Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Nick Armstrong]

... and certainly - never trust men with velvet collars on their overcoats...

Wisdom indeed. Especially those copper-beigy coats with brown velvet collars that used to be seen a lot around the City...

[Nick Armstrong]

Or cascade the information to us?

Ever watched 'Getting On', the BBC comedy set in an NHS Trust Hospital? The episode shown this week (currently on BBChd) is gloriously replete with claptrap of this sort - I'm sure it would resonate painfully with anyone in the public sector now or recently...

[mangerton]

Wisdom indeed. Especially those copper-beigy coats with brown velvet collars that used to be seen a lot around the City...

Well, certainly in some parts of London.

[mangerton]

Ever watched 'Getting On', the BBC comedy set in an NHS Trust Hospital? The episode shown this week (currently on BBChd) is gloriously replete with claptrap of this sort - I'm sure it would resonate painfully with anyone in the public sector now or recently...

Oh yes. How right you are. My particular branch of the public sector is forever cascading. See also my posts in this thread #383 and #390 - and some helpful replies from others. Two more I've been fulminating about this week are "deep diving" which I now know has nothing to do with water, and "skyline" which I always associated with a range of kitchen utensils in vogue fifty or so years ago.

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, certainly in some parts of London.

Thank you, Terrence.

But actually that's not quite what I meant - Arfur's is a beige camel-hair coat I think. The ones I'm thinking of are like this:

http://www.harvieandhudson.com/product/652/Clothing/Coats___Raincoats

'Taupe' is the colour apparently...

[mangerton]

Thank you, Terrence.

But actually that's not quite what I meant - Arfur's is a beige camel-hair coat I think. The ones I'm thinking of are like this:

http://www.harvieandhudson.com/product/652/Clothing/Coats___Raincoats

'Taupe' is the colour apparently...

Ah. I see what you mean. Taupe. What else? I always think of the Maureen Lipman BT ads when I hear of that colour.

[mercia]

I wonder why those are called Covert coats

coats as worn by spies ?

[Nick Armstrong]

I wonder why those are called Covert coats
coats as worn by spies ?

Strange, isn't it.... I had no idea they were called that until about 20 minutes ago, after some difficult searching to find any picture of the style I had in mind.

[Nick Armstrong]

I wonder why those are called Covert coats

Wiki doesn't know

Ah! There is an article about them in this publication which states that the name comes from the cloth, used for hunting garments as it offered protection from the sort of undergrowth the game would hide in: http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/covert-coat/

[kernelbogey]

[...] "That magic/special night in Munich....."

Ah yes and the many variants:
That Clare, she's really special...
We're the perfect venue for that special occasion.
A real treat for that special person in your life.

Edit: My onboard dictionary defines special as 'better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual', but etymologically it must mean 'of its kind'.

Where's pabmusic when one needs him?

[MrGongGong]

people tell me that
"scientists have discovered that playing classical music to babies makes them more intelligent "!

[Sir Velo]

Or cascade the information to us?

Presumably that's in order that the recipient can legitimately claim to have been "inundated"?

[kernelbogey]

Presumably that's in order that the recipient can legitimately claim to have been "inundated"?

No, no - you then have to 'escalate' your response.

[Sir Velo]

No, no - you then have to 'escalate' your response.

"Cascade"; "inundated"? Geddit? It's a pun, innit?

[MrGongGong]

I always find it a little irritating when rock or jazz musicians are referred to as "classically trained" as if this somehow confers some legitimacy on what the writer obviously thinks is a suspect musical genre.