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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 16h

But surely it all has to get past "the lawyers" that they're always talking about. Allegedly.

Reposted by Paul Rhodes

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

tweet from childish branzino @absflora:
timothée chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 18h

The illustration (by Gunvor Edwards) in the actual book is I suppose more helpfully instructive, but not as much fun.

A draught excluder snake, in the Puffin book Something to Make (1971)

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 22h

OED says, in all senses, the long-i pronunciation only appears in dictionaries late 19th C.

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Splitter!

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

I guess you'll be an 'aluminum' originalist, too?

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

But obviously saying it with anything other than long i in the modern day is weird and borderline insane and/or American (or, apparently, New Zealandish for an early primary school class)

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Short i pronunciation original in all senses, with long i only recorded late 19c according to OED.

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Seems there is clearer evidence of origin than I thought (particularly given competing origin myths were already there within a couple of decades). Anyway, this is the book: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ok-978150...

www.bloomsbury.com

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Yup - although my own touchpoint would be more CRASH and LM!

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Not only from backroom abbreviations - these were a bit of a fad in expanding newspapers, helping to build an 'in-group' readership language, like so many publications since. Most died away, but OK had become widespread in a particular political context and survived.

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Michelle McSweeney's recent book on the subject (which I have just discovered I can access through the library, hurrah!) paints a convincing explanation of the process by which OK arose. Also contemporary: k. g. for “no go” or “no good” (kno go/ kno good), and k. y. for “no use” (kno yuse).

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Also worth seeking out the late 1970s Puffin Annuals.

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Bill Paxton?

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Reposted by Paul Rhodes

waltydunlop @waltydunlop.bsky.social · 1d

All of "Jackie" added to the British Newspaper Archive. Every last page. I mean, that's unexpected. Also quite brilliant. blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2025/10/06/j...

Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week

We welcome iconic best-selling teen magazine Jackie to The Archive. Browse every single edition of the weekly magazine for girls, from 1964 through to 1993.

blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

But still no LM.

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Multiple time Countdown winner, though. I thought they were supposed to be super-cool.

Former champion being enigmatic and cool in IT Crowd episode, The Final Countdown

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 1d

Oll Korrect?

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Reposted by Paul Rhodes

SJ Groenewegen @sjgroenewegen.co.uk · 2d

As that petition to parliament nears 3 million signatures - and is still waiting on a date for the parliamentary debate - I wrote some of my thoughts about UK Labour's adventures in digital ID.

ko-fi.com/post/UK-Labo...

UK Labour’s Adventures in Digital ID

SJ Groenewegen published a post on Ko-fi

ko-fi.com

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Paul Rhodes @parhodes.bsky.social · 2d

In the days of local exchanges, my grandparents' number was 9996. (This raised some eyebrows, but I don't know if there was a period when it actually caused a problem.)