Sub-title:  Philology (off topic)

Joe Roesch mentioned the Slough of Despond.  Non-UK subscribers may be
amused by a little background about Slough.

Slough is an industrial town a few miles west of London and near
Heathrow airport.  It is the butt of jokes.  John Betjeman summed it up
when he wrote...

        Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough
        It isn't fit for humans now
        There isn't grass to graze a cow....

This verse also solves the pronunciation problem.  Should it rhyme with
though, bough, cough, tough or through.  The place is commonly mocked by
pronouncing it "Sluff".

Time to retreat before the flaming and hate mail arrive!

Jeffrey Borinsky


 [ No flames; just some doggerel:
 [
 [  There isn't grass enough
 [     for the cows in Sluff,
 [  Nor for the sheep who
 [     follow them through Slu;
 [  Nothing hurries them, though:
 [     they like it nice 'n Slow.
 [
 [ (composed by Robbie  ;)