"On the job"

[ucleaar <ucleaar@UCL.AC.UK>]

Not long back the chatter digressed from Lojban to discuss the
meaning of the briticism "on the job". I supplement that thread
with the following illustrative quotation from the late (and so
far far far too inadequately mourned by the curmudgeonly public)
Anthony Burgess:

     "And she's rather taken to him, has she?"
     Roper began to tremble. "Taken to him! That's good, that is. I
   came home one night, late again, very tired, and you know what I
   found?"
     "You tell me."
     "On the job." Roper's voice rose. His hands clenched and un-
   clenched. They seized the sparkling hock and poured a sizeable
   tremulous measure. Then, panting, he said, loudly so that people
   looked at him, "On the bloody job. I saw them. His big bloody
   muscles all working away at it, enjoying it, and she was there under-
   neath him crying out _Schnell schnell schnell_." The solitary waiter, a
   German took this for a summons and started to come too. I
   waved him away.

        - _Tremor of intent_. Penguin 1969 [1966]. pp 34-5.

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And