Year's Happy Ending-1984 Discussion Thread
- One of my favorite Neels-isms is her names for much-beloved house help (though of course, in my opinion, all house help would be much beloved). Here it's Mrs. Buckle. Mrs. Buckle. If you think about it 'Mrs. Buckle' walks the thin, precarious path between above stairs (with your Harringtons and Cleves and van Ritters) and any lowlife off the street (Budge, etc.). Nicely done, Betty. [Betty Debbie] I agree that any and all household help would be much beloved...in particular anyone who helps out in my household.
- Now that baby. I've had a few so forgive me my disbelief that you could ever just park a pram under a window and get on with the bed-making. For one thing, they'd know you were trying to be productive and I've never met a baby yet that could settle down with that happening. Also, my youngest is a horrible teether and one day just doesn't cut it in the cutting teeth department. [Betty Debbie] I've had kids that seemed to teethe for months. I am very unclear as to how old this baby is supposed to be. Yes, it's teething...but in my own personal experience that could be anywhere from 2 months to 8 months. Then again, she's feeding the little coma patient orange juice. That's not a beverage I generally give small babies, as it has a tendency to burn their little bottoms on the way out.
- Also, at some point we should discuss Betty's philosophical inconsistency on the subject of marriages of convenience. Here she allows her heroine to accept our hero only after she's discovered she loves him. In other venues such a marriage is only deemed acceptable because neither party cares very much. [Betty Debbie] I personally find marriage very convenient.
- And on the subject of married ladies' exposed bosoms being allowable I would offer that a safely married lady is a danger neither to herself nor others. [Betty Debbie] I'm not sure what to say about that - seeing as I am a married lady and was suffering from a wardrobe malfunction a couple of weeks ago at my son's wedding. Thank you, Betty Keira, for the loan of a scarf to help disguise a little too much exposed bosom.
[Betty Kylene] I think an exposed bosom is more acceptable before marriage as a preview of the available goods as it were, whereas, after marriage the goods belong to someone and should not be bandied about.
ReplyDelete"a preview of available goods"...I love it, just wait until your daughter is a teenager and wants to showcase some "available goods" - what will your stand on exposed bosoms be then I wonder???
ReplyDeleteI just had a wonderful conversation with DH about Betty Neels -- she was 59 when her first book was published. I'm happy because I'm trying to get my first book published in my mid-50s (after a career as a lawyer) and it's nice to know I could churn out 134 books . . . if I wanted to!
ReplyDeleteBut what that tells me is that she may not have remembered much of the "dirty details" of raising tiny babies -- hers would all have grown up and most likely even her grandchildren were past the nappy stage in the early 80s.