As a staple part of the media diet for the past fortnight, phone hacking has offered up a veritable feast of revelations, denials and resignations. But one other culinary-linguistic dish has also been served regularly: povs (popular orange vegetables).
Synonymous phrases bordering on the absurd, povs are often used by writers to avoid the repetition of nouns. Lexicographer HW Fowler called such a device an attempt to introduce "elegant variation" into text. The original pov came in a story about the health benefits of eating carrots, which indeed referred to them as "the popular orange vegetables" in a bid to avoid repetition.
To celebrate the pov, here's a quiz featuring many of those employed in the few turbulent weeks during which "the powerful 80-year-old media baron" softened into "the normally unchallengeable 80 year old", before eventually becoming "the world's (sometime) most powerful media tycoon". All you have to do is match the pov to the correct noun.
1. The hacking scandal trio
a) Hacking, blagging and pinging
b) Rupert M, James M and Rebekah Brooks
c) News International, the Met police and No 10 Downing Street
2. The ailing social network
a) The Chipping Norton set
b) Twitter
c) MySpace
3. The old Etonian former amateur jockey and trainer and former proprietor of a sex-toy mail-order company
a) David Cameron
b) Boris Johnson
c) Charlie Brooks
4. The old ruffian
a) Rupert Murdoch
b) Andy Coulson
c) Tom Watson MP
5. The flame-headed one; the ferociously ambitious titian-haired executive
a) Wendi Deng
b) Rebekah Brooks
c) Elisabeth Murdoch
Answers: 1-b, 2-c, 3-c, 4-a, 5-b
