BJK&E

Although there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the absolute number of words Eskimos have for snow (anything between 4 and 100), I’m thinking that it will be more than the British have for rain. Given the extent to which “rain” features in national life, this just seems wrong.
For instance, Lou and I were walking along Bloomsbury Way this morning with umbrellas up but still getting damp (not wet, soaked or drenched) because the ‘water in the air’ didn’t really qualify as “rain” – it was of the ‘swirling-around-atomised-get-a-grip-pointless’ variety.
But, like the sticky-up thing atop a Frenchman’s beret, there wasn’t a word to describe it, or our situation. Surely in a country as ‘rainy’ as ours there’s got to be more than just “downpour”, “shower” or “drizzle”?  Please let me know if there is.  And if there isn’t, perhaps it’s time we created some rain words!
I mean, the Germans have “pladdern” (very strong rain, fairly big drops), “prasseln” (also strong rain, but with smaller drops), “gießen” (just boring old strong rain), “pieseln” (a light rain that’s barely there - also means “to pee”), and “nieseln” (similar to “pieseln”, but with very small drops. Apparently.
Maybe the new rain words could be onomatopoetic.  In Ukranian/Russian, “kapaty” means light rain, and “nakrapaty” even lighter rain; “barabanit’ is the sound of rain battering against window panes or the roof.  In China they use “didadida”.  In Welsh, “pitran patran” is light rain.  “Tittuf” is Hebrew for dripping rain.  Again, apparently.
Anyone have any suggestions for words for ‘rain situations’? If nothing else, it’ll give you something to do on a, er, rainy day!

Another day, another feeding of the recycling bin with yet more direct mail, unsolicited magazines and other assorted marketing bumf. Waste. Waste. Waste.

I can live with relevant direct mail because I do occasionally receive something that is of genuine interest.  I can rationalise unsolicited magazines etc, because it’s probably the best way of experiencing new titles/features I may ‘need to know’  -  the rest get put into the boxes we send to good causes or whatever.

But I get really angry when sent promotional items packaged out of all proportion to the content. Today, like most of the media industry I reckon, I received an Easter Egg, in a box, in another box, in a padded envelope.  Thanks, but I don’t need an Easter Egg that badly.  And that reminds me of last year’s effort from an industry body that wanted to promote smart thinking by way of a tiny trinket or something of minimal volume distributed by way of a disproportionately large box.  smart thinking, I think not! 

For goodness sake, nowadays only a foolish enterprise would engage consumers with such needless waste.  So why does a community who should know better sometimes behave that way amongst itself?

If any relevant marketing bods are reading this, please, please, please think twice before actioning an overly packaged promo  -  if not for the sake of the planet, then for the sake of your brand.  I’m pretty certain I’m not alone in reacting negatively to such wastage.

And this is what I’m going to do about it: I’m going to start a separate blog on which I (and hopefully others) will post examples/images of questionably packaged items for people to shame (or not) by way of a vote.  Give me a couple of weeks to work on it, and watch this space for more details.