http://hootingyard.org/archives/264 A Website by Frank Key Tue, 22 May 2012 19:53:37 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://hootingyard.org/archives/264/comment-page-1#comment-2036 Fitzmaurice Trenery Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:18:07 +0000 http://www.hootingyard.org/?p=264#comment-2036 I will prove to be a robust rather than weedy patron of the Hooting Yard Civic Platform, because my first priority will be to bring in a raft of measures... or perhaps a tranche... I haven't decided. It will certainly be a collective noun, of that you can be sure; I will certainly have more than one measure. Come to think of it, I will probably have more than two. I can't just say "I will bring in a couple of measures" It sounds weedy. A few measures, at least. Probably not several. I think definitely a tranche, because being a French word meaning slice, it reminds me of holidays spent in my grandfather's pigeon tower or "pigeonnier" in Breton, gazing out through the bars at the rest of the family enjoying slices of cake in the rock garden. Besides, if I were to say my first priority would be to introduce a slice of measures, people would laugh, and snort, and scoff, and deride, and back-bite, and heckle, and sneer, and taunt, and mock. Raft, moreover, is a collective noun I have never understood. The phrase "a raft of measures" puts me in mind of a watercraft made entirely of hastily lashed together spirit levels, which because of a. their structural fragility and b. their intended purpose of precisely measuring cant or gradient, would be doubly useless on the high seas. I will prove to be a robust rather than weedy patron of the Hooting Yard Civic Platform, because my first priority will be to bring in a raft of measures… or perhaps a tranche… I haven’t decided. It will certainly be a collective noun, of that you can be sure; I will certainly have more than one measure. Come to think of it, I will probably have more than two. I can’t just say “I will bring in a couple of measures” It sounds weedy. A few measures, at least. Probably not several.
I think definitely a tranche, because being a French word meaning slice, it reminds me of holidays spent in my grandfather’s pigeon tower or “pigeonnier” in Breton, gazing out through the bars at the rest of the family enjoying slices of cake in the rock garden. Besides, if I were to say my first priority would be to introduce a slice of measures, people would laugh, and snort, and scoff, and deride, and back-bite, and heckle, and sneer, and taunt, and mock.
Raft, moreover, is a collective noun I have never understood. The phrase “a raft of measures” puts me in mind of a watercraft made entirely of hastily lashed together spirit levels, which because of a. their structural fragility and b. their intended purpose of precisely measuring cant or gradient, would be doubly useless on the high seas.

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