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Hello there, Grunger. I've posted - on various crosswords - recently but not on this PU. This was deliberate - I decided not to burden you all with my moans about Sex and It and and Ouse/House and Garner sounding like Ghana ... and who knows what else!

Yes, I saw the female clue in today's Times - and it's a word I've never liked. I read today that Meghan Markle listed her occupation as 'Actor' on her marriage certificate. I'm sure this will please some people and irritate others. I found Harry's occupation more noteworthy - how many people get to put 'Prince'?

The Gogglebox Malones are another branch of the family, we have very little to do with each other.

Malone

Lovely to hear from you - I do wish you WOULD burden us with your moans, observations etc. as per your posting. Megan irritates me in many ways. As you say, she does not know her occupation, and she has mis-spelt her name on her marriage certificate.

Grunger

I was pleased to see the -enne word. I dont know of any female comedy person who is/was funny, except Hylda Baker, so they cannot be called comedians. Of course, women are humorous in their writings, as we see here from Malone, Rosalind, yourself and others.

Not even Victoria Wood, jigjag?

We did our early morning Sainsbury' shop this morning, and something is getting more and more irritating. There are sloping travelators to get up to the shopping floor, with, on a loop, a voice saying "Please stand still and hold the handrail whilst travelling".

Surely it should be "while" rather than "whilst"?

Thank you jigjag, I am very glad I dropped in this evening!

Some time ago I read a list of occupations in Victorian England. At the end of the list was-

Queens 1
Bumboat women 1
which I quite liked. No idea why they were plural.

The list was not entirely accurate, of course. The usual euphemism (in censuses anyway) was "dressmaker".

Thanks one and all - it's like an Oscars acceptance speech, I'm scared someone will be overlooked.

ChrisE, I'm afraid I can't spend too long on whilst/while, I'm too busy working on a plan to get rid of the dreaded 'travelator'. What a horrible word! It's like something from The Jetsons, a TV cartoon for children. I think we'll all have to do our bit to repel it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the normal, everyday word - I refer of course to 'the moving thingy'.

Jigjag, thanks for your kind words. You may come to regret inviting my moans and observations.

I am not keen on 'comedienne', which Chambers defines as a 'female comic entertainer'. I think 'comedian' is a much more versatile word, describing a person who acts in or writes comedies, an entertainer who tells jokes etc or an entertaining and amusing person.

Rosalind, I liked the interesting job titles - though I fear the job descriptions would probably rule me out.

i did give some consideration about what to call it. what would you say? it's sloping things that take you up and dow, but no steps, so they aren't escalators

ChrisE, that word, Travelator, is on big signs in my local Tesco - I wince every time I see them (and therefore haven't absorbed any of the advice given!). I couldn't come up with another word - a more elegant word - but I really did try. I think the flat 'things' in our airport are referred to as 'moving walkways', but that's more straightforward, and quite logical.

Chrise Malone

I liked Victoria Wood's writing and songs etc. but when she told jokes it left me cold. Women cant do "stand-up" in my opinion. I agree she was an excellent and versatile entertainer(ess).

I have not come across, or travelled on, a movey, slopey thingy. I like the horizontal escalators in airports though, even if they go slower than people who actually walk.

I like "whilst" but dont know if it is correct.

Rosalind

I like the job descriptions. I did my census today but found it confusing as there are 2 jigjags in the house. When it said "thinking about jigjag......, what is your relationship to ........." it was ambiguous and thus unanswerable. I know the census is important so I have had to suspend completion in order to seek advice.

“Travelator” is a word I’d never heard of. I don’t think it’s used on this side of the Atlantic. My phone doesn’t even recognize it. While (or whilst) I was looking it up, I discovered that “travelling” is British and “traveling” is North American. In fact, my phone tried to autocorrect the former, and I had to override it.