MONKEY 

SEE...

MONKEY

DON'T!

Here’s a news ‘story’ from a day or two back… that gloomy geezer in the garret in Gravesend has been at it again! 

“Following a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term “mpox” as a synonym for monkeypox. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while “monkeypox” is phased out. 

When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported to WHO. In several meetings, public and private, a number of individuals and countries raised concerns and asked WHO to propose a way forward to change the name.” 

Wow! It’s up there with H-bomb, L plate and T-shirt, innit? 

It begs the question, from now on…if a monkey is going to be called an ‘m’, will that also apply to… monkey apple, monkey bars, monkey bean, monkey beetle, monkey boots, 'Monkey Business' (a great Marx Brothers' film title), monkey butter, monkey engine, monkey-faced bat, monkey-faced owl, monkey-faced squirrel, monkey fever, monkey fish, monkey flower, monkey flower, tree, monkey frog, monkey glands, monkey grass, monkey jacket, monkey kettle, monkey ladder, monkey nuts, monkey orchid, monkey puzzle, monkey puzzle tree, monkey rum, monkey shine, monkey slug, monkey tricks, monkey vine, monkey winch, and monkey wrench?

There is even a monkey Jesus!

Better watch out, because there are also a number of other diseases which might upset some sensitive people … chicken pox, Colorado tick fever, German measles, Legionnaire’s disease, Marburg virus, Middle East respiratory syndrome, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Salmonella, and West-Nile virus.

The thought police are going to be working overtime!

Being referred to as ‘Monkees’ never seemed to bother Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. Perhaps they… cried all the way to the bank!