Little Minx

HollyDaze your reference to unles playing the piano brought back childhood memories for me [played lots of musical instruments as you say and all self taught] and us all singing Quartermasters Stores and laughing,
['cheese, cheese, walking on it's knees,' and something similar and just as daft.Also a song called Ivan Stravinsnky Skavoe [again not sure of name or spelling.]Happy days.

Which is me saying that I think the young man in the OP was being over-sensitive and really a bit silly. Maybe he uses the word in a sexual context and that's the root of the problem in that he isn't aware of innocent meanings of the same word.

In that context, of course we knew what it meant. In the little girl's context it meant something different. It's the context that matters rather than the word. Context is what gives the connotations and therefore the meaning.

The news last week reported the case of a teacher aged 37 who had a sexual relationship with a 16 yr old pupil. The news report said he'd called her a minx in a text message, the inference was sexual. Fancy that, who knew, not this bunch of gransnetters anyway.

Well there you go PAPA each to his own, He made me "cringe" always seemed like a chap who was not keen on women !!!!

In a rather spiteful , be-littling way !!!

That is this woman"s point of view

As a youngster, Nonu, I wasn't aware of the other side of Frankie Howard but I liked the way he could command an audience, in a similar way to Larry Grayson, Lilly Savage and Danny La Rue. They could all entertain without causing offence, at least not to me.

Having read through these posts , it seems to me quite ridiculous, what on earth is wrong with this expression , It seems such a shame your DS behaved the way he did!!

bye the bye Frankie Howard made me cringe, still what ever floats your boat, takes all sorts !

When I say politically incorrect these days, I meant 'in my day' of course!!

Can't keep up with it all.

DD1 used a term on a social networking site today which I would never dream of using (about THOSE footballers). To her it meant they were useless, to me it meant something which would be politically incorrect these days.

Times change, but do we have to change our opinions/thoughts/speech as well?

I've had a re-think about this, and I think it's a generation thing.
Similar things have happened to me with our grandchildren, where I've been very lighthearted and jokey about something, then their parents have implied (politely) that this is taken seriously now.
Both our sons went through a sort of wild phase in their teens and early 20s, and perhaps they are stricter with their own children because they don't want them to get involved in the much more dangerous temptations around now.
The girls are similar, but not so outspoken about it.

www.beano.com/

Here we are, Thistledoo.

We had a free copy with a Sunday paper a few weeks ago when DGS was staying and it is apparently still available. Complete with Minnie The Minx - 'It's the girl who's tougher than all the boys ...'

I was relieved to note that Dennis the Menace is still in there, with his dark spiky hair, although DD1 tells me that there is an American film about Dennis the Menace and he is blond!!

This has all reminded me of the time I was choosing a birthday present for DGD last year; I chose a soft 'Snow White' doll and the lovely girl who served me in the Disney Store told me earnestly that 'Snow White is our oldest princess you know, she dates from 1937'. I did mention that I thought Snow White was in fact a lot older than that. She had obviously never heard of the Brothers Grimm, and the even older legends!

Knock it off now! Ill mannered indeed!

What a shame your son is so ill mannered. Minx is a harmless fun word. I suggest your son apologizes for his appalling behavior.

Thistle, I suggest you give him a subscription to the Beano for his birthday or Christmas whichever is first!

Thank you Lilygran, what a lot of good fun this thread has been, its turned an upsetting situation into a huge discussion about the play on words. I am trying to get a copy of the Beano for my DS, so we can all have a really good laugh about it. I heard my DIL calling the DGC little sausages the other day!!!! I nearly bust a gut.
Thank you all for your amusing posts and wonderful support.

Elegran - I probably had a smutty moment

I think their generation was a lovely generation. This is bringing back some lovely family memories from my childhood - every single one of my uncles could play several musical instruments and those would inevitably come out and be played (along with the piano) and, in my head, I can hear them singing 'The Quartermaster's Stores' - happy memories

I'm really sorry thistledoo had such a bad experience. I'm really confused, though, over what her son thought 'minx' meant. Words change their meaning over time and this particular word hasn't been used in a serious way for over 100 years! Dictionaries often give every definition without saying when the word was used in that sense. Son should perhaps do some kind of course on language? And start being kinder to his mother!

I have just seen that someone has put a yellow smiley face on the 'Though for the Day' thread. That is something I wouldn't use these days due to it's connection to the Acid House rave scene and taking of Ecstacy. Life is a minefield isn't it?

Shysal, if I was clever enough to reproduce that smiley face I would put a whole row of them on here! They cannot be allowed to appropriate everything.

My father had a repertoire of rugby songs which had to be strictly censored and my mother and aunt were never as strait-laced as they would have liked us to believe!

Holly I suspect that your aunt would be perfectly OK with the song - after all, it does just say "kissing"! Anything else is in the eye of the beholder ear of the listener.

That generation were less starchy than the image they liked to show the children, though. My grandfather used to like to sing the old Music Hall songs - "She is only a bird in a gilded cage" and so on. If he started on one that Granny thought unsuitable for our ears she she would stop him with a sharp "George!"

I have just seen that someone has put a yellow smiley face on the 'Though for the Day' thread. That is something I wouldn't use these days due to it's connection to the Acid House rave scene and taking of Ecstacy. Life is a minefield isn't it?

Good grief Elegran - that song sounds a bit raunchy for my dear old aunt! Then again, I have 'fond' memories of our Christmases at one aunts house (we all turned up) and out would come the gramophone and on would go the 78s and all my aunts and uncles would be singing along to barrack room ballads - the kids were banished to the front room (where the Christmas cake sat on the sideboard ) but we could hear them laughing and not understand why!

Minnie the Minx is still on the go in the Beano so what's his problem?

www.beano.com/characters/minnie-the-minx

Had thought the same as others but wasn`t sure so thanks Hunt for clarification - I too was concentrating on something of the rude all to no avail

Funny lot at Gordonstoun, apparently!