Leaf, Kuga and Stonic. Peter Rhodes on curious car names and how to address an Apache
THE first frost of the season arrived and a poem came to mind: "All across the field there be / Prints in silver filigree." I remembered a teacher explaining how the poet was using one word to describe another, and that real silver filigree was a type of jewellery. That lesson on metaphors was planted in my brain 60 years ago. I wonder how many of you teachers out there have any idea how long the words you speak will endure. What you say today will be remembered - to the year 2077 and beyond.
WE are having the double-glazing people in. Barely was the ink dry on the contract than we received a handsome embossed card from them warning us to expect a delay because "we are experiencing exceptionally high levels of work." Curious. If the levels of work are so exceptional, how come they have cards already printed to explain it?
SO what's going on? The unfashionable truth is that the UK economy, far from collapsing as the Remainers warned us last year, is booming. Firms like the double glazers are struggling to cope with the amount of work on their books. You may have missed this week's news, from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, that profits and exports are growing at the fastest rate since 2015, and investment in new staff, research and development is rising. For some unknown reason, the BBC didn't report this.
A READER takes me to task for using the term "American Indian" in Monday's column, which he says is "embarrassing and out of date." Not so. "American Indian" is the name preferred by many tribes who have never accepted the newer term "Native American," which tends to be used by earnest white folk trying to be politically correct. Do a little research and you'll find many societies and events which are proud to have "American Indian" in their title. Let's bury the hatchet on this one.
THE families of three SAS recruits who died during training on Brecon Beacons in 2013 are said to be dismayed that charges have been brought only against two relatively junior soldiers. It's a common reaction. When disaster strikes, we always want the real villains to be not the guys on the ground in combat kit or firefighters' gear but rich grey men in expensive grey suits in offices far away. Let the bosses pay the price for corporate blunders. And sometimes they should. But there are times, whether we like it or not, when the buck stops at the sharp end.
THEY say all the good tunes have already been created. Maybe the same is true of car names which have taken a bizarre turn of late with the Nissan Leaf, Ford Kuga, Vauxhall Grandland and now the Kia Stonic. It's as though the car firms, or their computers, are simply making names up. It's a dangerous ploy. Some years ago, Japanese manufacturers seemed to pluck words at random from the dictionary in the belief that any English name would seem chic. Which explains the Mitsubishi Lettuce.
