Think-a-link! Is it in?

Newsletter 15 -

Oh, we do love a tumbleweed moment, even if you are on the receiving end...

It's not quite a Vic Reeves/George Doors tumblehowdy doody moment but it felt like it.............my good lady and I are oot and aboot at a local eatery, shipping in some quality nosebag celebrating a mate's gerzillionth birthday. Suddenly one of our fellow diners starts telling a joke and it's a moment I dread, especially if you are in the firing-line and they're looking to you for the reaction. My picnic isn't short of a sandwich and am fairly 'street' but this little tib-rickler just went straight over me like a stealth bomber. I didn't have a scooby what he was talking about so I looked around, hoping that the others were leaning back and making way for the tumbleweed. I couldn't have been more wrong! If there were any aisles in the restaurant, then my buds were doing a tremendous impression of the Chuckle Brothers (who you have to despise) laughing in them. What made it worse was that the birthday girl's two daughters (aged 18 & 21) were there guffawing like it was going out of fashion. Luckily, I've been in sales for 20 years so I put on a 'ha ha, good one' face and got away with it. But there is no escaping that moment, the second before the punchline comes out thinking.....'Please, please, let me get the joke straightaway. Don't put me in that dilemma of saying 'Yeah, nice one'....or....'Uh???' So if you ever see me listening to a joke, then stitch me up and ask...'Oi, Linky! Do you get it?'....as there is every chance I will come horribly second.

Update

I've just come off the phone to the National Strategies section of the DCSF - Dep't of Children, Schools & Family aka Dept of Curtains & Soft Furnishings (thank-you Barbara for calling that one). I had a one hour chat - well, more like me talking and him listening - about their 110 page document called 'Support For Spelling'. Deary, deary, it's like pulling teeth!! Linking just walks all over this nonsense of 'long Es' and 'short As' and 'inflection on this' and 'pronunciation of that'......it's for the birds. When you have gems like 'Did you know that there's water in alcohol? An H and 2 Os!'....and....Whether he likes it or not...and...Stationary? Call the AA....and.....U R A natura l linker....and....confectionery is riddled with E numbers....... then who needs this old-fashioned 'spelling is logical but here are pots of exceptions' malarky? I gave it plenty to the guy and will be going back for heaps more until they relent. There really is no point in trying to fob off Sir Linkalot. There is no known defence. Linking's going global and the sooner 'global' cottons on to that puppy the better for all concerned.

My Special Needs hooly was a blast and orders are coming in thick and fast from Specialist schools for Linkydeedoda to spread the joy. I am very excited about a new spelling technique (it's certainly not commonplace, anyhow) and I've dubbed it 'Letter Linking'. It's where you put the word you need linked into a common term or phrase with the other word being the trigger for what the 'killer' letter is. i.e Garden 'Gnome'....'Swap' around.....'Chefs' cook.....Cup of tea and a 'biscuit'....'whack' & h it.....etc..etc. (The linked word is in inverted commas). There are hundreds of these and it's a lovely introduction to linking. If you misspell a word because of one letter then try to bring it into a phrase. It's a top technique. So much so that I want to explode as I'm so excited.

Your chance to get involved

The site is a meeting-place for linkers & learners alike. So if you have a link for anything, absolutely anything, regardless of how bizarre or meaningless the fact is, then submit it and let's see what the troops think. If it's a 'Well, I'll be!!' link then it will go in the book (as will your name). I'm drafting the book now so the sooner the better.

Feedback

I would love to get your thoughts and observations on the site, good or bad. This has been a passion of mine since 1995 and it's finally come to fruition which is hugely exciting. It's new territory for me. So any guidance or tips on what does and doesn't work will be warmly received - please let me know at andy.salmon@thinkalink.co.uk

Competition

Congratulations to Kate Donten who wins 100 nuggets for getting the 4 answers correct which were...

1. Shanghai 2. Turnhouse 3. 1st March 4. 1932

Here is the next competition.........

http://www.thinkalink.co.uk/content/competitions/competitions/competition-15-july-09-op

Email the answers to

andy.salmon@thinkalink.co.uk and you will be entered into the draw for 100 sovs.

Future Newsletters

Please let me know if you would prefer me not to contact you in this way and I will take you off my newsletter circulation list. If that is the case, please accept my apologies.

I must dash now as I need to lay in to the DCSF again, until they fold. I'll love you and leave you with a couple of pearlers.......

This week saw the passing of the 14th July i.e 'Bastille Day'.......This 'Crunch' is affecting everyone. In the World Snooker Championships, if you got a 147 maximum, you won a packet of Fruit Bastilles. (Oh, come on!)

Fulminate means to issue a thunderous verbal attack or to explode........If full men ate anymore, they'd explode.

Do make sure you ship in a ridiculously good month, one and all.

We're hosting my mother-in-law's 70th this Sunday.............into each life, some rain must fall.

Pip pip!

Linky x

PS You can view old newsletters at www.thinkalink.co.uk/content/news-events

Think-a-link - is it in?

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