Think-a-link! Is it in?

Newsletter 20 -

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Snow is the absolute biz but, goodness me, what a price to pay!!!!!! Shuffling down the road from side to side, avoiding the icy bits, doing a tremendous impression of a first-time skier on a nursery slope is a complete mare. It's like trying to complete a task in the Crystal Maze where you have to spell out a word, by standing on a letter at a time! I now know what it feels like for fruitcakes who have to avoid cracks in the pavement! Talking of the Crystal Maze.....how can Richard O'Brien go from creating one of the best musicals of all time (Rocky Horror) to watching a bunch of spods trying to grab some monopoly money in a cheap plastic capsule and failing miserably? Maybe this is where the xfactor contestants got the idea of 'air-grabbing' from (ie when they sing they reach out, grab some air and haul it back in). I suppose you'd have to be completely bonkers to be up for fronting this show and Dicky O'B is certainly a front-runner in the 'Bonkers Stakes'. 'Bonkers' is a splendid word whose origin is quite rightly unknown. It sits very nicely with other unexplained jobbies like 'Shucks' and 'Buffoon'. Saying that, I've just looked up 'Buffoon' in the OED and it comes from 'Bufo' which is the Latin for Toad!! Superb. These are top words which can't, however, hold a candle to the bastion of nonsense words.....'Fiddlesticks'. It cannot and should never be explained. It is so much more satisfying than swearing. A friend tried to promote the use of it a few years ago but, unjustly, didn't get enough support. A relaunch beckons. Back to the bonkers weather......how the hell do grannies get down to the shops with their wheely baskets to ship in their annual bottle of sherry????? I can see them now in the precinct, in groups of four, doing the octogenarian version of the Toot Sweets dance in Chittty Chitty Bang Bang when Dicky Van D and the boys are swinging around the sweet trolleys givin' it sum. Parv.

Update

The Linky tour bus is working its way very nicely around the UK, linking the bejesus out of its kiddywinks. Only last week, a 9 year old came out with an absolute screamer for King John being on the throne in 120O AD. (see below) He is chuffed to bits and stands every chance of getting his name in the book alongside this rip-snorter of a link. When I was at the teachers' conference last month, one of the deputy heads challenged me and my fellow linkers to do some links for some fairly straightforward scientific formulae. He said that, if we took the gauntlet up and came out with some fandabbydozy links, he'd get me in to his school to spread the joy which he has duly requested. This school is called Glenalmond College in the Highlands and, I'm told, rivals Gordonstoun. It's safe to say that I'll be bringing my golf clubs on this foray, North of the Border!! You can take a peek at the category and our links here www.thinkalink.co.uk/topic/science-nature/scientific-formulae. This is going to be an extremely useful category which will grow and grow. Apropos of zippety zip.....where on earth does the word 'Understand' come from????? The dicko (!) comes out with the German 'Understan' meaning 'Step under'. What is going on?????? I am struggling enormously to understand this puppy. Oh, the irony. A couple of more tautological digs then I'm done for Twenty Nine (2009).......'When I first started' or 'When I was first born '.......they're both rubbish and you all know it. The following one is a goodie which hardly any of you will be aware of......Reiterate. The word 'Iterate' means to repeat, coming from the Latin 'Iterum' meaning 'Again'. I, being a tart, use it all the time and never use 'Reiterate'. Reiterate has its place, mind you, ie to rerepeat but it's grabbing far too much air time. The OED cracked on this one a few year ago as a constant misuse of a word annoyingly works its way in to the Lexicon Bible. Fiddlesticks!

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 bonkers the fact is, then submit it and let's see what the campers think. If it's a stellar link then it'll go in the book (as will your name).

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. However, it's all 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 Ikhara Bakan who wins 100 big ones for getting the 4 answers correct which were...

1. Twenty 2. Coterie 3. Mali 4. Arsenal

Here is the next competition....

www.thinkalink.co.uk/content/competitions/competitions/competition-20-december-09-open

Email the answers to andy.salmon@thinkalink.co.uk and you will be entered into the draw for 100 squiddly dees. (The currency in the Crystal Maze)

......and finally

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.

Let's draw the year to a close with some Yo Ho Ho links that would put a smile on St Nick's fat old whiskered face......

Ubiquity means Seeming to be everywhere at once......Stephen Fry, you big witty man, you seem to be everywhere these days!

Judicious means to be sensible.....It's sensible to use Fairy Liquid because hands that judicious are as soft as your face....

Burn's Night (Scotland) is January 25th....a month after Christmas (Jan 25th) and Santa's still feeling those chimney burns.

Could all of you please make sure you have a splendid Christmas and a linking good New Year?

I thank you.

Merry Christmas

Regards

Sir Linkalot

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

Think-a-link - is it in?

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