often) change the meaning of a turn of phrase, so be it. The damage from the resultant train wreck is upon their heads.
A Severe case of Apologitis: It seems that I, along with most of my fellow Brit's are now being taken to task for being overly apologetic. It is true that we do say I'm sorry quit a lot. It does not make us weak or submissive or simpering idiots. We are simply not as rude as most people. We are, for the most part, brought up to have better manners.
"I'm sorry, but there appears to be a fly in my soup... and he appears to be doing a back-stroke."
"I'm sorry, but we're all booked up at the moment. It would seem your reservations are for our hotel in Moldavia. Have a pleasant trip."
Being willing to readily say "I'm sorry", writes Christopher Fowler, "make us more appealing human beings. It says we’re aware of encroaching upon each other’s space, that we respect the rights of strangers, that we practice equality instead of showing superiority."
And I'm sorry if you don't agree, but that's the way I see it as well.
Till next time.
"I say, Waiter? About that fly?"
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