Last week the Examiner reported Minister for Policy and Reform Mr Chris Robertshaw MHK announcing the launch of a public consultation on what is called the ‘Central Douglas Masterplan’.
Masterplan? My computer told me this was a misspelling so I tried to find the word in my Longman’s Dictionary. It wasn’t there.
If Chris – it’s all right, he is my MHK and a friend of long standing – doesn’t mind me saying so, Masterplan sounds like something you get from the chemist’s as a dietary supplement or a packet of sticking plasters.
But never mind. As things stand, we now have Masterplan (there goes the computer again) on the political agenda for the foreseeable future.
The trouble, however, is it sounds as though a lot of well-known things like buildings in downtown Douglas are not going to stand for very much longer.
Meanwhile, a reader who insists that I do not reveal his name tells me he heard Douglas town council leader David Christian on Manx Radio being interviewed about Masterplan and saying: ‘It has been through the ministers.’
My reader asks: ‘What is likely to come out at the other end?’
Piles?
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My search for Manx people’s old ways of saying things in a colourful way has resulted in the following told me by John ‘Dog’ Callister.
It’s something he heard Dorothy of Peel say on the Mannin Line programme on Manx Radio years ago. She said she saw ‘a policeman standing there on the corner with both arms the same length.’ In other words, not doing anything.
Any more Manxlish ?
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A reader, not to be named, tells of seeing a news item on the Examiner’s sister website, iomtoday.co.im, about the toilet tax protest petition. It was followed by Google advertisements for ‘MTS Luxury Toilet Hire’, ‘Toilet & Washroom Experts’ and ‘Silver Street Loos’, the latter offering mobile toilets for hire for Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon.
Our reader says: ‘I like the idea that iomtoday followers might be interested in touring south-west England with a mobile (tax free) toilet.’
iomtoday should have sat on this story.
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I have been sent a newspaper cutting dating back to early Victorian times in which a man was charged before the High Bailiff in Douglas with being drunk and disorderly.
He was described as ‘a dirty fellow named James McAvoy, who was begrimed with dirt.’
The High Bailiff fined him but, because Mc Avoy had no money, ordered him to be taken to prison for a ‘21-day course in personal washing’.
In Wormwood Scrubs?”
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The planning news in the Examiner said approval was being sought for four mobile goat fields shelters, mobile chicken coops and installing upgraded stock fencing at Close Leece Farm, St John’s.
The item added: ‘The farm hopes to grow livestock numbers.’
Plant goat seeds?
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This week’s Manx crossword clue, sent in by Manxman Redvers Skillicorn, living in Bristol, is from the Western Mail as follows: Isolated place that is not politically correct (4 2 3) – ISLE OF MAN.
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This week’s Pun for the Educated: A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found that his name was missing from the town register. His wife complained to the local civic official who apologised saying: ‘I must have taken Leif off my census.’
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When Isle of Man Bank announced last week that it was closing three of its outlying branches, Manx Radio news said this was because of the ‘behaviour’ of customers.
Sounds bad to me