If I was gay (or if I were gay and interested in the past subjunctive—which I’m not and which I’m not) I’d be in love with Stephen Fry. I’m about half in love with him anyway. Because he has one of the most delicious voices in this part of the galaxy, and he knows how to use it, and he uses it to say things that ought to be said, and he uses it to say things that ought not to be said but need saying anyway.
And because of this:
I confess, I’m one of those people who sometimes get annoyed at the verbing of nouns. In my defense, I’m only really annoyed when I see it used in corporate jargon. There’s a place for CorporateSpeak. For the most part, that place is Hell (which is where the guy who sent out a memo saying ‘Please gist your reports before sending them to me’ belongs). But the employee who first said she couldn’t go out to lunch because she was ‘dining al desko’ has a special place in heaven.
I can hear that—I shall be dining al desko today—in Stephen Fry’s voice. He makes it sound even better.
(Thanks to Olga van Saane for bringing that video to my attention)
gregfallis.com 
Dining al desko sounds (reads?) like something Marya would say.
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Marya would not only say that, she’d have hundred of other folks saying it as well.
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I’m so glad I found this, so fun. I adore Stephen Fry and have for many years, this though? This is genius. thanks for posting it.
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You have to be pleased to live in a world that has Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in it…at the same time. One would have been enough; both of them…well, that’s just an embarrassment of riches, isn’t it.
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Same here. Love the idea of the “sound sex of words.”
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Stephen Fry did this amazing PBS special where he drives around the United States and “gets to know” the many different communities he visits. He does the whole thing as a total alien dropped out of the sky into the netherlands of our wierd country, an outsider who is like ‘who are these people’? Of course, there are lots of dry British jokes about our strangeness, but for the most part, I think Stephen can’t quite believe how cold it gets here in the winter. :-)
Check it out.
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It sounds like a wonderful show. I’m searching for it RIGHT NOW. Thanks.
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