Re: Word Lists-- The Bongo-Bongo sentences en ingles

Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

> Thomas Wier wrote:
> >
> > Question: in the heading, does "Bongo-Bongo" refer to a comment
> > made by a certain foreign minister of Margaret Thatcher's?
>
> I have no idea.  What was the context of the FM's remark? Something
> offensive, I presume........
Indeed. (I didn't think you were actually citing him.)

> Bongo-Bongo turned up a lot of stuff on google, but almost all with ref. to
> music of one sort or another (at least in the first 400 refs. I looked at.)
Alan Clark was one of Thatcher's foreign ministers during the mid 80's.
He passed away recently;  here's one online (unorthodox) obituary:

   A wave of grief swept through the hallowed corridors of Westminster
   last week when it was revealed that Alan Clark had popped his clogs.
   One MP after another, including Blair and Hague, - and even some who
   should have known better such as Tony Benn - paid tribute to this
   "loveable rogue". We were told of his principled stand for Britain
   and his passionate concern for animal welfare. Aaw! What a lovely
   bloke he was and how his wife and family loved his irascible character.
   Never mind the fact that he started his relationship with his wife
   when she was 14 and he was 28!!! And some of those crusty old farts
   mumble darkly about Portillo?!?! There are quite a few things the
   obituaries didn't mention. In the mid eighties Clark  referred to
   Africa as "bongo-bongo land".

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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