'It's a while since I've been in touch so, writing now, I feel like a shady relative -- some funny uncle -- slipping an over-generous note into your card: hush money excusing another year of neglect.'
or here is again, (and look what he's doing this time! it sounds so sinister) (no matter that he's 'great', that's ironic):
'I was tricked into sleep by a man with a smile, who slipped me the dose like a great-uncle slipping his favourite nephew a ten-pound note, like so, back-handed, then tipped me a wink.'
- 'for the record', simon armitage.
the uncle manifests a distanced closeness? lack of emotion or personal knowledge by their executioners of scorn (poet nieces and nephews) brought out in relief by the cosanguinity's ask. that it's a cosanguinity that almost collapses into affinity. (these are legal categories, actually [incest & related offences (scotland) act 1986], but I might be using them as socio-emotional categories... just now.) who knows what the uncle hides. he can be an idea. if the park can be an idea, he can be an idea. what though? maybe.
I wonder if there are any uncles in larkin. or o'brien.
the uncle's not always afforded with such negativity. (they are in o'brien. to some extent.) well, there's this sentimental domesticity from 'the amateur god':
'My father, my uncle, in suits of pale ash, Are still sinking the black in the shade.'
and this fond reminiscence, I guess, from 'late':
'Old men grow bored with young men's books, But still they followed and were sold At the stall that an uncle had kept.'
or, look here now, at contained implicit joy (although closer inspection reveals that he's only really introduced to help define strongly the figure who'll rise to prominence later - the, capital-d, 'Dad'):
'My uncle was beaming: 'Aye, yer elliptical stylus - fairly brings out a' the wee details.'
more uncles, please.
― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 2 May 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)
― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Sunday, 2 May 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)
― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 2 May 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)
― isadora (isadora), Monday, 3 May 2004 07:17 (twenty-one years ago)
Me and my friendWe lived our lives completelyFrom start to endYou and your friend, so sweetlyWith strength and prideIn spite of everything, and swimmingAgainst the tideTo obstinately hope of winning
And at the endYour funny uncle staringAt all your friendsWith military bearingAnd stopped to standTo smile and speak of you directlyGoodbye, shake handsLike you did everything correctly
To wipe away the tearsNo more pain, no fearNo sorrow or dyingNo waiting or cryingThese former things have passed awayAnother life begins today
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 3 May 2004 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)
O, I don't have a point, by the way.
― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 3 May 2004 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 3 May 2004 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)
― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 May 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)
― isadora (isadora), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 04:23 (twenty-one years ago)
Apparently not. "Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. avuncular (adj.) means “typical of or suitable to an uncle”; it also has figurative senses meaning “kind, indulgent, undemanding, sexless”: His treatment of her was more avuncular than amorous. It’s perhaps a cliché in its most frequent company, avuncular advice. A curiosity: English has no similar adjective to deal with matters or qualities typical of an aunt: auntish and auntlike are about as close as we can come. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press."
― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)
― sandy mc (sandy mc), Tuesday, 4 May 2004 07:14 (twenty-one years ago)
'Once More With Feeling' (The porn thing, not the Buffy musical) has a long bit about the infinite sexxxiness of uncles which may or may not be mentalism.
― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)
Language is so odd. The word originates from a latin word meaning MATERNAL uncle. avuncular SYLLABICATION: a·vun·cu·lar PRONUNCIATION: -vngky-lr ADJECTIVE: 1. Of or having to do with an uncle. 2. Regarded as characteristic of an uncle, especially in benevolence or tolerance. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin avunculus, maternal uncle. See awo- in Appendix
― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)
― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)
― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)
and/or
This British phrase means "all will be well" or "simple as that":"You go and ask for the job -- and he remembers your name -- andBob's your uncle." It dates from circa 1890. P. Brendon, in Eminent Edwardians, 1979, suggests an origin:"When, in 1887, Balfour was unexpectedly promoted to the vital frontline post of Chief Secretary for Ireland by his uncle Robert, LordSalisbury (a stroke of nepotism that inspired the catch-phrase'Bob's your uncle'), ..." Or it may have been prompted by the cant phrase "All is bob" ="all is safe." (Info from Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Catch Phrases, 2ndedition, revised by Paul Beale, Routledge, 1985, ISBN0-415-05916-X.)http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxbobsyo.html
― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 07:46 (twenty-one years ago)
― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 15:17 (twenty-one years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)
― Cornelius Murphy, Tuesday, 18 May 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)
And as far as English uncles are concerned, don't forget Harry Potter's awful aunt and uncle--and piggish cousin Dudley.
― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)
― cozen (Cozen), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)
― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)
― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)
― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 20 May 2004 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)
― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)
Anyway I wouldn't have understood if it hadn't been for Pauline Fowler on Eastenders.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 12:14 (twenty-one years ago)
― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)
― Aimless (Aimless), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)