I've now looked at references in my (2009) edition of the OED to 'pig in a blanket.' The expression is first recorded in 1902, where it is said to be the American equivalent to our 'angels on horseback' (oysters wrapped in bacon). In 1926 it meant 'sausage in a roll.' In 1943 it meant 'frankfurter sandwich.' The modern British usage, meaning a sausage wrapped in bacon does not seem to be recorded.

Not only had I not (until this year) heard of a pig in a blanket, I've never eaten one, so far as I know. They sound disgusting.

Not so, Robin Orton, absolutely yummy, particularly to lovers of all pig-related products. Best with good chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon, cooked crispy.

There's also Devils on Horseback - prunes wrapped in bacon, often served as canapés.

I've been thinking about fashions in first names. Obviously these change all the time, but there seems to me that there may be a general trend towards

(a) abandoning the old custom of choosing at any rate one name which has already been used in the family, to emphasize family tradition. (To be fair, my own parents didn't use family names for me or my brother)

(b) using invented first names (sometimes with unfortunate results - I heard of one poor girl called 'Eurine')

(c ) a decline in the traditional shortened familiar forms of male names - Dick/Richard, Robin or Bob/Robert, Jack/John, Sandy/Alexander, Bill/William, Jim/James, Ted/Edward - in favour of what sound to me like rather more girly abbreviations ending in 'ie' or 'y' - Richie, Robby, Ali, Willy (or 'Will', for obvious reasons), Jamie, Eddie

(d) traditional shortened forms being used as 'official' first names - 'Jack' is perhaps the commonest example.

Am I right? If so, what does it say about the way our culture is changing?

A hypocorism to shortened a name to a first syllable and add a common diminutive suffix (Andrew -> Andy, for example) makes a lot more sense than shortening a name to a completely unrelated name (Richard to Dick, for example). Further, shortening names to those ending in a "y" or "ie" sound seems to be a natural progression and is common to a number of European languages, not just English.

Culture and tradition are arguably not the same, but the culture appears to be not bowing to tradition to the detriment of your own choices.

Your other comments reminded me of a podcast epidode titled "How Much Does Your Name Matter?"

In the podcast, they discuss a paper that relates to a study on the effect of "invented" names on a child.

Both the podcast and paper relate to the U.S. primarily, so please avoid if you are particularly jingoistic.

Very interesting paper, thanks. What it seems to bring out is how important social considerations are when you choose a name for your child - what other people will think of the name, and who you want to impress, or for your child to impress. It's not just a personal preference - 'that's a nice name.'

I remember arguing once with a friend that the same applied to the choice of cars (ours is a Toyota Auris), but he was unconvinced. He insisted that he chose his cars on purely objective grounds: price, performance, reliability etc.

I see that what used to be called 'conjurers' are now 'magicians' and 'conjuring tricks' are now 'magic.' To me a 'magician' is someone who really can produce a rabbit out of a hat, rather than just create an illusion of doing so by prestidigitation.

Pal-my-ra or Pal-me-ra? Or doesn't it matter?

I've always said PAN-a-mah, but I heard pan-a-ma (all short vowels and no stress) twice yesterday on the BBC. What's going on?

Personally, I find this thread very interesting.

Some people pronounce it "TAX dodger", with the accent on the first word, while others pronounce it "I have always acted entirely within the law", with the accent on saving their a***.

indeed!

Should it really be pronounced 'PaTalbot', which is what the BBC seem to think?

What a barbarous and undignified title. Somebody in No 10 has clearly got a cloth ear.

'Exiting' is a journalists' word. What's wrong with '...for Leaving the European Union'?

Next up: 'Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Like Clean and Green'; 'Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Like Prison Works'...

I was brought up (in Leicester, in the forties and fifties) to 'clean' my teeth. I remember there was an advertising slogan for Maclean's toothpaste, 'Have you Macleaned your teeth today?', so it must have been common usage. But nowadays everyone seem to talk of 'brushing' their teeth. Has there been a change (and, if so, why)? Or is it a regional thing?

I am perplexed at the English language and in particular pronouniciation.

He wound the bandage over the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce
The tip was full and had to refuse more refuse
When shot at the dove dove into the bushes
I did not object to the object
The insurance was invalid for the invalid
I was too close to the door to close it

As a friend of mine responded to this very thing on the interweb, "English is hard. It can be mastered through tough, thorough thought, though."

Only a problem in American English.

PASToral, eLECToral are changing to pasTOral, elecTORal. These sorts of words traditionally have the stress on the antepenultimate syllable. What has brought about the change, I wonder?

Just fashion probably.

Back to the teeth cleansing conundrum, I have always brushed them. That didn't seem odd being brought up on the south coast with parents from North and Midlands so perhaps to clean your teeth was a local fashion thing at the time?

Having said that, my Irish OT washes her teeth, so regional differences do exist with this.

I'm not sure whether a linguistics expert would be satisfied with 'just fashion.'

Another example. I was brought up to call Aristophanes' play LySIStrata. Today I heard some BBC arts journalist say LysisTRAHta

Speaking of electoral, i recently hadd to decide whether we should use advisor or adviser at work for a product for US and UK market. I eventually decided that there is no meaningful difference and preferred the look of advisor, like editor or elector.