John Whitworth
 

HereI am again. Can anyone remember a poem I wrote (I think it won a prize) about Shippam's Bloater Paste? Come dear Annie, bring aid. I thought it won a prize here.

When did I ever let you down?

Speccie Comp 2902 (FanFare). Look it up on D&A.

Arse xxx

John, where have you been? I feared your cats had got you.

I confess I have always wanted to a read a poem about Shippam's Bloater Paste.

I was off the internet for two months. And do you know why? One of my plugs was faulty. Howeve, I took the opportunity to move from TalkTalk to Sky who are much better. They diagnosed my problem straight away whereas TakTalk failed to do so over seven months.

Anyway, it's nice to be back. But I think I need Annie for that.

John, I attempted my own Eratosphere-wide search on the word "Bloater." I am sad to report that I was not able to find your poem on Shippam's Bloater Paste.

As an Anglophiliac, I couldn't resist finding out what said thing might be. Dude, it's cracker/bread spread: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...stes-nostalgia:

"Now it sits on the bread, the consistency of baby poop and - there's no other word for it - mings. A mouthful produces the faintest ghost of recollection but then so would the abandoned fishing smack. "

Wait, what are "mings"? I only know the Mings (like from the Ming Dynasty).

The poem? Well, Aaron, I can't post it here because this is General Talk, but if you go to the D&A competition I specified in post #2, you'll find it.

Oh, thanks, Ann. I see now that "Speccie Comp 2902 (FanFare)" was not some indecipherable code but the name of the contest.

By the way, what are "mings"?

This link picks up on my vague memory of the word "mingy" (ming-y not min-djy) in the UK.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ming

Cheers,
John

Don't have to time to look at the poem, but going only from the title, so I may be way off, I'd say this is a Britishism and slang/informal.

"minging" means foul-smelling and by extension very bad or unpleasant more generally. You can also extapolate to "minger" (a very unattractive person), and, I guess, to the verb "to ming", as in "that bloater paste really mings" (I'm guessing does too).

The OED gives the origin of "minging" as "perhaps from Scots dialect ming ‘excrement’."

Matt

Alas, Annie, there is no competition between 2903 and 2901. It is missing. Can you solve this? Obviously you have it but I don't. Just send me the poem. Thanks