The suave villain: rant.

I do my best to embrace change. No, I really do. Milk in little plastic tubes? I quite admire the small fountain that erupts when I open one of the things, and have even got quite adept at getting the stains off my trousers.

The word selfie? However did I do without it?

But the latest and most up-to-date brand of con-artists I find it hard to love.

The problem is partly that these geezers are all over the place and can gain access to any sucker with the mere click of a mouse, a tap of a screen, or (if they're very up-to-date) the blink of an eye.

Yes, yes, that's progress, and I realise there's just nothing to be done about it. But confidence-tricksters used to be so...suave. They wore top hats and Reform Club ties (which, I hasten to add, they were very seldom entitled to wear).

This confidence trickster is played by Charles Coburn. He's charming Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve.

They said things like dear madam, and old boy, and fancy a snifter?

They sold oil stock, and shares in railways through far-away jungles. I mean, being conned out of your life-savings in those days was a positively enjoyable process.

And now?

Now, we are invited to click dodgy links on emails.

And as if that weren't come-down enough, the con-artists (artists! That's the last thing they are) don't even bother to take the minimal effort required to be literate.

From:	Anonymous
Sent:	16 July 2014 05:04:56
To:	sally.prue@hotmail.co.uk

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Saturday Rave: Beauty and the Beast":

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[I have disabled the link above for fear it might infect your computer with some virus that automatically invests your life savings in dodgy oil stock.]

But, what's worst of all, do you know something? I bet that when that scoundrel was writing that email he wasn't even wearing a silk handkerchief in his top pocket.

Word To Use Today: confidence. This word comes from the Latin confīdere, from fīdere to trust. It's related to the Latin foedus, which means treaty.