Wednesday 22 April 2015

Do you know Bob Hope?


Yes, this was the question that Facebook asked me this morning when I opened up my 'Tom Stephenson' mailbox account.

Having said I would never return to Facebook (not that you can ever really leave) I found it necessary to open up my account with it the other day, but not in my real name. Not that it makes any difference to Facebook. They know who we really are. 'By clicking on this you agree to accept our cookies' - sounds so attractive.

"I've got over 1800 friends", lied The Boy recently.

I've got about 20 friends, and most of them don't like me.

Apparently, Bob Hope wasn't a very likeable person in real life.

The head of the Bath Police Drugs Squad introduced himself to me some years ago. "My name's Bob Hope", he genuinely said. To this day, I don't know whether or not he was aware of the Cockney rhyming-slang connotations of his name, or if he was just bored with the smirks every time he mentioned it.

Oh well, it makes a change from being asked if I know Anne Marie Weismuller once a week.

22 comments:

  1. Or "Do you know the bishop of Norwich?".

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    1. Is that code for what I think it is?

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    2. Probably not, it's little-used code for 'Pass the port, you mean bastard'.

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    3. Pass the bloody port Stephenson.

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    4. Sit on my left hand, and I will.

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  2. Darling Tom,

    You do distract us......

    We have just spent a merry time wandering the labyrinth of Cockney rhyming slang and now realise how appropriate Bob Hope was ( or perhaps he would have disagreed about that) for the Head of the Drugs Squad. However, quite why you were having a Top Hat with him we imagine to be the subject of another blog post.

    In these days of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. etc. it is quite alarming how many different kinds of friends and followers one can have. But, perhaps even more disturbing, is how some of the 'virtual' friends can become more meaningful in one's life than the real ones. Plot lost, we think!

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    1. In your everyday life (as if your lives actually ARE everyday, you glitterati) I am sure you are blessed with followers as well as friends.

      I want to make friends with Rachel again, but I am not she would have me back.

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    2. Darling Tom,

      We treasure our friends, real and virtual, and try to nurture friendship as much as we are able. Sometimes it is hard work, at others it is a joy.

      The internet is a strange medium for nurturing friendship. It can all so easily go wrong and be misunderstood. Try again. And then try once more. And, sometimes, a third attempt is necessary!

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  3. Don't know the Cockney rhyming slang. Am I better off not knowing?

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  4. I didn't get a Facebook account for a long time. I always said: "But then I would actually have to get friends."

    I finally caved, though, because I found myself mentioned on Facebook by someone who knew me when I was barely 18 and I wanted to put in my 5 cents about it. To do that I needed my own Facebook account. Ever since, it has sat there, idling.

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    1. I gave up Facebook using my real name whan an Australian sado-masochist with a gimp-mask, calling himself 'Amish' asked me if I wanted to be his friend. He was the only one.

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    2. Hehe, I would not want to befriend Amish either but, for the sake of good stories, I wish you had.

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  5. Facebook, smaschbook. I am always surprised that so many people are on all different kinds of social media. Not only that, but they are playing all sorts of games too. Last time I did that was PacMan. Who has the time? I allow myself only one,

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    1. I am thinking of starting a site called, 'Sit On My Face Book', but I bet it's already been done. I'm not even going to look.

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    2. Oh great - now I have that song by the Rotters in my head.

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  6. Hey Tom: One thing you might like about Bob Hope is that his father was a British stonemason: http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=HMB

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    1. http://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/73#.VTfhZNJViko This link is actually better because you can see the "Guardians" better - which William Henry Hope worked on.

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    2. Thanks for that, Carol. As soon as I have upgraded my Flashplayer, I will look at them.

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    3. You're welcome - enjoy!

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  7. Ah well, at least it is innocuous as rhyming slang goes!

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