Fresh milk, Americanisms, buzzwords and pennies

I was interested to hear about super fresh milk produced and delivered by a small dairy farm near Sheffield. Their brand is Our Cow Molly. They are finalists for the BBC’s Food and Farming awards. The milk collected during the day is processed overnight and delivered the following morning to their customers, one of whom is Sheffield University. The dairy industry is going through hard times at the moment and this seems to be a way of making people think about the milk they are drinking, milk which is usually sold at rock-bottom prices to the large wholesale processors, then to high-street retail chains before being sold to the public still at very low prices. Our Cow Molly sells super fresh milk at a modest premium and their customers pay this willingly. I understand that the local Cooperative Wholesale Society is now also a customer.

It’s interesting because I don’t think about the milk I drink although I drink quite a lot of it and am convinced it’s good for me. I vaguely know how much it costs and whether I’m drinking low-fat, semi-skimmed or full-fat, otherwise I don’t give it much thought. This strikes me as being a pity. I don’t think I have drunk truly fresh milk in the last half century and this strikes me as being even more of a pity. I wish Our Cow Molly massive success and hope that their model will inspire others to adopt a similar production and marketing approach.

The BBC recently reported on a Paris court case thus: A Paris tribunal has ruled that calling a male hairdresser a "faggot" is not homophobic. This provoked me into sending an email to this august institution, expressing my opinion, and that of the OED, that the word faggot in this context is originally and chiefly U.S. slang. I trusted that they were keeping a close eye on the ever-increasing use of Americanisms in the daily written and spoken word. Much good will it do me!

The French have the same problem, as English creeps daily into their language under the most erudite noses of the Académie Française. If you’re interested in this area, Le Figaro newspaper ran a short article on the subject in June 2015: Le guide de survie contre les anglicismes au bureau, Par Lucile Quillet.

I approve of a key requirement but not this requirement is key, because adjectives like crucial and vital are disappearing under the relentless pressure. I had a quiet snigger when I heard a French speaker on the radio saying ça, c’est clé. The French are not noted for their rapid uptake of this kind of buzzword (itself originally a U.S. buzzword), especially in another language.

Another annoyance, a BBC journalist whose name escapes me, referred in his report to one pence. The OED records that this is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the new penny after 1971 decimalisation. I part company with the OED on this one.