Saturday 29 January 2011

The Syllabub of Terrors

The Syllabub of Terrors is based on that big obreption in the 19th century.  This is known as the Syllabus of Errors and if you want to undermine authority you can start by going through each of the items and say 'NO'.  If you say no, you will save yourself from being catechised, which can be painful. 

I am looking for new items for the Syllabub of Terrors for the 21st century.  Points will be awarded for those items which can scare the living daylights.  As a taster, my first item or ingredient in this tasty confection is: mangle.

mfg

obreption.

5 comments:

  1. Would Joseph Ratzinger be a suitable candidate, I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear John

    I'm not sure what would happen to the confection if we added Joseph Ratzinger to it. While I am inclined to restrict the ingredients to inanimate objects, I realise that there are live cultures such as yoghurt, yeasts, viruses and certain wine vintages such as Chateau Neuf du Pape which could be used. Thank you for your suggestion. For an inanimate vintage, you could add John Paul II. This ought to help in polishing up the Syllabub.

    grazie

    Papa Ratzi

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Papa

    One word that fills me with dread is 'tent'. I still have nightmares when I was on a safari in Tanzania and had to stay in said tent. It's no wonder that the word brings up so many corny themes in English, such as 'loitering with in-tent' and 'as camp as a row of tents'. As part of my therapy, I look out for the word 'tent' and it forms part one of Belgium's most popular words of the year in Flemish. The word is 'tent slut' and you can find out all about it in

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/8201723/Most-popular-Flemish-words-of-the-year-include-tent-slut.html

    I'm finding your blog an interesting concept, but you might need some help in trying to keep your list of ingredients in some order. If you approve of my offering of tent, could I add that your word 'mangle' fills me with dread. I'm now having visions of my hands being pulled through a mangle and some awkward person turns the handle. Surely this is a instrument of torture. Are you aware of any examples?

    Meanwhile, I'll keep searching for like minded people with a fear of mangle and tent.

    tot ziens

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've been listening to Janet Street-Porter plugging her new book relentlessly on any chat show she can get on. It seems that living persons are not allowed but for some reason, Dr Finlay, our Janet is trying to get over the message that there ain't any such fings as toxins. It's all made up by celebrities. The wonderful Richard Bacon questioned her BBC Radio 5 Live, when Janet was saying that people should drink cava in order to save money on fizz "do you fink ahi should drop a tablet of Alka seltzer in a glaws?" Profound, innit? Can we add toxins to your syllabub? What are your views on Plancks constant?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Can you add football shirts, as these terrorise loyal fans. My 6 year old grandson bought a Liverpool football shirt and the player left to join Chelsea. I'm not going to name him in case he ends up in a search engine.

    ReplyDelete