I Had Always Thought That It Was Just Us The British,

that were changing our language to be politically correct,

but it appears that our cousins across the pond are changing theirs too, in use since it was first recorded in 1692 and probably wasn’t new then, the term rule of thumb is considered to be offencive to women wrote Chief Diversity Officer John Robinson, it is a pity that he did not use one of the many libraries that he could have before he made this appalling gaff, the phrase rule of thumb uses the word rule in the sense of ruler, not regulation, and directly refers to this method of measurement, I believe that Robinson read it was British law to beat your wife with a rod no bigger than the width of your thumb, that can be traced back to a pronouncement that was supposed to have been made in 1782 by a British judge, Sir Francis Buller,

it might be that he never made the statement that rendered him so notorious, Edward Foss, in his Biographical Dictionary of the Judges of England of 1864 says that to Buller “is attributed the obnoxious and ungentlemanly dictum that a husband may beat his wife, so that the stick with which he administers the castigation is not thicker than his thumb”, but says he can’t find any evidence Buller said it, remember this is over 90 years since the first recorded use of the phrase rule of thumb as a measurement was used,

any way some one will have to hold the fort soon as I am off to the pub to drink a black and tan as I watch the handicap Olympics, hopefully Diana will go Dutch,

did anyone spot the four deliberate mistakes? Robinson also comments I should no longer use terms like hold the fort, black and tan, handicap and Dutch, rather worryingly he makes a second complete fool of himself when he says that term 'hold the fort' derives from defending homesteads and seeking refuge from raging Native Americans in the 19th century, where as in fact the term is thought to have been first used during the Battle of Allatoona in the Civil War, General William Sherman ordered Union forces to 'hold the fort' and wait for relief, General Sherman denied he said this, although the myth persisted, the second and most likely source of the quotation is from a hymn entitled 'Hold the Fort' by Chicago evangelist Philip P. Bliss who lived and produced his work also during the Civil War, it seems a pity that some one in public office is so unaware of his own countries history,

I guess reams of paper will also have to be used to reprint all of the books detailing how to make cocktails, with the black and tan page omitted!