It’s a subject that crops up every couple of years and leaves me with ‘A face like a £10 summons’.  And if you’re not familiar with that old saying, then you might well be one of the people who took part in the latest university survey into old British sayings which concluded that many are close to being ‘Dead as a doornail’.

I have an idea I wrote about this matter a few years ago, but as I’ve been writing these columns for 52 weeks of the year for almost 10 years, I beg your indulgence. Besides, the latest survey shows that even more old sayings have ‘bit the dust’ because many of them were related to trades that are no longer around.

Talking of which, did you know there was once a job called ‘A SAGGER MAKER’S BOTTOM KNOCKER’?  I kid you not. Look it up if you think I’m joking.

‘Mad as a hatter’ referred to the Victorian practice of using a solution of mercury in the manufacture of top hats, which affected the nervous system of the workers and made them appear insane. No wonder men changed to flat caps.

Another saying which seems to have died out is ‘To cast pearls before swine’, which means offering something valuable or interesting to someone incapable of appreciating it’s worth. I’ve felt like that after coming off stage a few times!

Out of 2000 people surveyed, 71% of them had not only never used the expression “I need to spend a penny”…they’d never heard of it.

Now, you and I know that the results of these surveys are totally subjective and if most of the 2000 people surveyed were under 25s hanging around a shopping mall on a Saturday morning, of course they won’t know that ‘To spend a penny’ refers to the time years ago when the first coin-operated public loo opened outside the Royal Exchange in London and access was gained by dropping a penny in a slot. These days it costs a lot more than a penny!  The last time I used a public loo in London it cost me ‘An arm and a leg’.  It was my own fault.  I injured them, trying to leap over the turnstyle…