oh my word!

The weathermen, and women, on that television machine thing in the corner have been assuring me that today is to be a sunny day. This may or not be true. I don’t trust weather predictions, I have been let down too often. You’ll have to look out of your window to find verification.

If it is indeed a sunny day, I’ll tell you what you can’t do. You can’t go outside and “soak up the sun” as those (I told you so) unreliable weather people have been urging us to do.

Because that is a logically unsound saying.

The word “soak” clearly suggests liquid, probably water, and sunshine could not be described as arriving in liquid form.

There are many logically unsound sayings.

I suspect the world’s idiom-producing factory, wherever it is, only sends its seconds out to the general public and keeps the intelligent ones for itself.

The definition of a proverbial saying is: “a short, generally known sentence which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed, and memorisable form, which is handed down from generation to generation”.

So I think examples like: “Rome wasn’t built in a day” shouldn’t qualify.

It might be regarded as an aphorism, it possibly could be claimed as proverbial, but I suggest it is too blatantly obvious to be termed “wise”.

You could say: “It’s like waiting for a pothole to be filled”, or “like expecting your smart meter to do something smart” or “like any bank’s automated answering service being useful”.

These are all also clearly too outlandish to count as wise sayings.

A better example of a clever saying, though its origins are out of date, would be: “it’s raining cats and dogs”. It sounds odd, but if you examine its origins it does make sense.

Homes in the past often had thatched roofs and domestic animals such as cats and dogs would hide or sleep there, only to be washed out, or flee in search of better shelter, during torrential rain. Hence the saying. However, to get to my point (thank you for sticking with me this far) there’s a phrase that is fast becoming a “saying” that greatly annoys me.

It is: “back in the day”. It just doesn’t make any sense. It is missing at least one word, probably “old” or “olden”. And “day” should then be pluralised because, obviously, more than one day has occurred in the past.

I’m sure no school pupil uttered this ungrammatical phrase when I was younger. Two of the belt would have ensued, with a dire warning to form proper sentences in future.

We’d say “in the olden days”, or the overused attempt at a colourful archaism “in days of yore”. But not “back in the day”. Trust modern users to adopt a horribly bad example of English as a widespread saying.

It sums up the state of the usage of language.

It is approaching summer in Scotland’s sunniest city. Dundee have secured their spot in the top six and across the road Dundee United will return to the Premiership at the first time of asking.

Even the Olympia reopened – again.

Things are looking up and that air of positivity stretches to the future of our city centre.

Last Thursday, The Courier hosted our very first High Street Summit – a talk born from our Dundee Matters project that seeks to find positive ways to change the trajectory of our struggling city centre.

It was a has frank and open discussion where invited guests shared their views and experiences in tackling the major issues affecting our shops and traders.

Council leader John Alexander pledged £200,000 towards the project.

Ron Smith, Glamis Investments’ managing director, made a case that business rates favoured out of town retail parks and therefore the multinational companies – a situation which can hamper local enterprise.

Mr Alexander promised to continue challenging the Scottish Government for a change to non-domestic rates.

Perhaps first task

John Swinney’s as first minister can be securing the future of independent businesses.

That fruitful summit, filled with positive conversation and fresh ideas, now has to be followed up with action.

A week on and that ability to act has been emboldened with a £20 million Levelling-Up Fund from the UK Government.

Money has been set aside within the grant to tackle issues affecting our city centre.

Funding will be made available for Dundee City Council to clean up the city centre, including updating derelict shopfronts.

That is on top of the £200,000 already promised by the council leader.

There is also £1.2m for the Dundee Museum of Transport to develop its long-awaited new attraction at Maryfield Tram Depot.

However, questions remain over the £3m earmarked for another new office block at the waterfront.

Is that really the possible use of funds?

One of the main factors that often holds back councils from making real change in their communities is funding.

Another is a lack of vision. Dundee City Council is currently in the enviable position of having access to both.

At The Courier’s Street Summit, best

High guest speaker Matt Colledge spoke of how his partnership, Altrincham Forward, had changed the fortunes of the English market town.

Since 2010 it has reduced the empty shop numbers by 73% and improved the market’s turnover from £150,000 per annum to more than £7m.

Dundee City Council knows it can be done and has heard from those who have done it.

And crucially, it now has the money to make a difference.

That is enough to start making a tangible difference to our high street while the sun still shines bright in the sky.

STEVE FINAN IN DEFENCE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE