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Gransnet today....Just my opinion.

(558 Posts)
merlotgran Sun 27-Nov-16 11:43:46

Don't want to completely hi-jack the 'Christmas in four words' thread so I've started this one. Feel free to shoot me down. I don't do flouncing. grin

Some time ago, the 'What does Gransnet mean to you?'thread developed into a 'Bring back jingl' campaign. Despite this, it has become clear that we are not entitled to an explanation as to why she is still shackled to the naughty step

We inhabit a goldfish bowl which must be respectable to the outside world looking in on an ageing cyber community. Old people are only expected to be curmudgeonly in books and TV nonsense. Manufactured threads about growing old disgracefully are perfectly acceptable so long as they fit the approved template which has been set by people who are NOT as old as we are.

All well and good until a situation causes a ding-dong. We must be ever mindful that Gransnet is a business relying on advertising revenue. Swearing is tolerated on Mumsnet because it's acceptable in the young and feisty whereas the 'one foot in the grave' club have to leave all that behind and remember our opinions don't really count any more.

The political threads are argumentative because that's politics. You can't put a straight jacket on a well informed if opiniated point of view which is as it should be. Folk who hide behind the sofa when all hell breaks loose should know better than to get caught in the cross-fire.

So....We're allowed to moan about Brexit, complain about our aches and pains and chat about telly dramas/adverts/music. We willingly offer support to complete strangers even though it often comes back to bite us. I'm not the only one who can spot a set-up. Above all, we must remain bland!

There were two members who railed against this. One is sadly no longer with us and the other has been kicked into touch for being too outspoken. Unsurprisingly, they rarely saw eye to eye but that's LIFE!

I'm off to put the joint in the oven. I might even start a thread about it. hmm

Only joking!

annodomini Tue 06-Dec-16 19:15:16

Sparrows where I lived (Ayrshire) were 'speugs'.

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 19:15:51

gilly It is not a biddy but a bidey-in, like "abide with me".
I suppose a bidey-in abides in the same abode as his/her man/wife?

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 19:19:39

Twa burds sat on a barra
Yin was a speug, the ither a sparra.

And Duncan Macrae's wee coak sparra www.youtube.com/watch?v=HivJ4EosWS8

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 20:01:12

DGS won the talent contest at school last year reciting 'Wee Cock Sparra' complete with all the actions.

Around here we also call a sparrow a speug

Granny23 Tue 06-Dec-16 20:04:25

We also have 'puir auld biddies' and also bidey-ins.

Elegran Tue 06-Dec-16 20:18:11

Auld biddies can also be bidey-ins, of course. It isn't just the young who cohabit.

grannyqueenie Tue 06-Dec-16 22:15:44

This thread just gets better and better, I've seen words I've not heard spoken for ages. My mother had a "kist" (chest) that she kept in the "press" (cupboard). Although I was brought up in Glasgow my mother hailed from Ayrshire and my father spent a lot of time in Ireland as a child, add to that regular holidays with family in Aberdeen and it's no wonder I'm never sure where various bits of my childhood dialect originated!