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A Load Of Old Cobblers
"A load of old cobblers" and variants such as "what a load of cobblers" or just "cobblers!" is British slang for "what nonsense" that is derived from the Cockney rhyming slang for "balls" (testicles) of "cobbler's awls". The phrase began to be widely used from the 1960s and is still in use but has become less offensive over time as its origins have been forgotten. Origins The phrase originated as Cockney rhyming slang where "cobblers" refers to Shoemaking, cobbler's Stitching awl, awls which rhymes with "balls" (testicles), as in the exclamation "wikt:balls, Balls!" for "Nonsense!". The use of the rhyme allows a taboo word, in this case the vulgar exclamation "balls!", to be avoided. The use of "cobblers" as a synonym for balls dates back to at least the 1930s. Contemporary use The term "load of old cobblers" and similar variants only gained wide currency from the 1960s, for instance in British sitcoms such as ''Steptoe and Son'' (1962–74) which featured two Rag-and-bone man, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apprentice Shoemaker
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulated occupation. Most of their training is done while working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade or profession, in exchange for their continued labor for an agreed period after they have achieved measurable competencies. Apprenticeship lengths vary significantly across sectors, professions, roles and cultures. In some cases, people who successfully complete an apprenticeship can reach the "journeyman" or professional certification level of competence. In other cases, they can be offered a permanent job at the company that provided the placement. Although the formal boundaries and terminology of the apprentice/journeyman/master system often do not extend outside guilds and tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Collins English Dictionary
The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. The edition of the dictionary in 1979 with Patrick Hanks as editor and Laurence Urdang as editorial director, was the first British English dictionary to be typeset from the output from a computer database in a specified format. This meant that every aspect of an entry was handled by a different editor using different forms or templates. Once all the entries for an entry had been assembled, they were passed on to be keyed into the slowly assembled dictionary database which was completed for the typesetting of the first edition. In a later edition, they increasingly used the Bank of English established by John Sinclair at COBUILD to provide typical citations rather than examples composed by the lexicographer. Editions The current edition is the 13th edition, which was published in November 2018. The previous edition was the 12th edition, which was pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bollocks
''Bollocks'' () is a word of Middle English origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English in a multitude of negative ways; it most commonly appears as a noun meaning "rubbish" or "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to describe something that is of poor quality or useless. It is also used in common phrases like "bollocks to this", which is said when quitting a task or job that is too difficult or negative, and "that's a load of old bollocks", which generally indicates contempt for a certain subject or opinion. Conversely, the word also appears in positive phrases such as "the dog's bollocks" or more simply "the bollocks", which will refer to something which is admired or well-respected. Etymology The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED) gives examples of its usage dating back to the 13th century. One of the early references is Wycliffe's Bible (1382), Leviticus xxii, 24: "Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yes Minister
''Yes Minister'' is a British political satire sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. Comprising three seven-episode series, it was first transmitted on BBC2 from 1980 to 1984. A sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'', ran for 16 episodes from 1986 to 1988. All but one of the episodes lasted half an hour, and almost all ended with a variation of the title of the series spoken as the answer to a question posed by Minister (later, Prime Minister) Jim Hacker. Several episodes were adapted for BBC Radio; the series also spawned a 2010 stage play that led to a new television series on Gold (UK TV channel), Gold in 2013. Set principally in the private office of a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British cabinet minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs in Whitehall, ''Yes Minister'' follows the Minister (government), ministerial career of Jim Hacker, played by Paul Eddington. His various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes are op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester Evening News
The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 2019. The newspaper is owned by Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror), /sup> one of Britain's largest newspaper publishing groups. Since adopting a 'digital-first' strategy in 2014, the ''MEN'' has experienced significant online growth, despite its average print daily circulation for the first half of 2021 falling to 22,107. In the 2018 British Regional Press Awards, it was named Newspaper of the Year and Website of the Year. History Formation and ''The Guardian'' ownership The ''Manchester Evening News'' was first published on 10 October 1868 by Mitchell Henry as part of his parliamentary election campaign, its first issue four pages long and costing a halfpenny. The newspaper was run from a small office on Brown Street, with approximately ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cobbles
Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct from a cobblestone by being quarried or shaped to a regular form, whereas cobblestone is generally of a naturally occurring form and is less uniform in size. Use in roading Cobblestones are typically either set in sand or similar material, or are bound together with mortar. Paving with cobblestones allows a road to be heavily used all year long. It prevents the build-up of ruts often found in dirt roads. It has the additional advantage of immediately draining water, and not getting muddy in wet weather or dusty in dry weather. Shod horses are also able to get better traction on stone cobbles, pitches or setts than tarmac or asphalt. The fact that carriage wheels, horse hooves and even modern automobiles make a lot of noise when rolling o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Jones (rugby Union)
Edward Jones (born 30 January 1960) is an Australian rugby union coach and former player, who was most recently the head coach of the England national team from 2015 to 2022. He previously coached Australia between 2001 and 2005, taking the team to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final. He was an advisor with South Africa when the Springboks won the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and from 2012 to 2015 he coached Japan, leading them in the 2015 Rugby World Cup and an upset win over South Africa. In November 2015, Jones was appointed head coach of England and led them to win the 2016 and 2017 Six Nations Championships, becoming only the second national team to be unbeaten in a calendar year. He led England to the 2019 Rugby World Cup final where they were beaten by South Africa. Jones played as a hooker for Sydney club Randwick and New South Wales and began coaching Randwick in 1994. He continued his career in Japan between 1995 and 1997 for Tokai University, as an assistant to the Japan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir James Dyson
Sir James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and billionaire entrepreneur who founded Dyson Ltd. He is best known as the inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation. According to the ''Sunday Times'' Rich List 2022, he is the second richest person in the UK with an estimated net worth of £23 billion. He served as the Provost of the Royal College of Art from August 2011 to July 2017, and opened a new university, the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, on Dyson's Wiltshire campus in September 2017. Early life and education James Dyson was born 2 May 1947 in Cromer, Norfolk, one of three children, and named after his grandfather, James Dyson. He was educated at Gresham's School, an independent boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, when his father died of prostate cancer. He excelled at long-distance running: "I was quite good at it, not because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Partridge
Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand–British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Army Education Corps and the RAF correspondence department during World War II. Early life Partridge was born in the Waimata Valley, near Gisborne, on the North Island of New Zealand to John Thomas Partridge, a grazier, and his wife Ethel Annabella Norris. In 1908 the family moved to Queensland, Australia, where he was educated at the Toowoomba Grammar School. He studied classics and then French and English at the University of Queensland. During this time Partridge also worked for three years as a schoolteacher before enrolling in the Australian Imperial Force in April 1915 and serving in the Australian infantry during the First World War, in Egypt, Gallipoli and on the Western Front, before being wounded in the Battle of Pozières. His interest in slang an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabloid Press
Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalism, sensationalist journalism (usually dramatized and sometimes unverifiable or even Fake news, blatantly false), which takes its name from the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as half broadsheet. The size became associated with sensationalism, and ''tabloid journalism'' replaced the earlier label of ''yellow journalism'' and ''scandal sheets''. Not all newspapers associated with tabloid journalism are tabloid size, and not all tabloid-size newspapers engage in tabloid journalism; in particular, since around the year 2000 many broadsheet newspapers converted to the more Tabloid (newspaper format)#Compact tabloids, compact tabloid format. In some cases, celebrities have successfully sued for libel, demonstrating that tabloid stories have defamed them. Publications engaging in tabloid journalism are known as rag newspapers or simply rags. Tabloid journalism has c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
