READERS’ WORDS

One of my pet peeves is the use of the word “actual” or “actually”. If I say, “This is Peter’s book”, it is redundant to say that it is his “actual book”, since it is, or it is not. So often we say, “I actually had to ...”. Try to in actually do something. — Kingston Patrick S Cuthbert

I thought I would comment on the colour blue used in “blue blood”. This is a term from the middle ages used to describe the nobility/ aristocracy. In those days they all used silver wine vessels, plates and knives, forks and spoons. This meant that they were unwittingly getting a good dose of silver into their bodies. This can cause argyria, which makes the blood slightly blueish grey — not bad for one unless in very high doses over time. Silver is known to be a good antibiotic and so the aristocracy had, unbeknown to them, the best cure for the common diseases that the rest of the population picked up so easily. This caused the poorer classes to call the aristocracy “blue bloods”. I make my own colloidal silver and take it every day. — Ted Oliver

The reader’s comment about “hoi polloi” reminded me of a boss who thought he knew what it meant, and used to talk disparagingly about “hoi polloi” living in Constantia and Bishopscourt, when he meant the upper class. Another boss used to say that so and so “had a real chip on his block”, and “that was a real feather in his tail”. — Perry Martin

In 1994 I voted for a democracy that enshrined, among other things, freedom of choice. So anyone who tells me something is a “must-see” or “must-read”, I disregard with contempt. What terrible fate awaits me if I don’t see it or read it? (That said, Dijon is a mustard and some horses are mustangs, of course). — Neville Barber •