Dear LPG,

I often get into rhetorical conversations with myself and more and more often with my tablet as I ask questions and this one got me doing a little research.  My son visited me recently and used the word Binge to describe a few habits he has noticed in members of our family.

According to him, and he stresses that he can only speak for himself, his sister has become a bit of a BINGE eater while a cousin is a bit of a BINGE drinker these days and then, to my horror, he described me as a BINGE silver surfer.

The word BINGE is a word that I have heard used and also a word that to me is onomatopoeic.  I wonder if any other readers agree with me when I say that I think it has that quality of ‘stuffing’ oneself about it much like the word gorge.

When I picture a BINGE eater I imagine a person who has eaten so much that they won’t be able to keep the food down, and my image of a BINGE drinker is someone who has become quite drunk.   This makes binging on anything appear to be a bad thing.

I could not help it after his visit I just had to get my tablet out and have a conversation with Google (my children taught me well and I have learned the art of asking my questions verbally), where I learned that BINGE is one of those American words that crossed the Atlantic in the mid 1950’s, presumably a post-war present, although UK usage of the word grew in popularity during the 1990s. 

I found it interesting to learn that BINGE television watching is now becoming quite a popular way to go, and I have to admit to excessive watching of my favourite soap opera, and BINGE reading was recorded as another human ‘affliction’ quite some time ago.   So I have deduced that as I spend many long periods of time looking up arguably useless bits of information on line, which include quite a bit of checking out the LPG news posts, I have to be a BINGE silver surfer.

Lastly I just want to say that I was not implying that LPG only posts useless information but while what I have just written could be listed in that category, I hope some readers will find it mildly entertaining.

 YD, Crofton Park

LPG offers a little information

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