What I did in 1999

Letters

Vol. 22 No. 3 · 3 February 2000

From David Goldberg

Alan Bennett infers from Iris Murdoch's approval of the Falklands War that she underwent an ideological transformation as radical as Paul Johnson's (LRB, 20 January). I like to regard myself as being the very epitome of liberal values, both personally and professionally, but I, too, approved of the Falklands War (while being vehemently opposed to Israel's invasion of Lebanon which followed shortly afterwards). Approval had nothing to do with defending democracy, striking a blow against dictators, supporting our gallant lads, or whatever other jingoistic propaganda was spouted at the time, but was simply based on the judgment that whenever possible, and having considered the risks involved and alternative strategies, it is better for personal and international relations if we stand up to bullies, rather than let them take what they want by force. If Iris Murdoch reached a similar conclusion, that of itself no more makes her a political reactionary than my observation that Lord Carrington was the last British politician to accept the doctrine of ministerial responsibility makes me a dyed in the wool Tory.

David Goldberg
Liberal Jewish Synagogue<br />London NW8

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Vol. 22 No. 4 · 17 February 2000

From Jeremy Treglown

Alan Bennett wonders right about Iris Murdoch (LRB, 20 January). Sitting in a crowded Oxford to Paddington train with her one morning in, I suppose, 1981, I said something in favour of the miners, who were already being a nuisance to Mrs Thatcher. She turned her not un-Amis-like eyes on me and said briskly: 'I think they should be put up against a wall and shot.'

Jeremy Treglown
London NW3

From Pat Hutley

Alan Bennett's version of the mispronunciation of La Fille mal gardée had me grinning, not least because of its perfect timing. The 20 December 1999 A.Word.A.Day e-mail featured the term 'mondegreen' – used to describe a word or phrase resulting from mishearing a word or phrase. The coining of the term followed the admission by the British writer, Sylvia Wright, in the November 1954 issue of Harper's magazine, that she had long misheard the words of the Scottish folksong: 'They hae slain the Earl of Murray/And laid him on the green' as 'They hae slain the Earl Amurray/And Lady Mondegreen.' Since Wright's confession, Jon Carroll, a journalist on the San Francisco Chronicle, has made 'mondegreens' into something of a cottage industry, devoting two columns a year to them. The most fertile sources are the lyrics of popular songs, hymns, prayers and company slogans, and the most often quoted mondegreen is 'Gladly, the cross-eyed bear'. I wonder whether the term has earned a legitimate place in the English language. It certainly wasn't recorded in any of the dictionaries I consulted.

Pat Hutley
Kelkheim, Germany

From Sylvia Elias

Poor Alan Bennett meets up with a 'foul' young businessman on the train who talks on his mobile to his girlfriend and says to her: 'Be kissed.' Am puzzled why the 'foul' – sounds lovely to me.

Sylvia Elias
London SW3

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Vol. 22 No. 5 · 2 March 2000

From Douglas Hall

Alan Bennett's waspish aside (LRB, 20 January) about the 'children' of Field Marshal Haig – he must mean Haig's son, aged 81 – suggests the neglect of two principles usually dear to the liberal mind. One is that you do not visit the sins of the fathers on the children. The other is that at the bar of history, as at the Old Bailey, a man has a right to be judged by his peers. That is, by the standards of his own age. Perhaps the present Earl is as puzzled as I am about what is considered uniquely 'brutish' about his father compared with all other commanders of all nations in an age when heavy casualties were considered inevitable.

Douglas Hall
Morebattle, Roxburghshire

From Timothy Knapman

My own favourite instance of the phenomenon known as 'mondegreen' and described by Pat Hutley (Letters, 17 February) was provided by Stephen Fry on a radio programme. According to Fry, one of his friends repeatedly misheard the words 'The girl with kaleidoscope eyes', from 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', as 'The girl with colitis goes by.'

Timothy Knapman
Weybridge, Surrey

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Vol. 22 No. 6 · 16 March 2000

From Phyllis Wright King

It is true, as Pat Hutley (Letters, 17 February) writes, that Sylvia Wright coined the word 'mondegreen' in an article in Harper's magazine in 1954. But she was not a British writer. Sylvia Wright (1917-81) was an American writer and my sister. Moreover, in the original article (later included in the book Get away from Me with those Christmas Gifts) she did not make an 'admission'. Indeed she proudly maintained that the misheard version of many phrases is better than the original.

Phyllis Wright King
New York

From Michael Coates

Pat Hutley describes the 'mondegreen' as the result of the unintentional mishearing of a word or phrase, but there have also been deliberate attempts to produce them. Frank Muir and Denis Norden were each given a phrase at the beginning of My Word and had to produce a 'mondegreen' of it by the end, 30 minutes later. My favourite was Frank Muir's version of 'honesty is the best policy' which, by circuitous allusion to the optimum method of making flag-poles for golf greens, became 'on his tee is the best pole I see.' Another example was the TV ad for Maxell cassette-tapes which involved a young man – copying Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' video – holding up cards purporting to be the lyrics to various songs, including Desmond Dekker's 'Israelites', one of which reads: 'Uh, oh, my ears are alight.'

Michael Coates
London N19

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Vol. 22 No. 7 · 30 March 2000

From R.E. Bye

How fortunate was Douglas Haig to be born in this country. In what other country could a general lose 20,000 men in a morning (1 July 1916) and be promoted only a few months later?

R.E. Bye
Cardiff

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Vol. 22 No. 8 · 13 April 2000

From John Ross

Good on Michael Coates (Letters, 16 March) for adding to the stock of 'mondegreens' by including Muir and Norden's clever My Word productions. I think, however, that the genuine article is a product of childish misunderstanding, perhaps aided by a sprightly unconscious. Here's a true story. A child in Melbourne produced a drawing of a nativity scene in class last Christmas. The teacher recognised the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus but, puzzled by a fat monk hovering nearby, asked who he was. 'Round John Virgin', the child replied.

John Ross
Claremont, Australia

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Vol. 22 No. 9 · 27 April 2000

From S.A. Skinner

Another true story: a highly educated and linguistically gifted acquaintance, born and raised in Ohio, thought until adulthood that the opening line of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' was a homage to the Hispanic element in the US melting pot: 'José, can you see...'

S.A. Skinner
Balliol College, Oxford

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Vol. 22 No. 11 · 1 June 2000

From Michael Brookes

John Ross (Letters, 13 April) tells us his 'Round John Virgin' mondegreen is a 'true story' about a child's drawing in a Melbourne school last Christmas. My wife heard the same story as a child in Massachusetts, and I heard it while growing up in the West of England. Is Claremont, Australia really that far behind the times?

Michael Brookes
Forest Hills, New York