Yet something else that gets up my nose...

[Fyodor]

I looked up "Jordan."

So did I - they were mauve.

[Malc]

To bring in a cartooning parallel (and this is one that gets up the Americans noses, god bless their little cotton socks) the syndicates in the States are exactly the same. I keep trying to get across to our friends across the pond that the syndicates are not friends of cartooning or cartoonists, and that they are not people a social cartooning organization like the NCS should be inviting to their drinkies or awards ceremonies. Syndicates are businesses who act as gatekeepers to the industry that many cartoonists want to get into, and they (along with the lazy arse editors for whom the syndicate system saves labour) are responsible for the fact that strip cartooning wages are at 1970s levels.
This is of course inflammatory to those cartoonists who run the NCS and who see the syndicate heads as valued colleagues, but just as lions, wildebeest and crocs all inhabit the savannah, when they gather for meals, the wildebeest tend to lose out.

[Fyodor]

Good point.

[Joan]

The day after I appeared on Countdown, I was followed round Woolworths by an elderly gentleman in a flat cap, who kept pointing at me and arguing with his missus. The following day, I took up my usual season ticket seat at the football. A similarly elderly capped gentleman sat beside me, the same season ticket seat he had sat in all year without so much as a word to me. After ten minutes and a lull in proceedings, without making eye contact, he addressed me with, "Saw ye on the telly the other day". I smiled to cover my blushes. "Ye were shite!" he said, then we never spoke again.

I think we need a little sympathy here - we celebrities don't all live on Easy Street, y'ken!

Love it!  I know it's not quite applicable, but my mother would have said "That was your gas in a peep!"

[Roger Kettle]

Tarks' story is almost identical to one of mine which I may have mentioned before. I think it's a Scottish thing...
I was introduced to a guy in a local pub as the "bloke who writes Beau Peep". "Oh, yeah!" he replied "it used to be funny but it's shite now".

[Malc]

Joan, I'm not casting nasturtiums on your powers of recall, but your mum probably said "that PUT your gas AT a peep", meaning you turned your gas flame down so that it was a tiny flicker (a "peep"), hardly noticeable.

[The Peepmaster]

My dear ol' Ma used to say "Never put a banana in the fruit bowl if you want satsumas to thrive, even on a Wednesday". I've never forgotten that.

[Roger Kettle]

San Miguels going down well, Nige?

[Malc]

My old Grandad used to say "if the chain's still swingin', the seat's still warm".
He also had an endearing habit of getting up from his battered old armchair to spit in the fire.

[Joan]

It was definitely 'in a peep' that Mum used to say, Malc.  I Googled it and both are used, but "at" is more common. In my Google travels I found this wee poem:

  Adam McNaughton:  Folksinger, songwriter, Book-Dealer and Teacher

    Oh, where is the Glasgow that I used to know,
    Big Willie, wee Shooey. The Steamie, the Co.,
    The shilpet wee bauchle, the glaiket big dreep,
    The ba’ on the slates, an’ yer gas in a peep?
    If ye scrape the veneer aff, are these things still there?

(Where is the Glasgow?)

I understand everything except for 'shilpet' - translation please!

[Diamond Lil]

I thinks it's sort of a poor-looking, frail ...in winter that person would be shivering because her clothes were too thin for the weather.  Realised I put in "her" clothes because I always associate the word with a female.

[Malc]

I can see that "in" is definitely used, Joan.

My mum used to say "ah pit it et a peep" (I turned the gas down so it was hardly a flame) which, if you say it out loud sounds like you're stuttering. 

[Joan]

Thanks, Lil.  It actually sounds vaguely familiar now you explained.   A bit like "Peter Piper picked a peck, etc" Malc, the stutter coming from the 't's.  I read something about the 'peep' bit being used often when the mains gas pressure would fluctuate all the time - not sure why.