Literal flow test
Dear Aunt Marje
I noticed a reference to the Grauniad newspaper in a letter in the Drone. Was that a mistake?
P. Rint (Miss)
Dear Miss Print
More an affectionate (?) literal, as we newshounds say.
The Guardian has become celebrated for its misprints. Apparently, it all started when the original Manchester Guardian had to catch the London train before errors could be corrected
I am grateful to the paper’s Elisabeth Ribbans for the following examples: a literal flow test, so to speak.
The boobs are a long-standing tradition. An 1838 leader, for example, referred to unrest at Todmorden being caused by writers (rioters).
According to the Grauniad, George Formby was standing on a lamp post, at the corner of the street and Shakespeare’s arresting classic was The Taming of the Screw.
Perhaps the sometimes grumpy Test bowler Jimmy Anderson suffers from a condition known to the paper as irritable bowl syndrome.
Eventually, it was decided to establish the Corrections and Clarifications column. Until then acknowledgements of errors were scattered around the paper. As Ms Ribbans puts it: a sort of Spot the Balls-up competition.
But the clangers continued.
The President of the European Central Bank Wim Duisenberg became Dim Wuisenberg; an article about gays in the armed forces noted that the Admiral of the Fleet Peter Hill-Norton had ‘gone a little quiet on the subject’. He had died three months earlier. And in 1914 the paper rushed to correct a statement that a Mr C.W. Provis had been referred to as ‘the late Mr Provis’. It added cheerily: ‘We are glad to say that he is still in farily good health.’
Ms Ribbans also recalls a reader, reasonably, pointing out that a recipe for Spaghetti with Radicchio, Fennel and Rosemary didn’t include spaghetti, radicchio, fennel or rosemary.
And what about The Guardian lifting an article from Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat newspaper under the byline Jatkuu Seuraavalla Sivulla?
It was left to a reader to mention that was Finnish for ‘continued on the next page’.
Sometimes the Corrections and Clarifications column was forced to bollock itself. For example: ‘We misspelled the word misspelled twice as mispelled on September 26.’
And the column admitted in 1999: ‘The absence of corrections yesterday was due to a technical hitch rather than any onset of accuracy.’
As Shakespeare did say: ‘For this relief, much thanks.’
Gender mender
Dear Aunt Marje
My BBF is pregnant and has asked me to organise her GR party. WTF?
Innocent Abroad
Dear IA,
I admit you had me nonplussed initially (forgive Aunt Marje’s little joke) but then I cracked the code: your bestest best friend has asked you lay on a gender reveal party and you’re not sure how to proceed.
Simps, really. You go along with your pregnant pal when she has the scan that determines whether she’s having a boy or girl. The radiographer will write the gender on a piece of paper and pop it in an envelope which you then snaffle.
All you’ve got to do is invite other vapid airheads who know the mum-to-be to a soirée (or maybe matinee) to witness The Revelation. Sometimes releasing blue or pink balloons will suffice but I understand cutting a cunningly disguised sponge cake and handing around blue or pink slices is very en pointe just now.
Other Me Me Me opportunities for achingly trendy expectant couples currently include a Babymoon, a Baby Shower and a Push Present (please don’t ask).
Fartleking like the wind
Dear Aunt Marje
The return of the London Marathon has got me thinking. I must admit to allowing the old avoirdupois to run riot during lately and I really should do something about it. What think you to running?
Phil Pheidippides
Dear PP,
Excellent exercise, of course, and an accepted way to lose those extra pounds. But there’s nothing more tedious than a self-righteous shaved matchstick droning [sic] on about aerobic development, muscle regeneration and satisfying fartleks.
And it can be a humiliating experience. My uncle Ronnie (aka ‘the Scapegrace of the Remove’ when he was at school) once ran the marathon to lose weight. As he started to feel the strain through Docklands, he was incensed when spectators shouted: ‘Come on, fat man!’ So much so, that he gritted his teeth, dug deep and increased his pace just to fucking show them. Alas, when people again clamoured: ‘Faster, fat man!’ on the Embankment, he had no reserves of energy left … and allowed someone dressed as Batman to overtake him.
Subbing on a G-string
Dear Aunt Marje,
Your colleague/alter ego, the well known awards nominee Rosalie Rambleshanks, still, amazingly, a trainee, mentioned ‘Mail Onlinespeak’ in a recent, rather good, History in Moments piece on Dame J. Dench. What did that mean?
Seeker After Truth
Dear SAT,
The Mail Online ‘subs’ team obviously has what Sir Larold Lamb used to refer to as ‘a stokers’ mess ethos’. They try to out-do each other describing the bodies and skimpy apparel of Z-list influencers and wannabe mummers and chanteuses.
It’s a milieu of ‘thigh-skimming scanties’, ‘racing pulses’, ‘slender pins’ and ‘taut midriffs’. One young lady might be ‘sending temps soaring in a burnt orange bralet’ while another is ‘exuding glamour in a perilously low cut monochrome jumpsuit’. Also look out for someone who ‘sizzles in plunging orange bikini as she puts on a giddy display with beau’ or ‘displays a fit figure in little red floral print dress’. You might also encounter what Prodnose used to call a bimbo who ‘exhibits her stellar style as she strips down to a lacy G-string to flaunt her pert derriere’.
As the great Peter McKay was wont to confide in the Back Bar of the Flying Fuck: ‘Isn’t life grand?’
You little lyre
Dear Aunt Marje,
I know it’s the Silly Season and all that and the papers are full of rubbish but what’s the most boring thing you’ve read lately?
Langton Matravers
Dear LM
You’re so right. We’re at the height of Staycation Summer when the effluent of Sarf London and various Thames-side towns (should that be ‘affluent’? - Ed) decamp to the south coast for ‘a bit of colour’ and that’s the excuse for the posh news sheets to peddle their tedious lists: 20 best fish’n’chips, surfing beaches, riverside pubs, bijou B&Bs etc. The Times, though, has plumbed new depths filling a spreadover by asking ‘personalities’ what they never go on holiday without.
Marmite, says Ben Fogle; a suede backgammon set: Mariella Frostrup; tick remover forks: Simon Reeve; vegan chocolate: Chris Packham; vacuum-packed bread: nutritionist Gabriela Peacock. But the prize (and, surely, a place in another publication’s Pseuds’ Corner) goes to The Times Walks Correspondent (WTF?) Christopher Somerville, who writes: ‘I don’t go on holiday without my 16-string lyre. It’s portable, provides polite parlour music and pretty folk songs and … (Enough - Ed).
Shush, we're in Continent
Dear Aunt Marje
This Covid roadmap uncertainty about holidays is really confusing me. Green, amber, red: what the fuck’s going on? Any advice on destinations?
Staycation Sue
Dear SS
It’s difficult, isn’t it? There’s always a temptation to sneak abroad on the quiet in which case a haven in Cognito might do; in Communicado is best if you want to keep it quiet. Best not to be in Cahoots with people who are used to being in Doubt or Sane. Much more preferable to be in Flexible. If you don’t want to be left in Suspense and are desperate, you’re best in Extremis.
Why not liven up Love Island proceedings in Flagrante Delicto or have a few sherbets in Capable?
But don’t delay. Time’s passing. Book now before you find you’re in Continent.
You’ve been framed
Dear Aunt Marje
I hope you can help me because I’m in a bit of a panic to be honest. You see, I find I’m in agreement with Labour’s Baroness Chakrabarti over vaccination passports. Is there a cure? Will I be all right?
Single Jab
Dear SJ,
Oh, that sounds nasty. So much so that I consulted the Daily Drone medic, Dr Frame. Apparently, this is more common than you’d think, especially in some parts of North London. Calm down, take a deep breath and put your head between your knees.You should feel better soon. Dr Frame says that, normally, he would prescribe a vigorous rub down with a moist barmaid but you’ll have to wait for a vaccine passport to have that, won’t you?
Nurse! The screens
Dear Aunt Marje
Can Gavin Williamson possibly survive?
Head Mistress
Dear HM,
Do you know, I couldn’t give a Flying Fuck on a wet Wednesday. I’ve had it up to here with people and their pettifogging problems: I’ve got plenty of my own. Here I am, a beautiful rosebud, trembling on the threshold of the full bloom of adulthood, chained to a creaking laptop in my bedroom. What have I got in my lockdown life? Can’t see my pals; no boyfriend; brother away at uni; mummy nagging me to join one of the yoga classes she gives on Zoom or to ‘get a proper job’. She has a point there, though.
Nominated for two prestigious awards and still a trainee: what, pray, does that tell you? My byline picture isn’t even me. It’s Clint the cross-dressing ceramicist from Chelmsford. Then there are the jobs I’m given to do: pieces about that unholy trinity Peter Wyngarde, Jason King and Dirk Doppelgänger. I mean I wouldn’t mind but who the fuck are they? Now they’ve got someone called Oliver writing the Nancy Boys diary about their move to the country. I could have done that.
And pals of his Droneship or the Editor are always sidling up seeking puffs for their oeuvres: one’s even written a book about a clown and Judy Garland’s dog. I ask you. The other day I wanted to contribute a piece to my popular Lookalikes series but I was let down by the Picture Desk. Library? Forget it.
Sorry, HM, you’ve caught me at a challenging moment but, ever the professional, I’ll answer your question about the Education Secretary: not a chance. Now piss off!
(Rosalie, dear, could you pop in when you’ve taken your meds? — Ed)
It wouldn’t happen here
Dear Aunt Marje,
That kerfuffle on Capitol Hill: your take?
Liberty Belle
Dear LB,
Disgraceful scenes all right, LB. One wonders what Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Madison would have made of this affront to democracy. But, rest assured, that sort of thing could never happen in the UK.
It’s unimaginable that a democratic vote (however small the majority) would be subject to continued attempts to overturn it.
It’s ridiculous to suggest that distinguished politicians and former prime ministers would actually demand a People’s Vote on a People’s Vote because they didn’t agree with the result of the first one.
It’s unthinkable that demonstrators would occupy Parliament Square for months and that the law would be invoked in an attempt to thwart the will of the people.
It’s inconceivable to imagine that the Speaker of the Mother of Parliaments would nakedly work against the democratic process on which the House of Commons is founded.
It’s laughable that apparently sensible people, in terminal denial, would flood social media to moan and groan incessantly that black was, in fact, white.
How America must envy us, eh?
White out
Dear Aunt Marje
The new Netflix bonkbuster Bridgerton would have us believe that some in Regency England’s high society were not, how shall I put it, of Anglo Saxon stock. What are we to make of that?
Puzzled Viewer
Dear PV
I’ve caught this American production and it is a bit bizarre I agree but it’s also a lot of fun: beautiful cast, sumptuous costumes, and not a trace of shit in the streets.
I suppose that, at a reputed £5million an episode, Netflix are entitled to recruit whom they wish, including a black Queen Charlotte. It’s called colour-blind casting, I’m told, and we’re naughty to notice. The Grauniad certainly didn’t: in a 700-word review it isn’t mentioned once.
Also, I suspect, it’s theatrical wokedom slyly teasing those of us who thought England in 1813 was not like that at all. So, book now for Dominic West and Lily James in Porgy and Bess; Julian Clary must be a shoo-in for the title role in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Let the luvvies enjoy their whimsy. Bless.
More pernicious, though, is what is happening in TV advertising. It seems almost obligatory for a black man to have a white wife these days and some ads feature all black families. Nothing wrong with that but, statistically, it’s flawed. A recent analysis of 1,000 ads broadcast in the UK revealed that 37% featured black people even though they make up just 3% of the British population. Now that would make Don Draper mad.
It’s the splash!
Dear Aunt Marje,
Wild water swimming: thoughts?
Chapped Thighs
Dear CT,
First, congratulations on the second shortest question (after Tog? in September) I have received this year. I’m going to have to be careful on this one, though. I know, from sharing a spare prize bottle of Appellation Richard Chateauneuf du Pape with darling Matt off-piste in the American Bar of the Flying Fuck, that these health chappies are hot on any sort of exercise during the pandemic.
But Wild? Water? Swimming? In Winter? OK, so it’s exercise. In the fresh air. But jumping into a lake, river or outdoor pool at this time of year? Do leave it out, as my cleaner says.
Yet the author of Wild Swimming, Daniel Start (I wish he’d fucking stop), says: ‘There’s something slightly naughty, a little bit scary and wonderfully invigorating about entering open water with just your skin (and perhaps a swimming costume) between you and the elements.’
You see where this is heading don’t you? Into the dripping green world of insufferable smugdom: cue up-your-bum Grauniad puffs for ‘spring-fed quarry lakes with glistening jade water’ or ‘lunar snorkel safaris under a full moon’. Beware, too, the achingly twee names of the sort of clubs you’d be expected to join: the Open Water Beauts, the Salty Seabirds, the Blue Tits, the Neoprene Queens or the Chunky Dunkers.
If you’re still convinced this is a good idea, pose for the obligatory self-satisfied Facebook snap, take the plunge and plough on...leaving the rest of us spluttering in your woke.
Melting point
Dear Aunt Marje
We’re led to believe that young people defied the latest Coronavirus restrictions to flood city centres because they’re fed up. When I sympathised with my contemporaries, my grandad woke up and called me a snowflake and said I haven’t lived. What can he mean?
Worried Teen
Dear WT,
Old folk are maddening like that. They sit in their wipe-down chairs sucking their Werthers and pontificate about everything and anyone until Pointless starts. But I guess I can see his point.
Just think. When GD was your age our greatest prime minister, Winston Churchill, was still in No.10. Forget the Second World War for a minute, people then were still affected by the first lot (40 million casualties) and the flu pandemic (50 million deaths) that followed. Not to mention the growth of Communism, the birth of the Nazis, the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression. And let’s not forget Stalin’s reign of terror (up to nine million victims).
Second World War? Seventy-five million deaths followed by Korea (five million) and Vietnam (1.3 million). All the while, the Cold War threatened to ignite Armageddon. British military personnel also died in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the Gulf and Afghanistan. A chilling fact: from 1945 to 2016 there was only one year (1968) when there were no British casualties in conflict.
Get it? All He Who Must be Respected is saying is: Invite a smidgin of perspective into your young, innocent, sadly immature life. Snowflake!
Quantum of solace
Dear Aunt Marje,
These latest three-tier Covid restrictions are doing my fucking head in. Have you any words of solace?
Best Boy
Dear BB,
I think it's fair to say, universally, we've all had a challenging year.
No matter our culture, colour, or corporate disposition, I believe challenging times present critical opportunities to reflect on the gift of life and precious memories it brings to each of us in small moments of interaction, encouragement, and storytelling growth.
Every second, each thought, and every breath you spend sharing your stories with others is a gift.
Please be safe. Enjoy each breath. Write a letter (with a pen - even if you don't mail it). Watch a foreign movie. Cry shyly at how far you've come as a parent, partner, or pioneer.
Give a meal — just one this time, you give so much already. Blast some music and dance to your achievements: you've earned it.
Hug virtually, code with a smile, listen to the point of pain, divorce any shame or unforgiveness, then be thankful. Why? Because you are a gift to the universe, and the world needs more gifts, like you!
For some reason and for what it's worth, no matter the pain or problems, I've learned a thankful mind frees the soul from the chaotic constraints of the unknown and stimulates an unspeakable peace despite all that has been lost or feels missing.
What a Wynner
Dear Aunt Marje
Is it OK to be a Peter Wyngarde lookalike?
Dirk Doppelgänger
Oh, come on, DD, this is no time for second thoughts, regrets. So an online newspaper has obtained a picture of you in industrial retro mode. So what? Think of it as part of your unique back story; a life choice to be proud of.
After all, darling Peter was a marvellous actor, wasn’t he? Truly a big star on a small screen who appeared with the likes of Burton, Leigh and Garrick (Eh? - Ed). Let us remember His Royal Hirsuteness Jason King with affection and respect; that poise, that panache, those wide-lapelled three-piece suits. Let us savour, still, the rich timbre of his soothing voice. Truly a role model for any questioning youth trembling on the brink of adulthood.
And let’s forget once and for all, shall we, that messy, unseemly incident with a sweaty crane driver in the public loos of Gloucester railway station.
Frame up
Dear Aunt Marje
I’ve got a professional problem and I need your advice (and please can we keep it ‘off the books’ vis-à-vis the Editor). An old friend of his wants me to interview him in the Back Bar of the Flying Fuck when LD2 ends. Apparently, he’s written a book about Dorothy’s dog in the Wizard of Oz and a clown (just imagine!). Trouble is, Mummy heard him on the radio and, to be honest, he sounds like a bit of an old ronny (do you mean roué, dear?) What shall I do?
Awards Nominee Rosalie Rambleshanks (trainee)
Dear ANRR (t)
First, on no account must you meet him, especially in the Flying Fuck: the Back Bar is the slippery slope to perdition for any young girl on a winter’s afternoon. No, if you must interview him, insist on a telephone chat citing Coronavirus restrictions. The subject? I do sympathise, darling. It sounds just the sort of thing they get the poor, bloody trainee to do. Here’s a tip: after a bit of preliminary flim-flam let him get on with it, make the occasional grunt and, when he’s finished, don’t forget to say how marvellous it was. You know the drill.
Hand job
Dear Aunt Marje,
Why do politicians like being photographed holding hands with their wives?
Shakin’ Stevens
Dear SS,
Funny, I thought the same when I saw Joe Biden and his lady after they had cast their presidential election votes. In Joseph Robinette (crazy name, crazy guy etc) Biden’s case, of course, he probably needed the fragrant Jill’s support just to make it back to the limo.
And don’t forget, for most politicians the very act of entering the polling booth is enough to make them feel bilious and unsteady on their feet: they loathe witnessing real democracy in action.
Others grasp their partner’s mitts just to try to prove how loved-up and family friendly they are: think two-faced twats such as Blair, Cameron and Clegg.
I always rely on the sage advice of the Roman philosopher and seer, Shanksimus Maximus, who said: Cross ye not the Rubicon with a tribune who holds milady’s hand in the Forum. Nuff said.
Down the pan
Dear Aunt Marje
I’m worried about the effect of the pandemic on the stock market. Last year I invested £1,000 in Delta Airlines. Now the shares are worth £49. A similar investment in Lehman Bros is worth nothing. My wife is threatening a massive spend-up when lockdown ends but I don’t think we can afford it: what shall I do?
Small Investor
Dear SI
Don’t panic, that’s what. Explain to your wife that life, like stock markets, has its ups and downs and that both of you should stop snivelling. Be positive!
If you had invested £1,000 in lager a year ago, like some do, and had taken all the empty aluminium cans to a scrap dealer you would have got £214. So AM’s best current investment plan is to drink up and recycle.
Labour’s Lost
Dear Aunt Marje
If Anneliese Dodds is the answer, what on earth was the question?
John Frost
Dear JF
Ah, you must be referring to the paucity of talent on the Labour front bench. I guess you thought that after culling Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, Thornberry and, God help us, Dawn fucking Butler, everything would be all right.
Instead, another bunch of no-hopers exemplified, perhaps, by the nocturnal woodland creature caught in the unforgiving searchlight of scrutiny that is the Shadow Chancellor. Incidentally, and I don’t know what this says about our education system, Ms Dodds has degrees from three different universities!
So where did it all go wrong?
Let’s pass over Labour’s admirable Big Beasts from the postwar era such as Attlee, Gaitskell, Wilson, Callaghan, Healey, Bevan and Crossman. It’s martyrs, such as your namesake, the Tolpuddle Six and the unsung heroes who fought for the various Factory Acts, trade union representation and universal suffrage who have been so woefully betrayed by the modern Labour movement.
And please don’t be taken in by the identikit Sir Keir (how Hardie must be flip-flopping in his grave) Starmer. Be assured: There really is less to him than meets the eye.
Remember, he was the DPP when journalists were hung out to dry in the Operation Elvedon payments to officials witch-hunt (Stasi-style dawn raids, sobbing children, the Yard’s finest shamelessly rummaging through teenage girls’ knicker drawers).
I think it was Sinatra of whom it was said: ‘There is no grudge, however big and heavy, that he would not bear. And if he couldn’t do it alone, he’d get someone to help.’
Gone viral
Dear Aunt Marje
Help! So these new Covid restrictions are really, really freaking me out. What am I to do?
Snow Flake
Dear SF
As someone who has just realised that her byline picture is actually Claire the cross-dressing ceramicist from Chelmsford, do you honestly think I give a flying fuck? (Rosalie, dear, please try to remember your new role as a caring counsellor and confidante — Ed).
All right, then. Listen up! Get cooking. Learn to play the guitar as well as Tel Manners (there’s a couple of days accounted for). Go literary: absorb the collected works of T.P. Fielden, the Cocky Clements canon, the odd Zackon novella. Speak Welsh (Am yr uffern am?).
Use the time saved by the pub curfew wisely. Get fit: at least two hours exercise a day, weights, bike rides, punishing Pilates. Target 100,000 steps a week: lose some weight for Christ’s sake.
What about family time? Shut the laptop. Switch off the Huawei. Chat to siblings instead and really listen to what they say. Show mum and dad you really care. Eat together, laugh together, love together, play together, pray together.
And when you find in six months that the only time you get up from your fetid pit is to accept parcels from Amazon or TKMaxx you’ll realise what a snivelling loser you are. That help?
Star struck
Dear Aunt Marje,
Forgive me for mentioning it, but the new photograph used to illustrate your column seems to show a much older lady. What’s happened?
Worried Fan
Dear WF,
I have to be careful what I say, you understand, but there appears to have been an outbreak of wokeness at the Daily Drone (and I appreciate that’s an oxymoron). Apparently, Lord D has decreed that what we call ‘byline pictures’ should more accurately reflect our roles on the online newspaper.
Thus, the Editor will no longer be portrayed as a cheeky young scamp wearing a monocle who squeezes himself under desks and makes duck noises but will now appear as a venerable gentleman, past middle age, who sports a pillbox sunhat on the front at Swanage.
I have been told that my photograph must show me more as an Agony Aunt than as an astrologer.
I chide myself for not seeing this coming but also feel this is a gentle rebuke to me for not predicting what the stars foretell (tall, dark stranger is about to enter your life yawn, yawn)
Apparently, His Lordship has suggested that I should forget the horoscopes and concentrate on my valuable work as a counsellor and adviser and that I should model myself on Marje Proops (no, me neither). Proddie says he once had a drink with Ms Proops in the back bar of the Flying Fuck. Or it may have been Jean Rook, he’s not sure.
Anyway, onwards and sideways!
Under cover
Dear Gipsy Rosalie,
Tog?
Freshers Face
Dear FF,
Congratulations on the shortest question I have been asked and, surely, a bouquet to me for realising what the fuck you’re on about. It’s university time isn’t it? In a couple of weeks young people will leave home to start their adult life as students.
And the most pressing questions are not: Am I at the right university? Am I on the correct course? Should I be here at all? Will I lose my virginity before Christmas? Can I hold my drink enough not to make a fool of myself? Is it really possible to stand on a chair with a full pint of Struan’s Scrotum on your head and remove all your clothes while singing Have You Seen The Muffin Man??
No, the almost unanswerable poser is: what tog rating should the student duvet be?
You see, as I found at DMU, halls based on single bedrooms grouped round joint living room/kitchens can be so bloody hot. But from the second year on you’ll be in some grotty student digs miles from the union, in an area even Uber dares not roam, where the heating’s on the blink, the wind whistles through ill-fitting windows and the landlord’s a predatory space invader to say the least.
Basically, the higher the tog rating the warmer the duvet or, to put it more simply, as a tog is 0.1 m2K/W, the thermal resistance in togs is equal to 10 times the temperature difference Celsius between the two surfaces of a material when the flow of heat is equal to one watt per square metre.
I suggest you reject the one-tog-fits-all theory and go for: first year (warm halls): 2.5 - 7 tog; second and third year (draughty digs): 10.5 - 13. Don’t worry about the expense (they’re as cheap as chips at Dunelm). After a year of vomit, semen, jam, egg yolk, dhansak, baked beans and pot noodle effluent you’ll find you need a new duvet and, by then, you will probably have dropped out anyway.
Cool at school
Dear Gipsy Rosalie
We’ve got our eldest girl into a rather good senior school (the fees are ruinous, by the way). She’s a bright kid and I’ve no worries about her academically. I’m more interested in extra curricular activities which will transform her into a well-rounded young woman. Any thoughts?
Mother Hen
Dear MH,
You’re right. Bespectacled, swottish geeks are no one’s idea of fun. My views on dancing (see Light Fantastic below) have received more Drone ‘hits’ than even my advice to the young man whose wife started carrying a whip and serving him hoppel poppel. Which reminds me: cooking is still very cool.
Singing’s nice and very de rigueur among the set I guess you’re aiming at. Stick to motets and madrigals, though. Karaoke and screeching I Will Survive in a Prosecco Made Me Do It T-shirt will get your gel noticed in totally the wrong way.
Swimming’s a must, by the way. It’s no use being on a yacht if you can’t front crawl over the cabin boy on a beach accessible only by sea.
Other sport? Tennis is OK but, since the Williams sisters, its stock has fallen somewhat. Rugby? Avoid like the the BBC ‘news’ (and the plague). Wearing a scrum cap, bandaging your breasts and boasting you’re a hooker is not the way forward.
Footie? Don’t even mention it but, in truth, it’s clever to know the difference between a clean sheet and a cattenaccio. Avoid rowing. Chaps look dishy with their bodies between their knees but, for a girl, all that pulling, combined with swimming training, produces shoulders and thighs like the finest prosciutto. Let’s not mention darts or snooker at all shall we?
My uncle Ronnie, AKA the Scapegrace of the Remove, often recalled an Old Pauline he used to date who was a whizz at the sort of card games usually played by riverboat roués with narrowed eyes, a long cheroot and a Peacemaker in the pocket.
Apparently, what she couldn’t do going blind with a royal bouncing flush and a pryle of threes was no one’s business. Maybe your daughter should try it.
Travellers’ tales
Dear Aunt Marje
As it’s holiday time, do you ever get nostalgic for your caravan days?
Camp Follower
Dear CF,
Caravan days? Ah, I see what you mean. No, not for me the open road: hot, sweet tea brewed in a billycan in a lay-by near Basildon and piebald ponies in the paddock. No hedgehogs roasting on an open fire for me nor Hunt the Beaver with the Galway cousins in the river at Appleby. No evocative scent of freshly mixed Tarmac, nostalgic winter nights twisting plastic heather into ‘lucky’ nosegays or browsing through the latest brochures for upscale pick-ups and luxury 4X4s.
Much less romantic, I’m afraid.
Although, when I was very young, Granny used to take us to San Marino and Ancona or over to Hvar and Korcula if she could hitch a ride on someone’s yacht. Of course that was in the old Yugoslavia, ruled over by someone called Tito. Proddie says that the mere mention of his name used to elicit much merriment in the old Express newsroom. What larks they must have had.
My parents favoured what we now call staycations. Swanage used to be a favourite but mummy says it’s now been invaded by surburban riffraff in designer sleeveless vests and pillbox sun hats anxious to replicate Tel’s Caff’n’Bar in Tenerife (John Smiths on tap and Tea Like Muvver Used ter Make). Now a typical seafront conversation is: ‘You look well, Al. Bin abroad? ‘ Nah. Just down the van for a bit of colour’.
Light fantastic
Dear Aunt Marje
Do you think it’s necessary these days for a girl to know how to dance?
Dancing Teen
Dear DT,
Of course it is. Dance? Love it. Just L-U-R-V-E it. Can’t wait for Strictly to start. Socially distanced? Don’t care. The glitter ball spinning, Tess and the other one mummy says is beyond the fringe, Flamboyant Bruno and Cuddly Craig (that’s not a phrase you see often). Daring, skimpy outfits for the girls; same for the boys. En pointe, I declare, en pointe.
At LEH the games mistress, Miss Fortescue-Pirbright, was surprisingly nimble and light on her feet for someone who propped the Hampton Ladies extra B. There’s nothing like a Funky Gibbon between friends, she used to say. Miss FP and her companion, Elspeth, introduced us to the gavotte, minuet, bourrue, palais glide, veleta, gay gordons, the saunter, the galop and the Viennese Whirl (or is that a cake?).*
I also joined a dance group at freshers when I went up to De Montford. To be honest, when you’re doing media studies there’s plenty of time for that sort of thing.
Course it hasn’t got the social allure that it once had. Dance cards, bowls of punch and twilight assignations on the terrace, a la Joan Hunter Dunn. That sort of thing.
I remember Granny Rambleshanks confessed that she always got a bit breathless doing the dashing white sergeant and saying that, after a Martini or two, there was nothing so satisfying as a good energetic frug. That’s granny for you!
*It’s a biscuit — Ed
Serious point
Dear Aunt Marje,
I know it’s an odd thing to ask a journalist but do you read newspapers?
Reverse Ferret
Dear RF,
Actually, I don’t in the physical, arm-aching, wind-flapping, nasty inky newsprint way but, of course, like most people of my age, I read them online. The former Expressman who seems to be a fixture in the Drone newsroom (he calls himself Prodnose for some reason; no, me neither!), often reminisces about the ‘good old days’. He mourns what he sees as the decline of journalism. The nationals are limping on but he says local newspapers are withering before our eyes.
For instance, when he started on a county town weekly it would cover two magistrates’ courts daily, quarter sessions, assizes, county court and bankruptcy hearings. Nowadays, does anyone go to court at all? Just think of all the stories that are missed, the miscreants not held to account.
Old Proddie says he’s given up on his local rag and has to rely on his council website and its email alerts for ‘news’ about his community. But they only tell you what they want you to know and as Hearst said: ‘News is something someone wants to suppress.’
Here’s a question for you, RF: Do you think I am in the right job?
Get fell in!
Dear Aunt Marje,
Do you think young people should have some form of military training?
Square Basher
Dear SB,
Although my old school, Lady Eleanor Holles, had a CCF detachment, I never joined but they say the games mistress, Miss Fortescue-Pirbright, would have reduced a bunch of squaddies to tears in no time. I once overheard Parry, the school porter, saying of her: ‘Old Thunderthighs could make me stand to attention any time’ but I’m not really sure what he was referring to.
My cousin, Richie, went to an obscure school in Northern Ireland where the Corps was run by a former Ranger (you know, the ones with the funny green hats). But he said that all they seemed to do was stand around shouting ‘No surrender!’ at each other.
Perhaps you’re thinking of the Scouts. I Zoomed my great aunt, Edith Ladysmith-Shanks, who knew the Baden Powells between the wars, at her Pitlochry care home. She recalled fondly the boys camping in Fowler’s Meadow behind the Dower House and watching them fiddling around in their tight khaki shorts. With an outrageous wink, she said: ‘Now that even the Chief Scout is bare, all bets are orf. Be Prepared, don’t ye know?’ I’m still trying to work out what she meant.
Trouble brewing
Dear Aunt Marje,
Do you think there is anything about which more bollocks is written and spoken than Real Ale?
Betty Babycham
Dear BB,
Don’t get me started! I see them in the back bar of the Flying Fuck when I’m on a break: the CAMRA Crew. Hollering, bragging, braying, bantering — the effluent of minor public schools and second rate unis (né polys) with their cheap suits, spiky hair and straggly beards half hiding fat, florid faces.
Sampling guest ales in shot glasses, amid much lip smacking, before deigning to buy a glass of the apparently orgasm-inducing nectar which they hold up to the light, to rapturous acclaim, as if it were the Holy Grail.
Then it’s back to fraternal ribaldry, telling risqué jokes, denigrating the Chemical Clowns (lager drinkers), trashing reputations and swapping assessments of the new graduate trainee in Analytics, the one with the big bust.
My brother (one after-match shandy then on to the red) invited some team members from West Byfleet Extra B around for a drink in the garden. As they are all real ale bores, he laid on a decent array ranging from Pride, for the unadventurous, then Speckled Hen, some Hobgoblin Ruby, Adnams Ghost Ship, St Austell Tribute and Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.
They started off in industrial quaffing mode but as soon as they learned there was also a half decent Chilean merlot on offer they switched as swiftly as shit off a shovel. Feet of clay posers, BB, feet of clay posers.
Stumped
Dear Aunt Marje,
Now the cricket season has started at last (my, some of those West Indian chaps are fit, aren’t they?) my American boyfriend has been watching the first Test on Sky. He has no knowledge of cricket at all: how can I explain what’s going on?
Sally Midon
Dear SM,
It’s simple. Tell him there are two sides: one out in the field and the other in.
Each player that’s in the side that’s in goes out.
When he’s out he comes in and the next player goes in until he’s out.
When they’re all out, the side’s that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
Sometimes a player can be in and not out.
When a player goes out to go in, the team who are out try to get him out and when he is out he goes in and the next player in goes out and goes in when he’s out.
There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time but are never in except when they come in. They decide when the players who are in are out.
When both sides have been in and all the players have been out and both teams have been out twice after all the players have been in, including those who are not out, they all come in for tea and that is the end of the game.
Got it?
Eton mess
Dear Aunt Marje,
I fancy getting a tattoo. What do you think?
Blank Canvas
Dear BC,
Oooh, er. I wouldn’t rush into this if I were you. I’ve never wanted a scarab on my shoulder, My Little Pony on my ankle or a dolphin diving down my knickers to my back passage. Tattoos may be all right for footballers, servicemen and flash herberts from Essex but not for people like us.
And fast forward a few years to when your firstborn has been offered an all-expenses, fees paid scholarship to Eton. All it requires is for you to go along and be ‘accepted’. You might put some slap on that tear on your left cheek and hide the
L-O-V-E and H-A-T-E on your knuckles but do you really think you’ll get away with dancing with the Provost at Founder’s Ball when you’ve got Fuck Me Roughly I’m A Biker’s Bitch all over your décolletage?
Flight of fancy
Dear Aunt Marje,
I thought I’d turn to you because the Drone’s always good on rural matters (other so-called online newspapers are so London centric). We’re having some trouble with green parakeets which have taken over our village, terrorising other birds and screeching interminably. Any suggestions?
Country Lover
Dear CL,
None, I’m afraid. It’s just something we have to live with like the fucking BBC. But let me debunk one rural myth. Some say they are descended from parakeets released into the wild when production of the Humphrey Bogart-Katherine Hepburn film The African Queen (filmed at, bizarrely, Isleworth Studios) ended in 1951. This is not true. But the estimated 8,000 or so breeding pairs of rose-ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri) now living in the UK are becoming a problem.
Mummy remembers Grandfather Rambleshanks sitting on the terrace with the first Tanqueray and tonic (lime, never lemon) of the evening watching the sun go down over the village green and cursing the parakeets which had taken over the silver birch on the edge of Walton’s Spinney. When they started to eat his Coxes, he got Wee Mac, the ghillie, to break out his 1915 Addis and Lloyd single barrel .410 and took pot shots at the little blighters. Of course, you couldn’t do that now.
Goodbye, Dolly!
Dear Aunt Marje,
Would you want to live for ever?
Day Dreamer
Dear DD,
My, what a simple yet complex question. It certainly sent me scurrying for my crystal ball, shuffling the tarot cards and dancing around the chicken bones.
I also spent time in Daddy’s wine cellar where I keep my reference books on the works of the Extreme life Extensionists. How shall I guide you? I could remind you of the thought of one (long dead) philosopher: ‘The trouble with immortality is it just goes on and on’ or Edgar A. Shoaff’s aphorism: ‘Immortality - a fate worse than death’.
Instead I will quote the reply Miss Alabama gave when she was asked the same question during the Miss USA contest in 1994: ‘I would not live for ever because we should not live for ever because if we were supposed to live for ever then we would live for ever but we cannot live for ever which is why I would not live for ever.’
Says it all, doesn’t it?
Hello, Dolly!
Dear Aunt Marje,
I see the Sunday Times is trumpeting the appointment of a new agony aunt who promises to give advice on ‘life/work mojos, existential angst and life dilemmas’ plus ‘the worries that keep you awake at night’. But isn’t that what you do?
Jess Asken
Dear JA
Yes, I’d noticed that someone called Dolly Alderton (cue Hello, Dolly! headlines from unimaginative, piss-poor subs) was going to take on this task. I suspect, though, it will turn out to be the usual quasi woke, condescending dross about discharges, penis lengths, Second World War Auxiliary Territorial Service breast-enlargement workouts or whether it is feasible to conceive while standing erect (sic).
On the other hand, you will have noticed that I concentrate on more cerebral intellectual challenges. My next, when the Drone Editor chooses to publish it, would have taxed the metaphysical masters, including Sartre, Utkarsh Chatarvedi, Joseph Owens (although he was more of a redemptorist) and Gottlob Frege. Watch this space!
Stop Press
Dear Aunt Marje,
I wonder if you could help on an educational matter. I am in the sixth form at St Heather’s, Upminster (you know, it’s several stops past Barking) and am considering going up to De Montfort University in Leicester to study journalism like what you did.
I have to admit my grammar is not good, I can’t stand current affairs (except between Love Island celebs!), am not in the least bit inquisitive and strong drink makes me squiffy. Do you think I’m cut out for the sound and fury of the Street of Shame?
Dora Doorstep
Dear DD
I recommend a thorough, ongoing review of your career ambitions. As you will appreciate, it is not long since I left DMU but I have been chatting to that odd cove, a former Expressman, who has taken to hanging around the Daily Drone newsroom. He said that a journalism or media degree was ‘as much use as the rough end of a green pineapple for soothing piles’ whatever that means. Apparently, newspapers prefer to teach entrants the rudiments of their craft themselves rather than rely on some has-been from a weekly newsroom who has reinvented himself as a ‘lecturer’. If you still want to be a hack, get a degree in History, English or PPE by all means, he says, but then move onto a Masters in Bare-faced Cheek and a Doctorate in Ratlike Cunning. They’re the real journalism qualifications.
Sour taste
Dear Aunt Marje,
Please advise me on a sensitive matter of etiquette. Some girlfriends and I have taken to hosting small champagne parties in our gardens as lockdown is gradually lifted. The other day one of them served a champagne which I found distinctly sour and unpalatable. I mentally held my nose, drank mine and made polite noises of appreciation. What should I have done? By the way, I only caught a quick glimpse of the label: Pal Roget I thought it was.
Feeling Flat
Dear FF,
If the champagne had been Pal Roget it would have not only been sour but acid, acidy, acidulated, tart, bitter, sharp, acetic, vinegary, pungent, acrid, biting, stinging, burning, smarting, unpleasant, distasteful and, for that matter, distinctly unfriendly. So I guess it was, in fact, Pol Roger, a decent enough bottle of fizz. Look, even the best wines can sometimes be a bit ‘orf’. The polite thing to do is to grin and bear it and say something like: ‘I do so love those West-facing grapes from the Vallée d’Épernay, don’t you?’
Weighty matter
Dear Aunt Marje,
My wife and I are a fit and active couple in our seventies frustrated by the restrictions the lockdown has put on regular exercising. We go for a daily walk, which is good for our legs etc but, apart from boring press-ups, we are at a loss how to hone our coracobrachialis, triceps brachii and, of course, the musculocutaneous nerve. Can you help?
Muscle Tony
Dear MT,
I’m glad you and HID are still working out. Here is an exercise which promotes wellbeing and gradually gets rid of those pesky bingo wings!
Take a 5lb potato bag in each hand and hold them out in front of you for as long as you can and then repeat to the side. Try to reach a full minute and then relax. Each day you’ll find you can do this for just a bit longer.
After a couple of weeks move up to 10lb potato bags and gradually increase to 30lb and 40lb bags. Then go for a 50lb bag in each hand remembering to hold them out for at least a minute. When you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag and really go for the burn!
Tinkle teaser
Dear Aunt Marje,
Now the lockdown has been eased we have taken to inviting a few friends to have a drink (or two!) in the garden when the weather is fine. Trouble is, my wife is reluctant to allow them to come inside to use our bathroom and this is causing problems. It’s all right for the men: we just tell them to wander to the end of the garden and to pee into the compost heap in the belief that human urine discourages vermin. But for the wives it’s a bit tricky. Any thoughts?
Splash Sub
Dear SS,
You seem well on top of this as far as the men are concerned and are also avoiding unsightly drips on your bathroom floor tiles (yellow and white: not a good mix). For the women, I suggest issuing incontinence pads. Granny Rambleshanks swears by Always Discreet (www.alwaysdiscreet.com)
They’re ultra thin, comfortable and fit any body shape. Alternatively, it might be fun to watch them squirm, red-faced after two or three glasses of PG before dashing to their cars. After all, you wouldn’t want them to outstay their welcome would you?
What a pillage
Dear Aunt Marje,
My partner recently discovered he has Scandinavian ancestry and is now in extreme Viking mode: full beard, industrial strength wassailing, the lot. When we go for our lockdown walks we have to pass over a little bridge. He has taken to scampering ahead, hiding underneath it and leaping out at me, shouting: “I’m a troll fol-de-rol and I’m going to eat you for supper.” What shall I do?
Little Mermaid
Dear LM,
This is more common than you’d think. If you’re into a little role play why not go along with it? But if it’s not your bag there’s only one (or is it three?) language these butch, horned- helmeted Vikings understand. Just shout: ‘Borta, foul troll eller sa kommer jag att klippa bort dina javla bollar!’ And ask him to pick the bones out of that.
Innocent abroad
Dear Aunt Marje,
Excuse me, dear lady, if I raise an indelicate matter with you which I appreciate will not be within your usual area of expertise but I don’t know who else to turn to. I am asking for a friend, you understand, who lives in Switzerland where certain exotic activities are legal but are strictly controlled.
Now that lockdown rules are being relaxed there, bijou health spas are re-opening but, to avoid face to face contact, are restricting activities to, forgive me, Doggy Style and Reverse Cowgirl. These aren’t my friend’s favourite activities. What should he do?
Firm Friend
Dear FF,
You are correct: this is not a milieu which I normally inhabit but a quick perusal of some restricted Zurich websites tells me that further anticipated easing of restrictions will lead to all services being restored. Until then, I suggest that if your ‘friend’ can’t wait until Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are back on the menu he should take himself in hand and get a grip.
Daily drone
Dear Aunt Marje,
There is a persistent droning and humming noise in my neighbourhood and, without mincing words, it’s doing my head in. What do you think it could be?
Buzz Word
Dear BW,
I do sympathise. Yours is not the only plea for help I have received on this matter. All I can suggest is that you politely ask your neighbours to turn off their “toys”. Even with lockdown restrictions curtailing normal activity, it is most selfish and inconsiderate to do this especially when humming as well exacerbates the annoyance.
Titfer tat
Dear Aunt Marje,
Now that we are, at last, receiving guidance on face masks and can go out more have you any advice on suitable male head covering during the pandemic? In particular, is it OK to sport something flamboyant or outré or is that just showing off at a time of national crisis?
Max Headline
Dear MH,
This is a very pertinent question just now. I’ve noticed that men I’d like to rub up against in the park are increasingly wearing all sorts of way-out head gear. Forget baseball caps bearing the logo of some obscure American college softball team (Go, Wankers!), that’s very much pre-pandemic. I’ve seen charity shop bowlers, derbys, homburgs and fedoras and even a chap in a floppy rain hat with the word Ping on it. Personally, I’d favour one of those natty, crocheted pill box hats which
are increasingly de rigueur in posh Thames-side towns (Dear Editor: have you, by chance, got a photo to illustrate what I mean?)
No — Ed
Airhead
Dear Aunt Marje,
Following on from Baffled Sixthformer’s reference to Sophie Raworth, are we liking the newsreader’s lustrous, longer, lockdown locks?
Fringe Benefit
Dear FB,
No.
Serious point
Dear Aunt Marje,
I’m confused. During the VE commemorations every time Sophie Raworth and Co referred to the Nazis, I heard my grandad in his wipedown chair muttering: “They were fucking Germans”. He’s asleep now but what did he mean?
Baffled Sixthformer
Dear BS,
Grandads aren’t often right but yours is. The woke media, led by the supine BBC, have been falling over themselves not to appear to be beastly to the Germans in recent years.
I can even recall a risible reference to “the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia” which is like saying “the Labour invasion of Iraq”.
Isn’t it the case that while only 10 percent of Germans were members of the Nazi Party, almost all Nazis were Germans?
Twitter twit
Dear Aunt Marje,
I used to be an important man and feel that I have still got something to say and should be listened to. However, whenever I sit in my wipedown chair with a packet of choccie Ds by my side and express my views on Twitter or Facebook I am met with a tirade of insults from the so-called Twitteratti who show absolutely no respect. Should I give up?
Keyboard Warrior
Dear KW,
I do sympathise. You sound as if you are too sensitive for the cut and thrust of the Twittersphere. Perhaps you should acknowledge that your future is behind you and stick to self abuse.
Yoga bare
Dear Aunt Marje,
As we are isolating in our flat, my boyfriend and I have started having naked yoga sessions on our balcony. Our versions of Tadasana, Paschimottanasana and Trikonasana are obviously pleasing our neighbours who have taken to coming out on their balconies to applaud us. How we all chuckled when the widow at No.13 shouted: “Go on, gel: give him one for me.” We’re not doing anything wrong, are we?
Susie Sanskrit
Dear SS,
Don’t worry. Yoga is a splendid way to keep fit and the osanas you mention are fine for relative beginners: you are obviously inspiring people around you. I would caution against going too far too quickly, especially on a cool spring evening. In particular I would avoid attempting the Maharashtra version of the Downward Facing Dog or the Kursiasana as practised by Guru Rambleshanks Singh in Lakshadweep. Better to withdraw and go inside.
Fat lady sings
Dear Aunt Marje,
Since lockdown started I have put on weight. During a recent Zoom link-up with friends I distinctly heard someone say: ‘You don’t get many of those to the pound.’ I confess I may be eating and drinking too much and not exercising enough and intend to address this. Is there anything else I can do?
Fat Lady
Dear FL,
First of all, please ignore snide remarks from so-called ‘friends’ and don’t beat yourself up over this. Little things can make a difference. Check the shampoo you are using. If the label says ‘For extra body and volume’, avoid it. I myself have started showering with Dawn dishwashing soap. It’s label reads: ‘Dissolves fat that is otherwise difficult to remove’
I hope this helps, Fattie.
Kiss and make up
Dear Aunt Marje,
I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for lockdown to end so I can meet up with my friends and maybe get alongside a hunk or two (it’s been so long!). However, I am aware that the virus will still be lurking around and I would welcome some guidance on how to greet people once the two-metre rule has been relaxed.
Goodtime Girl
Dear GG,
This is a hot topic right now and you’re right to try to clarify things. I guess social hand shaking and double or (continental) triple check kissing will be out for some time. Instead, why not try some Inuit or Maori nose rubbing as long as you don’t inhale. In a more intimate situation I am sure that even the most hygienic and health conscious chap isn’t going to mind being touched up around the nether regions after a few drinks. As for me, although Wimbledon is off I’m still looking forward to a few sets of tonsil tennis. Love all, I say!
What a burqa
Dear Aunt Marje,
I am a traditional dairy farmer in Wiltshire and my young wife has started to wear what she calls a hijab when she’s doing farm work, including feeding the cows. She has also begun using Arabic phrases such as as-Salam alaykum and ma sha Allah and has even threatened to wear a burqa to the WI when it starts up again. She says she is “fulfilling her destiny under His sight.” How can I bring her to her senses?
Farmer Giles
Dear FG
Call her bluff. Explain to her that you are diversifying and that you have swapped her for a starter herd of camels. Tell her that by Christmas she’ll be living with a 60-year-old Arab tuk tuk driver, his mother and two sisters and their families in a second-floor flat opposite the Abdul Nasser Mosque in downtown Ramallah. It might not work but it’s worth a try.
Hoppel Poppel? Help
Dear Aunt Marje,
My German wife has begun to behave a little oddly under social isolating. She’s started strutting around hitting her thigh boots with a riding crop. While I wouldn’t normally mind this, she has started saying things like: “For you, englischer, der var is over. It’s hoppel poppel for you tonight, my leibling, and you’ll learn to like it. What should I do?
Max Headroom
Dear MH,
Learn to like it. Otherwise, she might threaten you with beamtenstippe, bauernfruhst or bollenfieisch. Mind you, if she mentions Strammer Max, Max, I’d break lockdown and pop out for a takeaway.
Damp barmaids
Dear Aunt Marje,
The last time I went to the rugby club my chums put some testosterone in my pint of Cor Blimey and ever since I have been — how can I put this on a family website? — “over trained.” Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but I live alone and am self-isolating. Any thoughts?
Happy Hooker
Dear HH,
My usual advice would be a wipedown with a damp barmaid and a lie-down in a darkened pub but that jumped-up twat Matt Hancock has knocked that on the head. Instead, I prescribe a vigorous socially distanced walk and a cold shower followed by two Matthew Parris columns and an image of Diane Abbott on a motor bike. That should do it.
Missing links
Dear Aunt Marje,
I am a keen golfer and before the Coronavirus lockdown I was thinking of playing a round with a new member I met at the club. The restrictions prevented that but now he has suggested sneaking on to the course and trying out a hole or two.
My WhatsApp pals think that would be OK. What do you think?
Golfin’ Granny
Dear GG,
I agree so long as you remember social distancing on the tees, stay a fair way apart on the doglegs and don’t, on any account, handle his balls in the rough if he tries to mark your card.