Discussion Groups / British English / May 2005

[Note cross-posts and follow-up]
My partner was given a desk calendar as a little Christmas gift, where
each day's page bears a description of some seemingly stupid activity
that has been carried out in the past (the title is "Well, Duh", which

Hi! Can anyone please tell me the origin of the song "My my my Delilah"? Is
it an English or a Welsh song? Irish maybe? Please, reliable sources only.
Thanks!

can I say:
"We want change the old screws from the locks. We want intall
no-rusting-screws. Can we?"
(My mother tongue is German)

My dearly departed maternal grandfather was oft heard to utter the above on
the rare hot summer days we have in this country. I never did get around to
asking him the origin of the phrase; my grandmother surmised that it was
something he picked up when he was in the RAF during ...

I want to write a letter to Mr. Brown who works for cabinet XYZ.
I want the envelope is open from him, only.
Can I write something like "CONFIDENTIAL" next the address, to improve the
chances?

I came across a feature of local dialect the other day (S. Lincs) -
the stressing of "it" as if it were a demonstrative pronoun e.g. "I
haven't done _it_." It was being used by people with very rural
backgrounds. Anybody else come across _it_?

A history of the Sunderland Football Club at
http://www.answers.com/topic/sunderland-a-f-c uses both of
the phrases "pipped to the post" and "pipped at the post".
The relevant sentences are

Is it correct when I write: " I will tell you about what I have alreay done
in 2005 and what I hope to do in the rest of 2005 " (My nature language is
Dutch).
Thank you in advance,

spending a sunny bank holiday Monday indoors marking essays, I came
across a wording which surprises me a bit (especially after some advice
I was given here). Some students use phrases 'You can see', 'you may
notice' etc instead of the - in my opinion more appropriate 'one can

"Allah will find out the right men!", this is the opinion of some of my
islamic students.
May be they are right, you stupid members of the coalition.
Joachim

My mother uses this expression in the context : "those cakes are hanging
fire - would someone please clear them up for me".
Anyone know the origin of this phrase?  Many of her expression are
Staffs/Warcks dialect.