Whistle

Mr Xoggoth, our only reader, has been given a whistle-operated Device by Mrs. Xoggoth.

M. R. James in "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" shows you what happens when such Devices are operated.

Now I will be left alone with my plesiosaurs, who don't read blogs.

Public Service

Some may opine that this my blog is a farrago of incoherent whim-whams but, by golly, here is a link to an excellent Online Etymological Dictionary.

And there are links on the right to more than one site concerned with plesiosaurs, yes, plesiosaurs.

Brits Abroad

An anxious SS report from August 1943 that British POWs are not  making the desired impression...

Some other British prisoners were singing a rude song to the tune of "Deutschland uber Alles" as they passed two high German officials in uniform. When one of these officials said "That's going a little too far, my friends", one of the prisoners who understood German called back "We're not your friends, we're British."

 The crowning insult was the disfigurement of a portrait of the Führer in a station waiting room by a British prisoner who drew rude pictures over it.

Examples were quoted of prisoners simply walking away and refusing to work - or doing their work so badly that it constituted a danger.

And...

The British are always decently dressed, their uniforms are always in faultless condition, they are shaved, clean and well fed. Their attitude is extraordinarily self-possessed, one could almost say arrogant and overbearing.

...of course that's broadly how the Brits abroad are to this day.