Two weeks ago I seized upon a headline in the Examiner saying: ‘Prison sentence for biting policewoman’ and said: ‘Who did she bite?’
This has brought something of a reproof from a retired civil servant who I will name only as John.
He points out that it would have been more appropriate if I had asked: ‘Whom did she bite?’
But he acknowledges that these days the use of ‘who’ was acceptable.
John, helpfully, sent me a limerick which illustrates the classic distinction in the usage of ‘who’ and ‘whom’ as follows:
‘A gay young man from Karthoum,
‘Took a lesbian up to his room,
‘As they sat on the bed,
‘Each of them said,
‘Who does what and with what to whom.’
No, I don’t know the answer either.
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The wicked Jimmy Savile was back in the news headlines last week.
This allows me to recall how, when he was in Douglas some time in the 1980s for a pop music festival, he offered, for charity, to try and pull a horse tram by his own efforts, with a horse collar round his neck.
He succeeded and the whole interlude was filmed for BBC Television.
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This week’s Manx crossword clue, from Richard Hetherington, was in the Telegraph Toughie as follows: ‘Sluggish river and isle sheltered by point (7)’.
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Clive Alford reports that the Manxnet news site had ‘Food Defence Meetings This Week.’
He says: ‘Some of those beef cattle are bullies at heart.’
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Nominations are in for the Isle of Man Sportsman and Isle of Man Sportswoman of the Year for 2015.
This feature of Manx sporting life was started in 1953 in the Examiner’s Saturday sports paper the Green Final with readers invited to do the voting and it was called the Isle of Man Sportsman of the Year.
It must have sounded all right 62 years ago but not for long.
The first Sportsman of the Year turned out to be a woman, a cyclist called Millie Robinson.
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Fred Newton tells us he drives a Honda Jazz and he was interested to find himself driving through Douglas behind another one but soon backed off to a safe distance when he saw its registration.
It was ISISMN.
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The London Evening Standard has reported that a comfort food new to Britain has been imported from Canada. It is chips topped with gravy and cheese.
Sorry. That’s not Canadian. It’s Manx.
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CROSSWORD: Dormant.
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My Funnies File today yields an item from the Manx Radio programme Mandate when it was presented by Paul Moulton who introduced a forestry item relating to what he called ‘carnivorous trees.’
You wooden want to go near one of those.
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Kids Are Quick:
Teacher: ‘Glen, why do you always get so dirty?’
Glen: ‘Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground than you.’