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hi grunger
speller - i didn't like it as much as jono did!

not "spelleress"!

chrise

Thanks - I dont like it either. I dont really get it - what are the "s"s? I think it might be spellress. I was looking for a 7 letter -ess word.

I did like it because it was one of my PDMs that made me chuckle.

rossim

Thanks - I am obviously missing something as I cant see the significance of the "s"s in the clue. Nice female clue in the Times today.

Malone

If you are looking in, I hope you are well. I havent seen you post for a while. I see that you featured in Only Connect last night. Apparently the Malone family is on Gogglebox. I am trying to work out which family you are.

Hello there, Grunger. I've posted - on various crosswords - recently but not on this PU. This was deliberate - I decided not to burden you all with my moans about Sex and It and and Ouse/House and Garner sounding like Ghana ... and who knows what else!

Yes, I saw the female clue in today's Times - and it's a word I've never liked. I read today that Meghan Markle listed her occupation as 'Actor' on her marriage certificate. I'm sure this will please some people and irritate others. I found Harry's occupation more noteworthy - how many people get to put 'Prince'?

The Gogglebox Malones are another branch of the family, we have very little to do with each other.

Malone

Lovely to hear from you - I do wish you WOULD burden us with your moans, observations etc. as per your posting. Megan irritates me in many ways. As you say, she does not know her occupation, and she has mis-spelt her name on her marriage certificate.

Grunger

I was pleased to see the -enne word. I dont know of any female comedy person who is/was funny, except Hylda Baker, so they cannot be called comedians. Of course, women are humorous in their writings, as we see here from Malone, Rosalind, yourself and others.

Not even Victoria Wood, jigjag?

We did our early morning Sainsbury' shop this morning, and something is getting more and more irritating. There are sloping travelators to get up to the shopping floor, with, on a loop, a voice saying "Please stand still and hold the handrail whilst travelling".

Surely it should be "while" rather than "whilst"?

Thank you jigjag, I am very glad I dropped in this evening!

Some time ago I read a list of occupations in Victorian England. At the end of the list was-

Queens 1
Bumboat women 1
which I quite liked. No idea why they were plural.

The list was not entirely accurate, of course. The usual euphemism (in censuses anyway) was "dressmaker".

Thanks one and all - it's like an Oscars acceptance speech, I'm scared someone will be overlooked.

ChrisE, I'm afraid I can't spend too long on whilst/while, I'm too busy working on a plan to get rid of the dreaded 'travelator'. What a horrible word! It's like something from The Jetsons, a TV cartoon for children. I think we'll all have to do our bit to repel it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the normal, everyday word - I refer of course to 'the moving thingy'.

Jigjag, thanks for your kind words. You may come to regret inviting my moans and observations.

I am not keen on 'comedienne', which Chambers defines as a 'female comic entertainer'. I think 'comedian' is a much more versatile word, describing a person who acts in or writes comedies, an entertainer who tells jokes etc or an entertaining and amusing person.