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Grunger

I am sorry that my message was not clear, but it seems to have turned out well. I am grateful to parallelogram for pointing out the errors, which I am afraid I did not notice. I always have trouble with "separate" and "calendar".

Hello, Jigjag. I was pleased that you didn't mind porollelagrom pointing out the a/o errors. Sometimes these typos, spelling mistakes slip through even when we are being hyper-vigilant. I'm pleased to report that every single word in this post has been checked and rechecked...

Best wishes, Molane.

Melano

I have also checked your latest post and can find no errors. I was glad the slips were noticed, and it gave Gringer a chance to write a story.

Jigjag, isn't it nice when a story has a happy ending?


Grunger, I thought of you today while watching a very old black and white film. There was mention of a 'burglaress'. That word must have dropped out of favour, it no longer appears in Chambers. You can take it upon yourself to use it so frequently, all across the country - it could make its way back into dictionaries?

Malone

I have never heard of the word, but it must right, logically. I will certainly use it if I get the chance.

Grunger, if you want to hear the word 'burglaress', just watch the hoary old film, 'Witness For The Prosecution'. One of the barristers pounced on a witness referring to a 'burglar'. The barrister's point was that it could just as easily have been a burglaress who broke in that evening - and the jury should take this into account. I classed it as 'clutching at straws' in the 'Defence of my client' Stakes!

Malone

Thanks for the tip. I have got the film taped so will watch it with interest.

Watching another Christie film, Poirot referred to a murderess. I am sure this is correct, but wondered why it was not murdereress, like plastereress and battereress. Do have any ideas as to the inconsistency?

Grunger, I'm very sorry, but my brain makes full use of its EFS - Ess Filtering System. As I dislike quite a few of the words ending in -ess, I get them edited out, cleansed, so that I do not absorb them. This should keep me on the straight and narrow, avoiding all the ungainly murderesses, plasteresses and so on. Even on an abstract level, the distinction between 'murderess' and 'murdereress' gets no time or attention from me - I'd rather look for errant or superfluous apostrophes...

The film was.... unintentionally very funny in places.

Malone

I have just watched it and thought it terrific. I didn't know the story.

I was pleased that the judge insisted that the prosecutor correct his poor grammar after Charles Laughton mentioned the possibility of a female burglar. No prosecutrix would have made the error, and a judgess would also have pointed this out.

I could not understand why the usher kept shouting, as no usherette would have done, and the joke about the jurors and juroresses not having passed the bar exams seemed unnecessary.

I enjoyed the acting of Tyrone Power and Marlene Poweress. Great story by a brilliant authoress.

Grunger, your review of the film was every bit as powerful and amusing as the film itself. It was lovely to see you scattering the 'ess' words around with such gay abandon.

My sister has seen the film several times and she was very put out that I regarded it as a comedy. She said 'they don't make them like that nowadays'. I was very good, I kept my 'thank goodness for that' comment to myself.