Tuesday 18 September 2007

Macavity's not there (1)*

I was just watching BBC News 24 to put myself into a bad mood, when up pops The Goblin King, yapping on about "The economy is strong, we will continue to create jobs, your money is safe with us".

Wot?

Oh yes, it was in the context of the whole Northern Rock thingy. Oh God I hate and despise The Goblin King, skulking around, stabbing backs, proferring up The Badger to make inane comments like "It is, I'm afraid, yes" when asked whether his reputation was on the line. What reputation? What reputation for what? What line? What about the Northern Rock employees, what about their jobs?

The Goblin King was silent for five whole days since The Badger called the top of the credit bubble. Now that it seems to be calming down a bit, up pops His Ugly Face to spout some more lies, no doubt to retreat to His Underground Lair again until the next crisis is over ...

*It is spelled 'Macavity', it's a play on words on 'cavity', it is not a Scottish name like 'MacCavity'

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a vulgar pun on the word 'cavity' as in Phil MaCavity, but the original reference is literary, or at least as literary as Andrew Lloyd Webber gets.

From
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
T. S. Eliot
London: Faber, 1939 (1962)

Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Extract:

And when the loss has been disclosed,
the Secret Service say:
`It must have been Macavity!'
- but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting,
or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated
long-division sums.

Macavity, Macavity,
there's no one like Macavity,
There never was a Cat of such
deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibi,
and one or two to spare:
At whatever time
the deed took place
- MACAVITY WASN'T THERE!

MACAVITY
http://tinyurl.com/ya32yv
the full set:
http://tinyurl.com/2hxtkq

"It's no good, Eliot, all this stuff about knowing it for the first time and wastelands, it's too downbeat. Poems to cut your throat to. You should have a think about the kiddies' market. And women, they love cats. Do a thing for children which happens to be about cats and every woman in the country will buy a copy. You might even get someone to set them to a tune, if you can manage to make 'em rhyme."

The money is not safe. I presume there is about to be dose of inflation which will disguise debts but suck the value out of anyone's savings?

Anonymous said...

Spoil sport - you already linked it.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Yes of course!

Tthe blogosphere is teeming with pedants (and their apprentices) so I had to check the spelling, and having stumbled across the full poem thought that a link wouldn't go amiss.