GLOSSARY Bounder: Often used to describe abberrant people, such as those who sauté food in salted butter, hold wine glasses by the bowl, display matching ties and breast-pocket handkerchiefs or reveal braces (US suspenders), hold dining knives as if they were pencils or scalpels, read The Times or The Sun, wear genuine Rolex watches, publicize their charitable works, &c &c. As a liberal print magazine, the Manchester Charivari tries to take a tolerant view, but does not always succeed. Bribes: Always acceptable, but only in used banknotes, for the suppression of news, comment, birth dates &c. John Robert-Blunn puts all bribes towards his favourite charity, which he will not name. (See Bounder, above) Charivari: The Concise Oxford Dictionary gives the first definition as a serenade of banging saucepans etc to a newly married couple, but The Edgeley Press relies on the second definition — a medley of sounds, a hubbub, from the French for a serenade with pans, trays, etc, to an unpopular person. Collins gives a slightly different version, including a discordant mock serenade and and a confused noise or din, but is more exact about origins — from 17th century French, from Late Latin caribaria (headache), from Greek karebaria, from kare (head) + heavy (barus).US variants chivaree and shivaree. The old Punch magazine had the subtitle The London Charivari. Inserted for the benefit of visitors who do not have a dictionary or, if they have one, don’t know how to use it. Gallimaufry: Hotpotch, from the 16th century French galimafré, a ragout or hash. His Serenity: The title adopted by the Proprietor of The Edgeley Press, John Robert-Blunn (See biography) when in 1983, recovering in a lunatic asylum after being knocked down, he realized that he had escaped death and had |
been spared for A Purpose. As he recovered in health, he accepted the responsibilities of a demi-god in search of peace and tranquillity, a view confirmed in 1987 when he crashed through the glass door of his office and survived another near-death experience. HS lost five pints of blood, most of his face, some of his nose and an ear, and an erogenous zone (he now has a stiff upper lip). Again, thanks to the miscrosurgery unit of Withington Hospital, he survived, as ‘Scarface’. In 1999 he also survived a heart attack and NHS hospital treatment, and continues his crusade for serenity, continuing heart failure, claudication, diabetes and other dysfunctions permitting. Ins: A term used in the Manchester Charivari for, among other things, anything deemed fashionable or desirable, especially by social creeps. The opposite of Outs. Manchester: Population 432,600, and shrinking. England’s seventh or eighth city,(depending on whose figures you believe) after Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Liverpool. It has three universities, several museums and galleries and one professional football club, the premier league Manchester City, managed by Kevin Keegan, in addition to the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music. Mcr: Abbreviation for Manchester, used to save much needed space. Outs: See Ins, above. Trafford: Museum and gallery-less district council (population 218,300). Home town of Manchester United FC, which is as successful at making money as at winning football trophies, and the forgotten Lancashire County Cricket Club. It also has Europe’s second largest shopping centre at Dumplington, once best known for its sewage treatment works now with a branch of the Imperial War Museum designed bu Loebeskind and dedicated to the Holocaust. |
