FORMER gang leaders in Goroka are now supposedly dedicated to keeping good order in the town. We confess that our initial euphoria at this news was tempered somewhat by the name of the group’s leader, one Major Froggie. Hmmm.
***
GOOD morning. What’s in a name? Those of us with odd names sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to disguise them. We recall schooling with a rather spotty-faced lad whose name was Regis Cholmondley. He insisted that the name was pronounced “Chumley” – which seemed a tad far removed from the spelling thereof.
***
AS a child, we well remember the elderly spinster sisters living in our street. They had several large grey cats of a calculating kind that were unfazed by the Cyprus pine nuts we threw at them. The spinsters’ cottage was called Laburnum Grove – and their names were the Misses Agatha and Philomena Trout, surely a good surname for cat-loving ladies.
***
BUT there will never be the equal of that wonderful character played by English actress Patricia Routledge in the BBC sitcom Keeping up Appearances. For the uninitiated, Routledge’s character “Hyacinth Bucket” insisted that the name was pronounced “Bouquet.” This proved to be a Herculean struggle for the suburban snob – but side-splitting entertainment for the viewers.
***
SONG titles sometimes used to run into trouble with the censors; older radio buffs may recall the ban imposed by radio networks on composer Cole Porter’s classic chart Love for Sale. Allegedly in protest, an American band leader recorded an apparently innocuous orchestral track titled If you see Kay, which was promptly announced with relish by ABC announcers in PNG and elsewhere, and played to death over the airwaves.
***
ON Monday we’ll take a look at some of PNG’s more striking adopted European names that tend to reflect Sir Hubert Murray’s division of the country into denominational spheres of influence. Thus German Catholic names can be found all along the mainland north coast and through the islands; the Anglicans made their mark in Milne Bay and Oro provinces and Lutheran names, also often German in origin, were significant in Morobe. Join us then – and have a top weekend. Cheers!
***

- Dee Nesenolis.