So there were probably lots of potential finds for today’s word, which is “Robin Hood” (‘A legendary English outlaw, popular from medieval times, who, according to tradition, stole from the rich to give to the poor. Hence allusively: an outlaw or bandit, esp. a gallant one. More generally: any person who acts illegally or irregularly for the benefit of the poor, esp. by taking money from the rich’, OED). I know one or two, but their gallantry is questionable, I could have made a trip to the Robin Hood pub in Enfield or Loughton or Clacton-on-Sea, or covered one of the many Robin Hood streets and added a bit more to my Bleeding London coverage. However, I just can’t think of Robin Hood without thinking of Dennis Moore (‘Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Riding through the land, Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, Without a merry band, He steals from the poor, And gives to the rich, Stupid bitch’, Monty Python) and actually finding something taken from the poor and given to the rich was a much easier task – housing. This is not written without a whiff of hypocrisy, since our flat perches on top of was what once the Chelsea Poor House, but as the conversion happened more than 100 years ago, it doesn’t seem quite so unacceptable.
Day #154 of a 365 project, where the daily pic is informed by the OED word of the day.