It was a throw-away phrase forged forty years ago in a primary school woodwork class. Yet it survives to this day in my household, recited with startling regularity by my children, and still causes me to laugh aloud when it comes to mind.
It was late afternoon and the headmaster, Mr Pearson, was discussing the creation of model boats. While patient and often — but not always — hard of hearing, Sandy ‘Squinty’ Pearson was a…