h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Heya Ron,

Thought I'd pop by and say hi. And to let you know that your next polishing duty as an UnderGuide Volunteer is to get the sparkle back in the pint glasses!

Don't be discouraged mate

jam ye (em-jay aka MJ aka Matt)

Heya Yourself, jam ye! Alias Matt,

That sounds awfully like 'jankers' to me, which may be a term you do not recognise, unless you are older than I think you are! This doesn't refer to your pseudonym (one of the many) but to the appointed P&S punishment
doled out to your's truly by the UnderGuide officials!
Old soldiers know the term well! It's a spell in 'jankers' for any of a number of military offences, and can include peeling thousands of spuds for the cookhouse chef; not unlike polishing the coaldust off Miner's pint glasses at the P&S after closing time! Or, for the military miscreant, a spell in the 'glass house', jail (or gaol).
Still, I'm used to peeling 'taties at 'ome, an' polishin' glasses (in my earlier days) at relative's pubs! An' my wife locks me in after dark; she thinks my fangs, claws and quick growing beard might put the neighbours off!

Ron

I am indeed much older than appearances may perceive

But alas, twas only my Grandfather who happened to be involved in ye olde jankers But he eventually did shoot the cook (visit here for more: A2752238)

Although I think my dad doled out his fair share to me when I was wee

I still have the scars and wrinkled thumbs from peelin' the spuds many a time.

Anyway, I don't mind a bit of dust in my pint, there's always a war on

(reminded of a particualr scene in 'The Cruel Sea')

MJ (older and wiser than he appears )

'The Cruel Sea' a fabulous film; I've seen it any number of times but it never fails to fascinate! Liverpool was only 16 miles from my childhood home. Born in September, 1939, I grew up hearing about the war and knowing the fear that my parents endured throughout those traumatic years.

I read the book, by Nicholas Monserratt, (If I've got the spelling right) as a youth of 17. That was a wonderful read for me. And the sex was all the more interesting because it wasn't 'raw'; being of the low-key variety of writing it was all the more tantalizing than today's 'no holds barred' an 'full-frontal' approach to sex in storytelling.


R (f)