Oh dear. Slippers: check. Cardie: check. Pipe: definitely on its way.
Today I wrote an email to the editor of venerable Irish weekly Woman’s Way to correct, in as nerdy a manner as one could possibly achieve, one of their little trivia boxes on their soap pages. Titled ‘The Rules of Soapland’, it stated that, unlike in real life, no two soap characters will have the same first name. Much as I was tempted to let that go and turn the page, I couldn’t help the little Trekkie at the back of my brain shouting: “Well, actuallaay, in point of fact…”
It’s just that I had always been impressed by the fact that Coronation Street once had no fewer than three women called Elizabeth working in the Rover’s Return at the same time: Bet (Lynch) Gilroy, Betty Turpin and Liz McDonald. I did point out in my email that they were, of course, known by different diminutives – I also apologised for my innate anorak-wearing nerdiness.
The editor of Woman’s Way replied very kindly and politely, assuring me that “it’s not nerdy, it’s educational”. As much as she made me feel a lot better about my trivial pedantry, I can’t help feeling the very last vestige of the young me has now dropped out of sight, never to return.
I Have Grave News 