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Jigjag, I'd like fewer Tesco variations, not more! I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to the market yesterday, it made for amusing reading. This is a short post as I have a pile of crosswords to tackle - Mepherto, Everywoman and the one in the Spectatrix.

Malone, Good luck with those crosswords. I have tried them in the past and they are too difficult for me. You need to be an expert in the subjects of Herstory and Gerperson, and I am not.

BTW - I am used to footballers playing "out of their skin", but I heard that a top female tennis player has won a match by being a " bit out of body". But which "bit"? I know you are a tennis fan, so how did she do it? I can't get my head round it.

A couple of homophones I came across in a friend's Lady mag.

Promise lout announced, more or less. Answer OATH
I presume it's a homophone of OAF. Does the 'more or less' excuse it?

Divine vessels, we hear. Answer DOWSE
I presume it's a homophone of DHOWS but I would pronounce it differently.

Rossim, I don't think the 'more or less' excuses the awful 'homophone' - that's a setter clutching at straws! The dhows, dowse one wasn't quite as bad. I don't pronounce those two exactly the same, but maybe others do.

Jigjag, The 'bit out of body' stuff sounds far too airy-fairy for me - maybe it was the brain part that was absent?

In general, life as a pedant has been fairly humdrum over the past few days - I've seen nothing to irritate or anger me. This is a good thing … or so I keep telling myself!

A nearby pharmacy has had a board outside the shop for months, advertising flu jabs and originally saying (in large capitals) “NO APPOINTMENT NECCESSERY”. Someone must have told them that there was a misspelling, as the sign now reads “NO APPOINTMENT NECCESSARY”.

I was taught ' one collar and two cuffs', something I've never forgotten!

I obviously had forgotten!!
It must be 'two socks'.

Never Eat Crisps Eat Salad Sandwiches and Remain Young !

The recent record 52-hour hiatus in pedantry has stirred the Silly Words Annoy Pedants Society (SWAPS) into action. They released the following statement yesterday.

“Our raison d’etre, soon to be swapped, is to swap silly words for perfectly normal ones. We felt that “Chairperson”, although acceptable, is rather clumsy, so we have changed it to “Chair”. Similarly, our “Treasurer/ess” will be called “Treasure”, and even I have a new title…..” said a spoke.

Malone

I think you are right that the brain might have been affected. She may have been mis-quoted and probably meant to say something like this:

“I don’t know if I had brain freeze or if I was brain-dead, but it was a no-brainer to play on. I put my heart and soul into it, but I must have been out of my mind to continue in my out of body state. But I did play out of my skin.”

We would have all understood that!