I HAVE a British socialist friend (with a wicked sense of humour), to whom I’ve referred on a previous occasion. Well, he’s at it again, having just caught up with an earlier ‘Of Dis and Dat’ where I referenced an irate section of the SLMDA. His conclusion: I enjoyed it, though I didn’t understand many of the details, not being familiar with them in the first place, but I suspect I got the gist of it alright, which is that those medics and dentists are all closet communists intent on the overthrow of the State and its (civilian) commissariat while replacing them with government by prescription.
Lol, or maybe not, but a big touché to those last three words! Perish the thought! I repeat, Perish the thought! But it does make me wonder how many other folks made a similar kind of assessment. I swear, I got a good ole’ belly laugh out of it. However, I am forced to revisit that same article, as there are those here who reported that they did not quite get what it was that so blatantly gave away the precise loyalties of the group during the televised session. Oh, they said, they didn’t need to be told where the group’s loyalties lay. Everyone knew that a priori. Specifically, they wanted to know what I meant by “the St Lucia Lay” Well, duh! Double duh!
But here goes: unhappily, in order to explain, I must return to the lady doctor at the mike. And this is how it went down: In entreating the persons in the room to march with her group (a section of the SLMDA) which would be taking to the streets, she kept saying, “So, we need you to follow us, the St Lucia Lay,” and quickly correcting herself, she continued, “the St Lucia Medical and Dental Association.” ‘Lay’ was quite obviously the first syllable (vocalised) of the word ’Labour’, as in Party, which was itself having a march. As I said, it was declared by the lady doctor not once, not twice but three times, obviously again, a repeated Freudian slip, from a totally exposed lady, having mistakenly let her guise down. Now, because I was writing the word and not speaking it, I was compelled to do so by spelling the initial syllable in the manner in which it is sounded, hence ‘Lay’. If I had written it as it is spelt in the complete word, ‘Labour’, I would have written ‘La’ and you would have read it as La in ‘Ooh la, la’! or in La, ti, doh, and then none, or possibly few of you would have got the point. But most of you did. So there! Enough of that.
Here’s another hilarious one from my socialist friend. He’d clearly read the piece about “my downtown friend” and me, who enjoy a bit of mutual ribbing when we meet, en passant, on one street or another in the city. After reading it, he wrote, “Well… no wonder you have been quiet of late (meaning not in touch with him and his wife). Who is this latest fancy man? And a socialist no less. We demand details. Be on your guard though. Doubtless a dalliance to distract from intellectual rigour.” Ha, Ha, Ha! A real lol, for sure, that. And he wondered if the wimpled tutors of my youth would approve. Well, thing is, they’ve long gone to meet their maker, and I can but hope that they’re thinking of me, and making sure to keep my place up there for me.