Hearing things
Tim Blair hints that his high school reports were littered with Fs. We also know that his high-school English teacher is no stranger to failure, either. Put two and two together, and you get a strong hint that Tim should avoid being too picky over grammar:
Former Labor front bencher Carmen Lawrence has joined Margo Kingston at Webdiary. To which I can only say, “here, here.”
Which is as Ms. Lawrence renders “hear, hear.”
Ooh, you are clever, aren’t you, Tim? Actually, no:
The correct term is, “hear, hear!” It is an abbreviation for “hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!”
Of course, if the speaker is actually asking a question, such as “and just where do you think we should open the new strip club?” it’s not hard to imagine that at least one yahoo in attendance might yell, “here, here!” But this would be the exception that proves the rule.
Oh well. At least he can claim consistency. As the old saying goes, “Show me the boy at seven, and I will show you the man.”
UPDATE: It was Carmen who was wrong, not Tim. The phrase “which is as Ms Lawrence renders ‘hear, hear’”, combined with the fact that Margo had fixed the spelling before I read the piece, meant that I wedged my foot neatly in my mouth. Oh well, chalk one up for Blair.
To Robert I say, “hear, hear”
To Tim, “there, there.”
(Though he knows his Ellis.)
Actually, I just read the Carmen piece and it says, “here, here.” Has it been changed?
Tim, it definitely said “hear, hear” when I checked it yesterday. Looks like someone at the Herald is reading Tim Blair’s blog…
Tim has claimed a victory, but I think I should email him to let him know he’s wrong.
Either way, kudos to you for your honesty.