What happened to English grammar?

DH's family used to say "vive l'empereur" a reference to Napoleon perhaps?

I knew *Charlies dead for droopy petticoats. I thought "showing the flag" or some such saying was about having your period. Wonderful language!

Years ago a friend's husband told me she was feeling off-colour because she had 'got the decorators in'

"Charley's dead" was another

There were some fairly weird things we used to say for 'your petticoat is showing'. 'Flying the flag' was one, I think. But I imagine the whole idea is incomprehensible now!

We used to say 'flying low without a licence'

The debate is now much more in keeping with the usual Gransnet stuff.

Or you could say 'You are flying low today'!

Maybe "flies are undone" harks back to the golden age when there were buttons and not a zip. I am sure Millicent Martin said "your flies are undone" to Kenneth Cope in a sketch on That Was The Week That Was.

Maybe is should be 'your fly's undone' Just asking!

Both terms are in common usage. Peace!

absent, Englishmen's trousers have flies, as in "your flies are undone".

Men's trousers have a fly [fastening] not flies.

And I thought it was a reference to Monty's trousers. Recently DGS (3) solemnly told me when I was helping him out of PJs and into pants "Daddy says the label goes at the back."

I thought it was Eisenhower who "flew back to front". What about "British army push bottles up Germans" or was that equally an early urban myth?

Not personally deserving but anyway

Does anyone remember the headline that said,"monty flies back to front"?

The Grauniad has always been full of typos. I think it's part of its 'persona' now — certainly its reputation.

No, Phoenix, never the naughty step for you!
I must say that I would have been equally sad to see bad grammar in any newspaper - this particular headline just happened to catch my eye.
As I cannot find any English language papers in my area, I usually read as many on-line as I can, and often find grammatical errors. The Gruniad , as Private Eye calls it, is notorious for typos, and I ask myself what happened to proof readers or sub-editors.

Even worse, wrong thread! Sorry sorry sorry.

On the naughty step for me.

Just knew I'd get it wrong! Bugger!

Oh heck/feck about time I changed the pictures! Combination of lack of technical ability and when I can -be arsed- have the time.

I understand your point absolutely gracesmum and I too was amazed how long the thread went rambling on for. Apologies for being prickly about it.

Sorry gorki Of course I didn't mean you shouldn't reply to a post, just felt that 9 pages rambling through whether or not anybody should have sunk the Belgrano/Graf Spee/Bismarck and whether or not anybody might be upset by this man's demise (or celebrating because they were on the other side) or might have been upset by even mentioning the Falklands war might not be stretching the credulity a bit when all it was, was a point about use of language in that paper.

I'm the same Gorki; I liken peoples profiles to being in someones house and looking at the books they read or the cd's they own [although that doesn't really happen any more with kindles and whatever it is that people play music on now].