Another one for the ????

[venta]

Driving back from a bakery-raid with grumblesmurf, he asked if I was familiar with the word chav.

I wasn't - apparently it means approximately the same as pikey. I was just filing this away in my mental Bag Of Words, when it suddenly occurred to me that it's basically the same word as charver.

Charver (spelling optional, I've only ever heard it said) was the insult of choice among some friends back in Darlington about three or four years ago. Again it (or its bizare relative charver-ding) were used in the same way pikey gets (mis)used, to mean anything from "thieving gipsy" to "scruffy little bastard".

Around at the same time was rarfer(-ding), again with the same meaning. I don't think I've heard them since, so they were maybe never particularly common currency.

Any offers, anyone ?

And I think I need a new phrase inventing: what do you call a bunch of people (that's you lot :) to whom you can pose questions, and whose collective brain you can trawl for information ? Something of the search engine, something of the test audience, something of the lab rat. Any ideas ?

Comments

Re:

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

No-one gives you more! Than Budget! Budget!... Windows!

I remember it now. It probably won't leave my head and I will have to sing it in a PhonePost to get it out of my system.

Cheers, chum.

Re:

[venta.livejournal.com]

<sings>See the world through a Budget Window! Come home through a Budget Door!</sings>

I'm so pleased you remembered :)

I had mercifully forgotten about Frank and his carpets. A few years back, Fraser (Frank's son) was in the adverts - and having conferred with some people in the TFM studio, he was really was every bit as much of an irritating little twat as he sounded on the ads )

Bells Stores were conveniently mine (or possibly "conveniently yours") in my day, they made no estimates about when I slept.

Re:

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

You KNOW you've MADE! The RIGHT! CHOICE! NO-ONE! Gives you MORE!

I have half a feeling that the jingle has been remixed once or twice somewhere along the line - I've heard a couple of different rhythm patterns for the final "budget, budget windows" and there was a spectacular, pseudo-rock-concert orchestration at one point.

Wasn't Fraser the Court Kitchens (later Court Homemakers) kid?

Aaaaagh :-(

Re:

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Fraser the Court Kitchens (later Court Homemakers) kid?

Ooooh, now you might be right there.

If it's any consolation, I've set myself off singing the Budget Windows song too. And from then it's only a small step to The red car and the blue car had a race..., and I'll be unlivable with for the rest of the week.

Re:

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Don't click here (RealAudio) and even less should you click here (.wav). This represents my attempt to get revenge for the Budget Windows song. Both work-safe, neither sanity-safe.

From this discussion last May.