2 Comments
author

From Nigel Massey: 'The funniest business card I came across was when the Creative Director of Foote Cone and Belding where I worked for years handed me his which under his name read’ Very Important Person ‘

Expand full comment

Once again, great fun, Mark and I am genuinely in awe at your knowledge/research capacity for historical/cultural references.

But on ‘yourself’. Do you have no Irish friends or relations? It’s always ‘How’s yourself?’ or ‘What would yourself like?’ rather than ‘How are you?’ or ‘What would you like?’

Given, there are almost certainly, er, historical/cultural reasons for this usage. Ok, in the wrong context, it may not always strike the best note in print. But surely not so terrible in spoken English (given the countless variants that exist)? So maybe your customer service agent/happiness executive was being more authentic and less corporate-scripted than you thought?

Who knows? Wish I did.

Paul Marston, ex-national newspaper hack (non-formalised though widely understood title) and BA ‘comms director’. (Life would be so much easier if communications could just be directed.)

Expand full comment