WHAT WILL LAKE LEFT OUT

WHAT WILL LAKE LEFT OUT

It was a pleasure to post Will Lake’s thought-provoking guest-blog last week. Hopefully I can entice him to contribute more of the same in the future.

However, I do feel obliged to point out one important factor that Will left out. Namely, the different classes of English we native speakers employ. There’s pulpit-speak, cockney-speak, academia-speak, cops-speak, legalese,  journalese, and a host of other varieties of English that I’m sure leave the language learner bamboozled no end. Let me illustrate what I mean, by way of a well-known fairy-tale….

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

O

NCE upon a time, there was a little girl named Little Red Riding Hood. One day her mother said to her, “Little Red, grandmother is sick today, so I want you to take this basket of goodies to her. But be careful, there’s a big bad wolf in the forest”.

And so Little Red Riding Hood set off through the forest, whistling a happy little tune to herself as she went…

Thus didst this trusting young child roam freely through the forest, marveling at the verdant riches therein; the rich hues of the foliage, the succulence of the new shoots emerging from the forest floor, the beauty of the newly-bloomed flowers, and the colorful plumage of the birds that wheeled in the skies above. Verily, I say unto you, Brethren, this parable is a testament to the bounteous riches that the Good Lord….

Cor Blimey, I mean, this story is a load of old cobblers, innit. Wot mother in her right bleedin mind would let her kid wander in the forest all on her tod, when she knows bleedin well there’s a big bad wolf lurking about? No, it’s all piffle if you ask me.

The behavior of the animal under discussion, namely the wolf, raises a number of questions. One cannot help asking what motivated this individual wolf to behave in such a manner? What lay behind its inclination to devour solitary minors of the female gender? Could it have simply been a depleted supply of its customary food source? Or was there some other deep, underlying cause for such behavior? A history of childhood abuse perhaps? Bed-wetting? The implications are endless.

Strewth, the mother lets a young Sheila go wandering in the forest all by herself? Mum’s got to be a few prawns short of a Barbie. 

Notice is hereby served upon Mr B. B. Wolf (the Second Party) that if his behavior (to wit: the preying upon unaccompanied minors in a public domain) does not cease and desist forthwith, legal proceedings will be instituted against him without further notice.

WOLF SLAIN IN 

FOREST INCIDENT

Thursday. A 34-year old woodcutter, James

 (“Woodie”) Smith of Massachusetts, yester-

day killed a 95-kilogram black bear, thereby

saving the life of 84-year-old grandmother

Mrs K.M. Hood Snr of Connecticut. Smith

declined to be interviewed, protesting, “I’m

no hero. I just did what anyone else would do

when happening upon a grandmother strug-

gling for her life inside a wolf’s intestines.”

Upon arriving at the scene at 3:49 pm, I saw the body of a large animal, black in color, and distinctly wolf-shaped. This I concluded was the alleged perpetrator. Also in attendance at the crime scene were….

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If you only read one book this year, read 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James. But if you’re casting around for a second book, EFL minus the B.S. is a good read.