Not Delia

Nutty post

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by

Not Delia
in

Mr Not Delia subscribes to Private Eye, which we both enjoy reading. There’s a lot of it available online but there’s nothing to beat the full version in print. It also provides a source of essential reading in the smallest room.

A couple of weeks ago (Issue 1241) we were mildly amused by a cartoon. The picture depicted a seriously ill child in a hospital bed, with concerned parents at the bedside. The dad says to the mum:

Don’t blame yourself, darling. How were you to know that ‘Mr Peanut’s Nutty Peanut Brittle (now even more nuts for a nutty taste you’ll go nuts for)’ contained nuts?

Well, of course, regular Not Delia readers will know that peanuts aren’t nuts at all – they’re legumes (part of the pea family) rather than true nuts. We’ve discussed all this before.  And found that it’s entirely possible that some people with a peanut allergy may be able to eat nuts safely, and those with a nut allergy may have no problems eating peanuts.

I couldn’t resist the chance of getting into Private Eye, and persuaded Mr ND to write an email to Pedantry Corner at Private Eye. (For those of you who aren’t Eye fans, it’s a regular slot where people pick up errors in previous issues in a pedantic sort of way.) In case you’re wondering why I didn’t do it myself, the answer is obvious. He is so much better than me at being pedantic. Sure enough, he fired off the email and we promptly forgot about the whole thing.

The latest Eye (Issue 1242) was delivered yesterday. Imagine our surprise when flicking through to find Mr ND in the Pedantry Corner. Yay!

(Unfortunately they’d edited out the link to Not Delia, but never mind. It’s always a little bit of a thrill to see your name as a contributor in Private Eye.)

Comments

5 responses to “Nutty post”

  1. UK Eating Out

    Haha! Well done. 🙂

    That’s a pity they edited the link out, but not surprising I suppose.

    Fame at last… and for being pedantic, too. That’s a real feather in Mr ND’s cap! 😀

  2. Not Delia

    Yeah, we were chuffed. Both of us have tried before and failed. They must be inundated with loads of good quality stuff they can pick and choose from.

    I fully expected them to edit out the link, but perhaps in the course of looking at Mr ND’s pedantic comment someone may have visited and enjoyed the place.

  3. Mr Not Delia

    Fame at last… and for being pedantic, too. That’s a real feather in Mr ND’s cap! 😀

    😆 I’m not sure it’s a claim to fame I should be entirely proud of! But ND’s right – it’s always a bit of a thrill to see your name in print.

  4. UK Eating Out

    In response to Mr ND above, I’m tempted to say something about ending sentences with a preposition, but perhaps I’d be taking on more than I can chew… 😆

  5. Mr Not Delia

    @ UK Eating Out No. 4

    Sorry, I missed this earlier…

    Ah yes, the old attempt to apply Latin and French grammar rules to English, which of course is a Germanic language. It’s like the taboo on splitting infinitives – there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it if you want to.

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