‘Flannel’ is a term I can use
To identify fact abuse;
Poetry should not be exempt,
Commentary neither – let’s preempt
Right here……………………….
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Author:
Doggerel Dave (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: January 21st, 2026 17:23
- Comment from author about the poem: Term not to be confused with the fabric….
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 34
- Users favorite of this poem: Cheeky Missy
Offline)
Comments6
What in the name of common sense are you talking about eh? Flannel was our winter sheets for decades, our nightgowns and pjs, and I am aware the term also applies to the elderly in an old fashioned colloquial sense. Now, what are you talking about? Hope all's well.
Good to hear from you Missy – you have seemed absent, but it appears you have been here all the time. So directly to your question: I would have thought the usage was fairly clear, and not just confined to ‘the elderly in an old fashioned colloquial sense’. Independent research doesn’t get you too far, as Google is on your side, and seems to confine itself to the fabric. However, add ‘er’ to the word and a response from that helpful assistant now attached limpet like to Google (AI – Always Interesting LOL) provides the following: “In British English, "flannel" as a verb can informally mean to speak in an evasive or nonsensical way, or to use insincere flattery. In this context, a "flanneler" might refer to someone who talks a lot without saying anything meaningful’.
‘Hope that helps …..
Aha! Thank you for enlightening me. A bunch of fluff sans any substance, eh? Thank you very much.
You are very welcome, Missy - thanks for enlivening the post.
Not sonneteering any more? Just resting, or run out of roman numerals? lol
Oh, no I still sonneteer daily as before but had for some time last year been uncomfortable and thinking it was time to vanish from the daily scene here as I've done in the past. I still check in because I love and miss you all, but I'm technically gone for a time, the LORD willing. Frankly, I've given up posting my latest anywhere since the turn of the year. What I've posted should suffice all who honestly have an interest. I'm simply putting away my daily cogitations like I used to do years ago.
Comforting to know you are still around. If not sonnets why not something else here? Keep a presence.
I posted other forms when I first began here and elsewhere. That shall suffice. I only sonneteer now.
Look after yourself.
You likewise, dear Sir.
Poetic license? or outright lies? or are they both the same? This is a topic I have not seen on this or other sites a point for originality Dave. This one has my mind going in several directions which is one thing that a good write can do. I have to ask myself is not emotion an abuse of facts? Emotion is one criteria I find as a marker of poetry. Metaphor too is far from the facts stretching it into a comparison by using something analogous. Wow Dave you've got me thinking. Most mind provoking.
Always keen to expand reality, Soren. If you have never witnessed this topic on any other site or MPS, then I feel I may be up for some kind of poetic achievement award. Thanks for letting me know.
We might call it the Eclesiastes 1:9 award. There is noting new under the sun (except this)
Dave, this is sharp and economical. You make a case for honesty without sermon or sprawl, and the humor keeps it human. Poetry and commentary held to the same standard…clear, fair, and necessary, imho. Now, let me slip into some flannel sheets. It's frigid outside! 🥶 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
Above all, above anything else, make the maintenance of a stable body temperature a top priority, Tristan.
If you are now safely warm Tristan, can I just add that you reached out to get to the centre, the nub of my argument. Once more, many thanks.
Dave, safely warm...with an impending wintry storm on the way (15-20" of snow predicted)...and yay for getting it right! ☺️ 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
It is a word that was used more many years ago Dave, meaning to hide or dismiss something that others did wrong.
Andy
I think AI (always Interesting LOL) Gives it a slightly more current flavour - see response to Missy, above. Thanks for your contribution, Andy.
I'll give ya the old flannel, the waffle, the flattery. Oh yes, flattery will get us everywhere! (to reverse: Flattery will get us nowhere).
Why yes, it's Sir Orchi NS - someone who talks a lot without saying anything meaningful.
And - did I seem absent? I of course was here all the time, hanging around like a bad smell! lol.
Orchi, you have, I think, grasped the whole essence of this concept with both hands and quite possibly your teeth. To what extent this was inadvertent is of little concern; the point is that your contribution here proves to be invaluable. Many thanks.
I knew my comment, my load of rubbish, would prove to be invaluable. lol.
You are a very perspicacious fellow when you put your mind to it, you know....
Yes, I'm perspic-wotsit, if I knew what it meant! lol.
I see flannel, and right away Trump comes to mind, maybe a preempted strike on Iceland, blast wrong country, hate when that happens.
Can't believe I took out Greenlandic citizenship to get my hundred grand, and now it ain't going to happen, that's the real flannel.
Actually, there is another flannel. The one my mum used to take the skin off my face with in the pursuit of cleanliness.
Did ya have to make it political?......................... Oh bugger it I do see what you mean - how can I avoid it?......Yeh I had a Mum with very much the same methodology - which maybe why in some perverse way the term has stuck with me all these years.!
Wonder if we could posthumously charge them with assault. lol
Might cost a bomb (excuse the use of that word) to get lawyered up....
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