The Limits of our Language …

The Warden

As we come toward the end of the second week of social distancing, confinement is generating its own acts of creation. The internet is replete with inventive memes, posts, and a whole Lockdown genre of videos that testify to our innovation as well as our human desire for optimism and positivity in the face of adversity.

In the Twittersphere, new usages are being coined as we grow our language to respond to and describe our current situation, and our language shifts to help us make sense of it and our emotions.

Social distancing, to self-isolate [NB To discuss with Mr Pounder whether this is a reflexive or the Middle Voice], to zoom, and Corona comforts have all entered common parlance so that we can describe what is happening to us now. When the situation has come to pass, as it will, we will be left with such vestiges of language change as a reminder and, in time, we may forget whence they came - in the same way that few now remember the very sorry origins of basket case or a sexed-up document. One curious pleasure that lockdown has brought me is the much increased use of Skype, FaceTime, and Google Meets – not only has this allowed me to continue work despite the extraordinary but it has also permitted my own version of a television panel game, ‘Through the Zoomhole’. For those of you who were not around in the 1980s and 1990s, Lloyd Grossman [of the excellent sauce fame] would tour the houses of the rich and famous while the audience interpreted the signs to identify its mystery owner. While I do invariably have the owner of the home on the screen in front of me, the virtual ‘casing’ is proving fun and it has meant I must keep my own study tidy.

As we prepare for the start of the Trinity Term and the need to engage in remote learning, I will offer some tips on working from home as well as creating a workspace from personal experience on Twitter and elsewhere on this blog.

I trust you and your family are safe and well.

MPA

The Dog

Essentially, this new gaff is under control; all areas have been thoroughly checked and signed off on my daily walkabout. Extensive space with sufficient fauna to allow the occasional act of mischief or RAD [see previous thought]. There are some beautiful bits of lawn where I’d quite like a sprawl but Himself seems most unkeen - although he’s quite happy when he wants a ‘photo and for me to look superior and obedient. The locals are responding well to my presence; anything walks towards me, it immediately moves in a different direction, taking its human on a rope with it, in obvious recognition.

This is a good thing given the high number of Spaniels I’ve spied as I’m yet to meet one with an attention span that lasts longer than my dinner in its bowl.

There was a deafening noise last night that sounded like the time the cat’s tail got caught, but then there was all this clapping. Curious place.

#Staysafe #NHSheroes

Angus