After my column last week on nominative determinism and Marnie Swindells on The Apprentice, I received the following gentle rebuke from reader James Swindells: “My dad assured my siblings and me that our name derives from honest pig farmers in the dales of Derbyshire – where perhaps some of your ancestors might have had something to do with the clumps of trees there. Us Swindells would certainly never seek to cheat anyone out of their money. Obviously, I can’t vouch for anyone called Swindles!” Point taken, Mr S.
On the same theme, David Crookes writes: “Last Sunday’s line about Marnie Swindells reminded me of my period of employment at a Sheffield steel trading firm in the 1970s. I was one half of the team engaged in trading tool steel, the other one being Andrew Swindells. Hence Swindells and Crookes, the team you could trust!”
Geoffrey Whiteman alerted me to the following: “The Coventry Telegraph reported the following on 11 January 2023: in response to the headline ‘Taxi driver says food delivery bikes becoming menace in city’, a Deliveroo spokesman said: ‘The safety of our riders and other road users is a priority. When riders onboard with us, they are required to complete a programme of road safety guidance and we regularly engage with riders about how to keep safe on the road.’ It makes me worry that in my own working life I may have missed the boat.”
And an agonised plea from John Parry: “I’ve had it with ‘transition’ as a verb-replacement of ‘move’ or ‘change’. The last straw came in a supermarket queue where the woman ahead of me said into her mobile. ‘Yeah, Doug’s got a new job and we’re going to transition to Toronto in three weeks.’ Where, oh where is the stake sharp enough to put through this misapplication’s heart?” I would counsel caution before administering condign punishment, Mr Parry.
Email jonathan.bouquet@observer.co.uk
• Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist
