A few nights ago, I was listening to Sky Sports news. (Well, I say “listening” but I was zoning in and out whilst sending cat photos to my friend on WhatsApp.) One thing, however, did make me sit up and take notice, and that was when the reporter said, whilst discussing French football, “And what do the catteries think of this?”
Excusez-moi? What do catteries have to do with football … unless we’re back to the topic of Kurt Zouma again? And I imagine the catteries would be as disgusted as the cat households, non?
The British public haven’t seen a great deal of Kurt Zouma lately because he’s been out of action with an injury, but I am delighted to report that, one year on from That Incident, his team, West Ham, are on a disastrous downwards slide. At the time of writing this, they are only a couple of points away from the dreaded bottom three of the table:
Obviously I can’t prove that West Ham’s misfortunes are because one of their number was mean to a cat. But I can’t prove that they’re not, either. And, had Kurt Zouma’s cat been a Chat Noir, there would have been no doubt in my mind whatsoever.
Here is Louis Catorze, so unimpressed with the West Ham performance against Brighton that he can’t even bear to look:
He feels sorry for them. But in an “I pity you” kind of way, not in an empathetic way.
EDIT: after replaying Sky Sports news, it turned out that they were saying “Qataris” but, unusually, they had rhymed it with “batteries” and not with “safaris”. I think I like this pronunciation better.
jesuisleroisoleil 
Several years ago I had a David Attenborough program on TV . He was in a US National park andkept referring to geezers, which I thought odd, as all ages are found using the National Parks. Then he mentioned Old Faithful – a world- famous geezer ! (I do enjoy ordering “an-kovies ” on my pizza however.)
I always have to remember it is Qatar a country and not catarrh a cold.
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Ha! In the U.K. a geezer just means a man, nothing to do with age! Is geyser supposed to rhyme with freezer or with kaiser?
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Over here we pronounce it “guy-sir” so you can see my confusion.
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Once again, the ending is great. I had guessed nothing about it.
🙂
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Have you ever heard anyone pronounce that word in that way? I haven’t.
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I’m ashamed to have to tell it to you, but I can neither speak English nor understand someone who speak English. As I’m used to saying, I’m a poor crippled English-speaking person since I can only read and write.
But please, don’t worry about me, I’m accustomed to it.
🙂
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I’m now wondering whether Qatar is supposed to rhyme with batter or with guitar …
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In French, it rhymes with guitar…
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Yes, I thought the same!
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By the way, someone who speaks English would have looked better, wouldn’t it?
Can you forgive me?
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Well, you British (football related) people and cats seems to make the Belgian news often. Now Gary Lineker is all over the news…
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Oh my goodness, really? It’s big news here but I never imagined it would get there!
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Thank goodness no animals (cats) were harmed in the making of his tweet… 😉
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Here, John Kelly says cattaries, too: https://youglish.com/pronounce/qataris/english#:~:text=Traditional%20IPA%3A%20k%C3%A6%CB%88t%C9%91%CB%90ri%CB%90z,%22TAA%22%20%2B%20%22reez%22 but obviously, it should be kaTAAreez.
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Hahaha! Although the way he said it, sounded almost like “cutteries”. 🤣🤣🤣
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The evil thoughts of all of the cats has probably doomed West Ham
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Oh, I do hope so! It would serve them right. They’re not a very nice bunch.
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😂😂😂
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