I have read the doubts expressed on this forum (and others) concerning the slippering of secondary school girls and again confirm that it was not uncommon, as befitted the disciplinary environment of my time at school (1960’s).

In my own case I received corporal punishment only once and that was as a girl in the third year (now known as Year 9) at a school in N.W. London in 1966. My slippering was for a known offence (truanting from p.e. lessons) and was accepted by me as being justified and reasonable in the circumstances.

The punishment was formally administered at the end of a p.e. lesson by the male head of the department. I was told to wait in a room next to the changing-room while the slipper (which was about a man’s size eleven) was fetched. I began to tremble when I saw it and was in an even worse state when informed that I was to get six on my bottom (I was wearing my p.e. kit which consisted of t-shirt and gym knickers) and was then told to bend over and touch my toes. The slipper stung and left a warm glow in my bottom afterwards.

A few years ago I had occasion to walk past the school (on the way to a Bob Dylan concert) and this brought back feelings with which I still experience difficulty in coming to terms.

It is very unlikely that Fran of Wembley wrote the above message.

Thank you Nichonettes,

I find it refreshing, and even a little emotionally affecting, that someone (at last) should have done enough homework to work out at least 'who is unlikely to be who'. (Use of parentheses=emotional temperature??) I have no idea in this case whether this was on the basis of identification of source computer or 'analysis of author style'. I will just say that 'analysis of author style' is a technique used to justify differences in tens-of-thousands of valuation units (pounds, dollars, yen, zloty, naira etc etc) in the value, or credibility of communications in respect of auction prices for letters etc. I will confirm that a lot of the information given in the above 'suspect posting' has been provided from time to time (and (almost incredibly, even to me) by me over a 5+ year period). I must just say that I do not ever remember using the term 't-shirt'. I may have, but not often, and it is not a word which springs easily to the pen as far as I am concerned.

It has been a characteristic of corporate computing, email and desktop-publishing over the last 4 years that they have had features enabling both senders and recipients of communications and documents to analyse the styles and 'reading difficulty level' of those items.

The analyses are based on such concepts as 'use of long words'. grammatical compliance, grammatical complexity, etc etc.

Today I can click on a tab and get such an analysis of any element of readable text as a feature of (e.g.) Word. The ability to check scores is there. From a standpoint of determining authorship, score each post against believed author. If any of mine (except obvious fakes based on compilations of data) go beyond 10% difference on style/content etc let me know. (PS Any use of 'swear words' or 'abusive language' are not my style, and almost immediately rule out any candidate for consideration).

Best Wishes, Fran

Dear Fran,

It was obvious to me that the message was a pastiche of several of your pieces from this and other fora.

You wrote of a T-shirt (not a t-shirt, as did the impostor) on 5 July. It is the final message in the ‘Male teachers “collecting” every girl pupil’ thread that was started by dear old Markus.

Without going into detail, the ISP thing confirmed my suspicion.

Thank you for writing to us. We hope that you will become a member of George’s new Pants Group where we look forward (when this forum closes) to having many interesting discussions with you.

With all good wishes,

Nichonettes

Nichonettes,

Thanks for checking anyway. I won't be posting on anything like the site you describe (which I also have no intention of visiting)or probably anywhere else from now on. A good reason is that, despite peoples fantasies about who I am, I am who and what I say I am, and therefore peolpe should be able to work out that the intent of such sites, orientation of actions described (both gender and direction), and likely level of debate would not support my interest.

I also find that I am becoming much less interested in all this anyway these days.