Not To Worry

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28524, 1 March 1958, Page 3

Not To Worry

I From the “Manchester Guardian” j Who said it first? Once the firmchinned hero . would have said. “It’s all right old man. I’ve fixed it with a bit of bootlace”: but now, as the spaceship zooms up. missing the Mountains of the Moon by half a millimeter, he is more likely to say “Not to worry.” And now they all say it: over the missed appointment, or the spot of coffee on the lapel. • the three words spread a small quick blanket. Yet it is an odd locution: to the moralist, doubtful, to the grammarian. bizarre.. At first sight it must be a Germanism, first cousin to what we may render as “not in the waggon to spit.” Perhaps it is less a recommendation than a personal order, with the words “you are” implied before the “not”: if so tt is akin to the “will” familiar from Army Part II orders —“volunteers will parade at 0800 hours.” However the words have found their way into the language, their message is clear; and, though perhaps harmless, it is not stimulating. Our ancestors had their own ways of advising people not to take life too earnestly, but their advice was more vigorous. “Eat, drink and be merry” leaves the hearer plenty to do. “Gather ye■ rosebuds while ye may” is more' limited, but still more energetic.. Even “trespassers will be prosecuted” Has in it the promise of a ! good, tweedy row at the quarter sessions. It seems rather drearily negative that at a time when people are told not to do so many things they should, besides, have it thrown at them so often that they are not to worry.