Eats, shoots, etc - the last word?

Question

From Matthew Norman in today's Guardian Diary column:

If I see one more article about Lynne Surgical-Truss's bleeding book on punctuation, someone's going to get what my mother would call a kick up the bracket, of the kind that could leave a previously healthy person with a semi colon.

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

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[nq:1]From Matthew Norman in today's Guardian Diary column: If I see one more article about Lynne Surgical-Truss's bleeding book on ... call a kick up the bracket, of the kind that could leave a previously healthy person with a semi colon.[/nq]
A punch up the bracket, Shirley? (cf Hancock passim) I had a glance at this in Borders and was, frankly unimpressed. I've been a Truss fan for a long time, but this is pointless verbiage with poor jokes. Even the panda joke has been deprived of the sexual content which once gave it some oomph.
BTW, I sent you an Email a couple days ago and it came back with a fatal error. The address is the one you're using here (less the quasi-mythological creature of course)

John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

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[nq:2]From Matthew Norman in today's Guardian Diary column: If I ... could leave a previously healthy person with a semi colon.[/nq]
[nq:1]A punch up the bracket, Shirley? (cf Hancock passim)[/nq]
I think that's the sort of quasi-malapropism that Mr Norman's mother would be likely to use, judging by the picture of her one can derive from his restaurant reviews and from his wife's extremely funny column in the Sunday Telegraph.
[nq:1]I had a glance at this in Borders and was, frankly unimpressed. I've been a Truss fan for a long ... with poor jokes. Even the panda joke has been deprived of the sexual content which once gave it some oomph.[/nq]
Oh dear. I've bought a copy as a gift for a friend but haven't read it yet. If it's as disappointing as you say, I may have to add my own jokes.
[nq:1]BTW, I sent you an Email a couple days ago and it came back with a fatal error. The address is the one you're using here (less the quasi-mythological creature of course)[/nq]
Odd. No fatalities here, despite my brief subjection to the surgeon's camera and knife this week. Perhaps Mailwasher was being over-zealous. Try again and copy to lfspira at brookes dot co dot uk.

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

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[nq:1]Odd. No fatalities here, despite my brief subjection to the surgeon's camera and knife this week. Perhaps Mailwasher was being over-zealous. Try again and copy to lfspira at brookes dot co dot uk.[/nq]
I hope all went well and that you refrain from posting pictures of the scar.

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[nq:2]Odd. No fatalities here, despite my brief subjection to the ... and copy to lfspira at brookes dot co dot uk.[/nq]
[nq:1]I hope all went well and that you refrain from posting pictures of the scar.[/nq]
Thank you, I believe it did. There is no scar but your comment now makes me regret that I declined the offer of the colour photo of my insides.

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]BTW, I sent you an Email a couple days ago and it came back with a fatal error. The address is the one you're using here (less the quasi-mythological creature of course)[/nq]
The fatal error could be caused by a virus, or perhaps ... murder! I hypothesize murder until the DNA evidence is in ... If the packet don't fit you - must acquit!

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[nq:2]BTW, I sent you an Email a couple days ago ... one you're using here (less the quasi-mythological creature of course)[/nq]
[nq:1]The fatal error could be caused by a virus, or perhaps ... murder! I hypothesize murder until the DNA evidence is in ... If the packet don't fit you - must acquit![/nq]
What a lovely post in a thread about a book on punctuation!

Opus the Penguin (that's my real email addy)
You snipped my sig!

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[nq:1]From Matthew Norman in today's Guardian Diary column: If I see one more article about Lynne Surgical-Truss's bleeding book on ... call a kick up the bracket, of the kind that could leave a previously healthy person with a semi colon.[/nq]
Far too contrived to be amusing, not to mention the schoolyard crudity of the picture evoked. I rather doubt Mr Norman's mother said that or would say that, at least I hope not.

Charles Riggs
Email address: chriggs>at>eircom>dot>net

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[nq:1]From Matthew Norman in today's Guardian Diary column: If I see one more article about Lynne Surgical-Truss's bleeding book on ... call a kick up the bracket, of the kind that could leave a previously healthy person with a semi colon.[/nq]
As John Dean mentioned, the usual phrase is "a punch up the bracket". I'd always assumed that the body part referred to was the nose, in which case "a kick up the bracket" would require oriental martial arts skills.

I was interested to note that the first entry for the word in NSOED is "codpiece", from the French braguette . Nowhere does it give "nose", or mention the phrase concerned. So perhaps the original version was indeed "a kick up the braguette".
Matti

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[nq:2]From Matthew Norman in today's Guardian Diary column: If I ... could leave a previously healthy person with a semi colon.[/nq]
[nq:1]As John Dean mentioned, the usual phrase is "a punch up the bracket". I'd always assumed that the body part referred to was the nose, in which case "a kick up the bracket" would require oriental martial arts skills.[/nq]
Partridge says it is an 'unspecified part of the body' but probably the nose and ascribes its popularity to Hancock's Half Hour (which is where I heard it).
Galton & Simpson (the original Hancock writers) are both London boys so either they invented it (as perhaps a bowdlerisation) or they picked it up on the streets of their neighbourhoods (Paddington and Brixton respectively). Here's an amateur etymology - it's from Yiddish 'punch up the ... Boruch Atoh'
I must share that their website biography includes ''In the early stages of their career, they worked from an office over a greengrocer's in Shepherds Bush''
Here's an anime capture described as ''In this scene Zero gives herself a punch up the bracket to try to regain her composure.''
And here http://interdragnet.co.uk/comedy wavs.shtml , inter alia, Sid James delivery of said phrase.
The UK Wing Chun Association has some good advice at http://ukwingchun.com/Coping with Violence.htm
''Having never really subscribed to the old Tony Hancock dictum that "A good punch up the bracket never hurt anyone" and neither, in nearly forty summers, ever having had to defend myself from an unprovoked attack in the street my incarnation as a Wing Chun student is a little surprising.''

On the Donnaometer, Google shows 33 hits for punch and 2 (having omitted spelling quirks) for kick.

John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

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[nq:2]I hope all went well and that you refrain from posting pictures of the scar.[/nq]
[nq:1]Thank you, I believe it did. There is no scar but your comment now makes me regret that I declined the offer of the colour photo of my insides.[/nq]
After a colonoscopy this year I was handed colour photos of the more exciting parts. I haven't yet bothered to frame them.

A year or so ago I had to undergo a stomach repair, and the surgeon who did that insisted that I look at his web site before the operation. The web pages turned out to be filled with photographs of cancerous stomach linings, split gut, and various other things of a disgusting nature. It must have put off many patients, but he was so proud of his web site that I didn't have the heart to say that to him.
The opening page was not disgusting in the same way, but it was certainly undiplomatic. It showed him aboard his fancy yacht, which led to some nasty thoughts about the cost of the operation.

Peter Moylan (Email Removed) http://eepjm.newcastle.edu.au (OS/2 and eCS information and software)

Eats, shoots, etc - the last word?

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