Come to think of it, my father used "wench" for girl sometimes - though being a northerner he was more likely to use "lass" as an alternative for "girl".

Caro, if you read this, I don't have kids but if younger women (or even women of my own age) take me to task for saying "actress" instead of "actor" or "heroine" instead of "hero" when speaking about the female of the species, I always play the "I'm getting on in years and I'm too old to change" card.

Abelard, if you read this, I know you don't live in Paris, but I have been sorry to see that Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is on fire (it was earlier today anyway).  I hope there is not too much damage down though in the end I am more concerned about human (or even animal if applicable) lives being saved than damage to history, but still, damage to an iconic building like Notre Dame is very sad.

These things have happened in the past.

Reims Cathedral was burned down in 1914:



and as it is today;

Indeed Trike, fires amongst the roof beams seems to have been a regular hazard of cathedrals. 

But I'm most impressed by the skill of the medieval masons of Notre-Dame. Despite the intense heat, the stone vault above the nave mostly held intact thereby keeping the fire restricted to the roof and with little burning debris falling down into the main body of the church:



And so the damage, while still terrible, is not as bad as it could have been. In particular the main fabric of the cathedral is still standing and it seems the high alter, the massive organ, the rose windows, and many of the art-works in the nave and side chapels, have largely survived.

Meles meles wrote:

Indeed Trike, fires amongst the roof beams seems to have been a regular hazard of cathedrals. 

No doubt these oak beams are a fire hazard, though in the case of Reims, it was not accidental but Huns taking pot shots at it:



Pleased to hear that a sizeable part of Notre Dame has survived.

I had a look on Wikipedia regarding Reims Cathedral and see that an earlier cathedral on the site was destroyed by fire in 1210.  Thinking of cathedrals being damaged in wars, Coventry and Dresden Cathedrals come to mind (I think they have been mentioned elsewhere on this site albeit some time ago).  In the city of Coventry an entirely new cathedral was built of course though it's my understanding that Dresden Cathedral was restored.

An iconic picture of a church in a ruinous state from WWI was the "Leaning Virgin of Albert". Here is the story of her final fall. http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/leaningv.htm

These timbers might be a fire hazard, but in countries with earthquakes (like New Zealand) timber-framed houses, which most NZ houses are, stand up much better in an earthquake than brick or stone ones. In the Christchurch earthquakes no one was killed in a private building, except one toddler who was killed by a falling television set. Over 100 people were killed in a building six storeys high, 15 in another high rise building, and several in a bus passing by the building. 

We had BBC television on most of the day and nearly all the time it dedicated itself to the fire at Notre Dame, a place we visited on our honeymoon, and gave 5 stars to. I think there was a choir singing while we were there.

Caro, there is a new housing estate being built near where I live and I can see wood being used for the pitched roofs though of course they will be covered with roofing felt and slates later.  I'm not sure exactly how it works but I'm pretty sure there is some wood still used in house construction though it mostly gets covered up these days.  I haven't looked into it but maybe it's possible to partially fire proof wood these days - but as I say I don't know.  Don't the Scandinavian countries (where's nordmann when one needs him?) use wood in construction at least in the more rural places?  Though they probably have more wood available than the UK where thinking back to my schoolgirl history a goodly part of the forests were cut down during the agrarian revolution.

I've visited Notre Dame and it was one place I thought merited the "hype" - though I don't really have "a head for heights" so I didn't go right to the very top of the cathedral.

There was a comment by an architect specialised in restoring old buildings - I think he'd been involved in the restoration of Windsor Castle after the 1992 fire - to the effect that thankfully the restoration/maintenance works undertaken on Notre-Dame in the 1850s had used wood rather than cast-iron or wrought-iron beams (which, being new materials, were commonly used at the time - Rheims cathedral had been extensively restored in the mid-19th century in part using cast iron which may have helped its destruction in WW1). While wood burns away, iron expands with the heat and so had it been incorporated in the structure of Notre-Dame it would probably have pushed the walls outwards, unbalanced the buttresses and so destroyed the stone vault over the nave. 

However the problem they might well face in restoring the roof with wood is getting beams long enough as there are not sufficient really mature oak forests in France these days.

Sanctuary!!! Sanctuary!!!

Yes Triceratops Charles Laughton, one of my favourites. I didn't know that he was Quasimodo in that film. But I saw films from him, as The Mutiny on the Bounty. One has not to forget, that here in Belgium immediately after the war, it was still all black and white...and my sister and I to the film from our seven years on...I hadn't yet time to read the Dutch subtitles under the French ones, before they disappeared...
That was in my eyes the great time of the cinema and many good actors...my favourites...as said Charles Laughton (also the favourite of my mother), a Gregory Peck, Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogaert, Orson Welles, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant,, Charlton Heston, James Stewart...

Triceratops, it is not nit picking, and I think Caro or LiR mentioned it already, Holywood made a happy end to it, but not Victor Hugo...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre_Dame_(1939_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame


Kind regards from Paul.

It wasn't particularly historically accurate (but at the time I didn't know that) but I liked Charles Laughton's portrayal of Henry VIII way back when I was even younger than I am now 

I'm not going to link any of the videos because quite honestly I don't want to give them views but there are already "troofer" videos appearing on the internet claiming that the conflagration at Notre Dame Cathedral was a judgement from God - funny the Lord never judged the Cathedral through the other 849 (is that a rough figure?) years of its existence.

I wonder why Hollywood called the story of Quasimodo et al The Hunchback of Notre Dame and not by its original title Notre Dame de Paris.  Quasimodo is an important character in the story but really it is about the cathedral itself.

Now, a very silly Quasimodo joke (and I know that in the book Quasimodo wasn't married):-

Quasimodo's wife goes to see the head priest at Notre Dame Cathedral and says, "Quasi can't come out tonight - he's got a bad back".

As Nielsen says, "I'll get me coat".

Thinking of cathedrals catching fire, there was of course "old" St Paul's in London destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666.  (I think at the time some people thought of the effects of the great fire as a judgement from the Almighty).  I may have mentioned before that I once read Harrison Ainsworth's Old St Paul's.  I don't think he was an awful writer but I don't think he's read very much these days.

And of course York Minster lost a large part of its roof to a fire in 1984,



... as well as suffering bad fires in 1840 (below), 1829 and 1753,



That's just the current cathedral: the two previous minster churches on the same site were also completely burnt down, in 1075 and 741.

Changing the subject I was much saddened to hear of the fatal shooting of a journalist in Derry.  Of course with it happening on a Good Friday and the Good Friday Agreement having happened on a good Friday, I couldn't but wonder if the timing was deliberate - but then I could be reading too much into things.  I really don't want to see violence return to the island of Ireland (either north or south) whether with or without Brexit.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Thinking of cathedrals catching fire, there was of course "old" St Paul's in London destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666.  (I think at the time some people thought of the effects of the great fire as a judgement from the Almighty).  I may have mentioned before that I once read Harrison Ainsworth's Old St Paul's.  I don't think he was an awful writer but I don't think he's read very much these days.

Lady, thanks God that it our just these wicked ones from the old times, as we have learned to coop with. But if some right wing populist starts the conspiracy of a Muslim worker...
And BTW thanks for the comments about the hunchback...

Kind regards from Paul.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Changing the subject I was much saddened to hear of the fatal shooting of a journalist in Derry.  Of course with it happening on a Good Friday and the Good Friday Agreement having happened on a good Friday, I couldn't but wonder if the timing was deliberate - but then I could be reading too much into things.  I really don't want to see violence return to the island of Ireland (either north or south) whether with or without Brexit.

Lady,

I learned it this morning on the teletext of the French language Belgian TV, the Dutch language one don't has a teletext anymore (perhaps they think it is only for the oldies). I learned the same on the teletext from the official television of the Netherlands.
Sad news, and I prepared in mind already a text for the Brexit thread and for Vizzer as I mentioned yesterday evening a message about the Bloody Sunday shooting.
See my message for Vizzer, you and MM on the Brexit thread.

Kind regards from Paul.

And everytime there appears: A new message has been posted...and to be sure I copy my message for the case that...to find out that my message is already posted, without that I tapped on the "send" sign...
Regards, Paul.

I've stated that I've tried to avoid the Looniverse of late (and especially as it applies to YouTube).  However I had done some sleuthing about people in high places in society who have not necessarily had happy fates*.  There was poor Jane Gray the 9 day queen of course. Charles I lost his head and (as I think we discussed at some length on this site) William Rufus may have been killed accidentally on purpose in a hunting accident.  Whether it was because of looking up something about William Rufus I got a YouTube recommendation about gay kings and queens of England.  I closed the recommendation and didn't even watch it (I think sometimes with those sort of things people speculate - I'm not saying there haven't been some monarchs who possibly preferred their own sex but I think the recent film about Queen Anne [which I haven't seen] was a bit of a reach).  Please don't think from this I'm bashing (metaphorically) gays.  But I do wonder how the YouTube algorithm works sometimes.  On YouTube I have been watching Roberto Atagna (who I was surprised to learn is French born) murder Elina Garanca - not really, I've watched a couple of clips of the end of "Carmen" where they played Don Jose and Carmen respectively.  There was a traditional version and a modern-dress version.

It's possible I was listening to the wrong news but I've recently been informed that two firefighters were killed in the Notre Dame blaze.  I don't recall hearing that on the news.

Quiet on the site today and yesterday but we are having nice weather on the Easter weekend (which doesn't always happen in the UK - though I'm mindful not everyone visiting the site lives here).  So I don't blame people for going out in the sun rather than spending time on their computers - I'm going out myself in a while.  Anyway, compliments of the day to everyone religious or not religious.  Shall I say happy holiday rather than happy Paschal feasts (well any Christians can have a happy Paschal feast wish).

I've been a bit busy over Easter, LiR, not just with guests but also on the domestic front. One of my cats, Posca, gave birth to two little kittens on Good Friday ... not of course in the place I'd planned and made ready in the cellar with a blanket and the dog's old basket from when he was a puppy, but instead in a nest of rags and plastic bubble-wrap hidden amongst a jumble of stored furniture and boxes. But that's semi-wild cats for you.

Still it's a good omen for Easter, no?

Aah....that's cats for you isn't it, MM, they'll do what they want.  The cat I have now was a rescue cat and was about 8 when I had her so she'd already had "the snip" so I don't know if she ever had kittens or not.  The she-cat I had before that (this is going back to the 1990s) had one litter which I did manage to find homes for and then I had her "seen to' but I realise that is more difficult with a feral or semi-feral cat like Posca.  My cat will run away if she sees me coming with the carrying basket to take her for her check up at the vet's - and I think I mentioned it a few years ago she got out of the basket and was missing for 11 hours and I was really on tenterhooks till I found her.

Deleted because it was a "double" post.

Lady,

"I was really on tenterhooks till I found her". Yes Lady, here one (people like me) learns the good and real English...

Kind regards from Paul.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Quiet on the site today and yesterday but we are having nice weather on the Easter weekend (which doesn't always happen in the UK - though I'm mindful not everyone visiting the site lives here).  So I don't blame people for going out in the sun rather than spending time on their computers - I'm going out myself in a while.  Anyway, compliments of the day to everyone religious or not religious.  Shall I say happy holiday rather than happy Paschal feasts (well any Christians can have a happy Paschal feast wish).

Lady, the same beutiful weather overhere too. After all it is only some 40 miles from here to the British Isles.  This morning worked a bit in the garden, then "strandstoel" (beach chair?) in the garden...laying in the sun with a strawhood nearly over the face...then outdoors with the partner again in the sun...
And a late happy Paschal feasts too. We say it still here: "Vrolijk Pasen" (but as I see "paschal" in older Middle Dutch spelling it was overhere also "Paesschen". But I now see that it comes from the Middle Age Latin "Pascha")

Not so happy in Sri Lanka...see my message to Vizzer in nordmann's religious related massacre thread...

Kind regards from Paul.

PS: Wanted to start a thread about Herod The Great and Flavius Josephus and had questions for Tim, but that will for tomorrow...

Should this be on the rant thread?  I had a phone call from someone (with an English voice this time though it sounded as if it was recorded) telling me that my broadband was going to be terminated if I didn't press whatever number (I forget) on the keypad.  I didn't but I thought I'd better check with BT that it was a scam.  I spoke to a lady who said that they are getting a lot of con merchants making those sorts of calls at present so I was right to be suspicious.  Anyway, I was delayed so I didn't really have time to get to my Spanish class.  There was one good thing, the lady looked at my account and said I could be paying less (my contract had expired) so she put me on a new contract for the next 18 months.  So, provided I last that long I'll have to stay friends with BT until October 2020 now.  I let the teacher (of the Spanish class) know why I hadn't turned up but I think that otherwise they had the full complement (or nearly) of people attending save for Yours Truly.

I haven't caught up on all the chores I wanted to do over Easter - I've done a couple of them  but then something else always turns up that needs doing.  It may have done me good to take it easy(ish) apart from the odd few chores over the Easter break.

Sky news (on YouTube) showed the funeral service of the young reporter who was killed just before Easter.  It seems such a waste.

Lady, I thought it was agains something as "tenterhooks" with the "chores"...but no, quite standard English.
According to my paperback Collins: 1. small routine task 2. unpleasant task

After at least reading more than hundred English language novels...after being since 17 years on English language history message boards...

Kind regards from Paul.

Oh yes Paul, a household chore is a household task.  I know some ladies who actually enjoy doing the housework though.

When I was mentioning the lack of public transport in my local area after about 6.30 pm (some parts of the town fare better than others) and linking that to the fact it can be difficult to manage to see a play sometimes, I forgot to mention that there was actually a small theatre in my hometown but that burned down in either the late 19th or early 20th century (in my childhood there was a Congregationalist Chapel which had been built on the site - the Congregationalists merged with another nonconformist church and moved out and the building was demolished eventually).  Part of the site was used for council buildings afterwards but now a number of the county council buildings have been vacated (not all) but some have moved into a larger complex that was built a few years ago.  The theatre that burned down I think was called The Lyceum.  There has been a theatre for some years what used to be the Borough Hall.  The last time I was there was over a year ago when I saw the relayed broadcast of "Julius Caesar" from the National Theatre.  I was going to see "King Lear" but that was around when I had to get the roof repair done so I had to be frugal with my money at that time.

Extra to my post above, I've just looked on Wikipedia which said that circa 1972 about three-quarters of the Congregational churches in the country merged with the Presbyterian church to form the United Reform Church, but (and I hadn't realised this) about 600 Congregationalist churches chose to remain independent.

Thinking of which I find it rather uncomfortable to enjoy a decent byriani and shami kebabs in places where the walls have all those memorials to long departed nonconformists who must be spinning of a night. Still many eating and drinking places are in unlikely places so I ought not be.

To Temps - my simile in the music thread re a youthful audience's facile appreciation of the very ordinary. I should have written that their yells and clapping sounded like rabid sealions. It is so long ago  that I saw now forbidden performances of sealions, I had forgotten. Quite a change of direction in the forbidding zone when we can now watch naked human performers afrolick on floor, sofa, bed, walls - and probably even ceilings but they probably have yet to perfect that. A fresh herring reward might do the trick. Honk, clap honk.

Strangely enough something about "Theatre Etiquette" appeared in my recommendations on YouTube of late.

Anyway, the bus is still running past my house though the time has changed.  The route has altered though but not in my immediate neck of the woods.  I do feel sorry for some of the people in a couple of the outlying villages though - I was reading something about it online and apparently these two villages will be without a direct bus for the first time since the 1920s...and not everyone has a vehicle of their own.  I didn't know of the changes till this morning though - I went out to catch my bus and it never came so when I was back inside the house I looked the bus times up online.

Yesterday I mentioned the demolished congregationalist chapel in my hometown.  The current purpose built United Reform Church nearest to me is actually where the French conversation group I attend meets, though we meet in a side room not the main church itself.

I walked past the site of the congregationalist chapel as was (Zion Chapel I think it used to be called).  It's in a street which is mostly council buildings (and the building on the site is still used by the council but I'd left my spectacles at home so I couldn't read the sign).  Some of the buildings are still used by the council in that street and some have been turned over to other usage (some are being converted into apartments).

That wasn't what I logged in to comment on though.  I went to the French conversation group this afternoon and another lady in the group suggested that I might be interested in the U3A history group.  I said that while I thought the chap who runs it and his wife are very nice, he is a bit too much of a fan of Philippa Gregory for me (not saying he bases all his classes on her work but he did do something once about Jacquetta of Luxembourg who PG has touched on in her writings).  Oh calamity, the lady who suggested I might like to go is a real fan of PG.  We decided it might be prudent to end the conversation there and then!!!  I think the history group coincides with my sign language classes (which are not run by the U3A so it might be difficult to attend anyway).

LiR,
Re your sign language class, in the street where/when I was a lad, a couple who were deaf and mute lived with their two sons. 
A story went around that when the sons had enough of their parents arguing at night, they'd turn the lights of...
This story was refreshed for me yesterday when I happened to meet one of the old mob.

That's interesting, Nielsen.  Our teacher is a deaf lady herself and she explained that deaf people don't use idioms the way hearing people do - they mostly say (well sign) the direct meaning of something - but she said that for "zip it" (meaning 'Be quiet') they will sign pulling a zip closed over the hand rather than over the lip area.  Makes sense really.

I've been informed that a cinema in my hometown will be sometimes showing directly broadcast versions of operas so I might be able to get a smattering of culture thus (though the person who imparted the information to me says the seats are really uncomfortable and not very spacious).  The Grand in Wolverhampton is showing a very light musical at present "Club Tropicana" - apparently based on 1980s pop music - which I wasn't really a fan of (more of a '60s girl myself) though the people who talked about it seemed to have enjoyed it in a light-hearted way.

Lady,

for comfort my partner takes a "cushion" with her and I hope the seats aren't that small or you are not one of those 200 pounds sopranos GG mentioned...
But another question...
We have two TV sets as my partner looks to quite other matter as I. And I look only each morning to the "teletexts" of some channels and to preselected programs from Arte (preselected a fortnight beforehand and at the end again another fortnight)
As this afternoon when I came in from work in the garden, she was looking to a kind of film about a certain Meghan...and there was a treathening lion in it. She said that it was a film about the British (English?) royal family...
Could that be by coincidence be a film about "the Meghan"? A film of the Public Relations management of the royal family? To make the family more "absorbeerbaar" (absorbable?)?

Kind regards from Paul.

It's interesting to read (say) a parental letter from a BSL user. The idiom is markedly different from standard English usage, though still entirely comprehensible.

The order of wording in BSL and English (talking about BSL here, not Sign Supported English) is different  as you quite rightly observe, G.  I contacted my BSL teacher by email today to check if there was a class next week (the church hall where it meets is sometimes closed on Bank Holiday) and she replied "Yes closed hall" rather than "hall closed" but the meaning is understandable.

Thinking of the content about Huwaei (sp?) that has been on the British news lately, my dongle (gizmo for getting internet access without landline broadband) is made by said firm.  I'd always read the name in my mind similarly to Hawaii, the American state, though it is pronounced "Waway" apparently.  Mind you, I always read (though don't pronounce it that way out loud, I do it properly then) "lingerie" as lingery to rhyme with thingery or fingers (I know they aren't real words - well I don't think so).  Mind you, the Huwaei debacle has meant there is something other than Brexit (and Meghan's pregnancy) in UK news.

I have hacked a few people off in real life (I don't think they hate me or anything - they are just surprised I think thus) because I said the Swedish youngster in the environmental protests got on my wick a bit.  The cause is good but I did rather feel the youngster liked the sound of her own voice.

Priscilla, I've had a look at the programme of the new "Odeon Deluxe" in my hometown and there are a few forthcoming connections of broadcasts (though not this particular week) of productions from the National Theatre and also by the Royal Shakespeare Company, then one production at least from the Globe Theatre in London and some Royal Opera offerings.  From 7th - 13th June there is also "Take That Greatest Hits Live" -  however shall I choose what to prioritise?  Currently (though these are not the only offerings) it is a choice between the live-action "Dumbo", "Avengers: Endgame" and "How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World".  "Mary Queen of Scots" is also on offer so if I go to see anything this week it is most likely to be MQoS though I haven't looked at the prices yet!  This being a new cinema it has reclining seats (so maybe the chap who mentioned the constrained room in the seats was speaking about the "old" cinema by mistake).  Mind you, a reclining seat could be a disadvantage if someone in front of you wanted to recline and you didn't fancy being reclined in front of (unless they have allowed for that).

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I have hacked a few people off in real life (I don't think they hate me or anything - they are just surprised I think thus) because I said the Swedish youngster in the environmental protests got on my wick a bit.  The cause is good but I did rather feel the youngster liked the sound of her own voice.

Lady, I love your language. If all the English people speak like you I love the English people too.

"hacked off" I see it before me...
"got on my wick" Is that our "wiek", the one in a candle or in a petrol light?
"liked the sound of her own voice" It is so "beeldrijk" (rich in image) I don't find an adequate English word for it
BTW. I feel exactly like you, but couldn't express it that well as you, even in Dutch . And nobody is offended in my inner circle as they all think like me. And for the outer circle I stay silent as that is more secure. Only here I dare...but as I write under my own name it can be that one of these continuous 15 readers of our board is one of our neighbourhood and one evening...a knock at the door...

Kind regards from an admirer...of your language...

Lady, "reclining seats". As in the planes...with my long legs I can tell stories about it...fold? flex? the knees to the left or the right...I tried always to sit near the "walk?" in the middle to have the knees in that space. Of course I had to pay attention then to the stewardess (nowadays you have also stewards) "flying" through the middle and even with my obstructing knees, enerving for them, if not taken inside in time...

Kind regards from Paul.

Lady,

""got on my wick" Is that our "wiek", the one in a candle or in a petrol light?

As we have also some expression I think with a bit the same meaning:"in zijn wiek geschoten zijn": being offended, I did a bit of research, but that was the start of quite a journey.
I thought that our "wiek" was the vane of a windmill in that expression, but after research it is the "wing" of a bird (another meaning of "wiek") and a third meaning is indeed "wick"
Thus being wounded, shot in the wing as a bird, being offended...
https://www.interglot.com/dictionary/nl/en/translate/wiek


And then I thought: why not search about the origin of the English expression...
And I bet even you will be surprized
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/get-on-my-wick.html
'Wick' isn't just slang, it is Cockney Rhyming Slang. For the source we have to visit the South West London district of Hampton Wick. The 'Hampton Wick' rhyme is with 'prick', which was later shortened to just 'hampton' or, less frequently, to 'wick'. As with other words that are now considered acceptable in everyday speech, e.g. 'berk',and 'cobblers', 'you are getting on my wick' is often used without the speaker or hearer considering the genital origin.
That's not surprising as many slang terms are euphemistic in the sense that they are attempts to smuggle innuendos past the uninitiated.
'Hampton' and 'wick' are right up there in this league. The best example of this is seen in the ongoing battle that Spike Milligan (the writer of the classic BBC comedy The Goon Show) and his writing colleagues had with the BBC censors. Following WWII, a crop of comedy writers returned from wartime service and the bawdy barrack room humour they brought with them was anathema to the rather stuffy establishment types who managed the BBC and who attempted to lay down the law on 'unsuitable material' in their infamous Green Book.
'Wick' as slang for 'prick', and the first use of the phrase in question, appears to have begun in the British services during WWII. The first reference that I can find to it in print comes from a military context, just at the end of the war - Penguin New Writing XXVI, 1945:

And so I learned it about "prick" too.
The Dutch (I mean those from the Netherlands) have such similar expression: "hij is op zijn pik getrapt" ( he is stepped on his prick (Dirk will confirm))
In Belgian Dutch (Southern Dutch) we, although we have dozens of other words for it, didn't know that word until recently (last 30 years) by the influence of the Dutch television. We say it more with another anatomical part: hij is op zijn tenen getrapt (he is stepped, stamped on his toes).

Perhaps all this is more for the language forum, but in a "café" I think one can discuss everything.

Kind regards from Paul.

I've been hunting for a missing library book - no luck so far but I'm too tired now to do any more so just popping in and out of Res Hist tonight.  I've recently looked at the Sky News live YouTube channel and under the screen stated to be one of the main news stories is something about the ceremony for Thailand's new king but there is reference to "Thailand's newly coronated king".  Shouldn't that be "newly crowned"?  "Coronated" sounds verbose to me.

I found the library book eventually.  Today I had a phone call from somebody (an actual live voice) "doing a survey" - it sounded like "Popular Pollution" could have been "Solutions" but I declined to take part.  It could have been a young person doing a holiday job but I've become very cynical about giving any information to people I don't know personally.  I wasn't rude - neither was the caller.  I hope that I haven't become unduly sceptical and suspicious.  I have had lots of rogues phone me up though over the years.

All of us have had rogues [luvverly word that one] on the phone, I think, LiR, btw. haven't we had this talk before?
Anyway when they asked* me if I could spare them a few minutes to answer some questions, my reply was along the lines of, 'if it's a matter of finance, politics or religion, I have no answers only questions, and where do you have my number from?'
*Note: Past tense as my phone is no longer registered, and I have for quite some years had my name on a so-called 'death-list' where I specifically forbid the local council to sell my particulars to any third parties.

A a tangent and a slight rant, in these days when elections are approaching - we have a general one coming up too - I do my utmost to avoid campaigners in the streets. 
Equally so with people wanting to do polls before election day and exit polls on the day.
Actually I think it's the French who have a law - imho a sensible one! - forbidding polls to be taken and published for a few weeks before an election.

You are right to assert that the subject of unsolicited (or maybe scam) phone calls has been raised before, Nielsen.  It's an ongoing peeve of mine because I am signed up to an organisation which lists people who have asked to not receive unwanted phone calls but I still get them.  I guess that will happen when organisations are voluntary and have no real "teeth".