According to American journalist Kaylee McGhee White (writing in the Washington Examiner) it is now officially okay to use the word ‘woman’ again. As you know I have written in the past about the attempt by the thought police to stop us using the word ‘woman’ – so that, instead of saying ‘pregnant woman’ we had to say ‘pregnant people’. This had something to do with the so-called ‘trans’ movement – although why it was deemed so important was never entirely clear. Now the edict has been rolled back. And what great authority has made this change? It is found in the latest version of the Associated Press Style Guide. Kaylee McGhee White says Associated Press has ‘updated its guidance to say it is “acceptable” to use the phrases “pregnant women” or “women seeking abortions”. Considering women are the only people in the world capable of conceiving and bearing children… it’s a wonder this language was considered unacceptable in the first place. But alas, when a crazy and unfortunately influential segment of society has decided to let go of its grip on reality, basic concepts like biological sex become taboo subjects one must defend’.Is good sense returning to the woke world? We live in hope.

Given the existence of Trump Derangement Syndrome here is an interesting (if now long forgotten) word: ‘roorback’. Attacks on Trump can be based on pure fantasy. such as the Russian collusion hoax, and that sort of political fiction is what this word covers. The Oxford English Dictionary says this weird word ‘roorback’ means: ‘A false report or slander promulgated for political purposes’. But where does it come from? The story begins with a fictitious author Baron Von Roorback. The Oxford goes on to explain: ‘In September 1844 an abolitionist newspaper in Ithaca, New York, published what was claimed to be an extract from “Roorback’s Tour through the Western and Southern States in 1836” in which the author describes seeing an encampment of African Americans destined for the Louisiana sugar mills and branded with the initials of James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency. The extract was taken from an actual travel book (G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Excursion through the Slave States, 1844), but the offending passage was a forged interpolation.’ This word is officially described as being archaic or historical. But now you know it. So if, in future, some fictional charge in made against a politician you can impress your friends by calling it a ‘roorback’. (The word also has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?)

Apparently in America they hold an annual US Mullet Championship. If you are an admirer of the ‘mullet’ hairstyle you should be excited. But I seem to detect rather more heads shaking in frank disbelief that anyone could want to celebrate looking like that. Our own Macquarie Dictionary defines a ‘mullet’ as: ‘a type of hairstyle, long at the back and cut short on the top and sides’. To this the Oxford adds: ‘slang (humorous and frequently derogatory)’. The earliest citation in the Oxford is from 1994 (and they offer no suggestion as to where this fishy name for a hairstyle came from). Anyway, back to the competition. The Merriam-Webster people drew my attention to a news report from Eau Claire, Wisconsin about an eight-year-old boy competing for the Best Mullet in the Kids Division. Emmitt Bailey (also known as ‘mullet boy’) was reported to have shown off his hairstyle when he threw the opening pitch at the Eau Clair collegiate baseball game. The good thing about an eight-year-old having a mullet, is that he will grow out of it! (Adults with mullets are a bit more worrying.)