First the dollhouse. I am very jealous if the shadow relative/goddaughter Mies. The dollhouse that Jules buys for her rocks. At the Kasteel van Voorhees we have to put them together ourselves. Here's one I did for The Ya-Ya van Voorhees a couple of years ago. I picked it up at Goodwill instead of a swanky antiques place and used a bucket-load of Modge-Podge on it but she disappears often frequently (not 'often a person who has lost his parents') to go play with it--a lifesaver on our street where having more boys seems de rigueur. Also, I get to enjoy the soft glow of knowing that something priceless isn't going to be handed over to a 7-year-old. [Betty Debbie] The before and after pics are great...'before' looks like it has been used as a crack house by derelict Barbies...When Daisy meets Jules on the beach and they part she thinks to herself, "...who was it who wrote, 'men were deceivers ever'? Probably they were all alike." It was Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing--here's a clip put to music! I had it memorized in high school along with Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken those are the only ones I can recite pat. It's always a good idea to have something memorized in case you are ever asked to exhibit. Anyway, much more damning is the second verse (The fraud of men was ever so since summer first was leafy...). I'm glad Daisy pops out of that 'all men are swine' thing as men-hating is one of the silliest things a woman can cultivate. I'm happy that Daisy gets over her brief stint as a man-hater. Here is the verse that she refers to:
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never;
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
Daisy writes a Eurocheque for that Wine Cooler of Destiny. Is this like American Traveler's Checks? Does anyone know?
And then later on that page The Venerable Neels writes, "Daisy, a cock-a-hoop over h
er successful day..."First, I luuuuuhhhhve the words cock-a-hoop. I have no idea what the idiom refers to but it sounds so thoroughly like what it is that there's no possible way to mistake the meaning. Second, can you be 'a cock-a-hoop'? Someone who speaks British English fill me in.
The moments before Jules tells Daisy (in the nicest way) that he's in love with her they are having lunch. For afters she got "chocolate mousse laced with brandy and topped with cream, accompanied by small paper-thin biscuits, while Mr. der Huizma ate cheese." I wonder if lashings of whipped cream is beneath his dignity or if he suddenly had to proclaim his love because the dairy in all those cheese boards was giving him fits. That cheese board would be giving ME fits.
Lets talk about her clothes. Daisy's off-the-peg clothes earn her nothing but [Desmond's] secret mockery. I personally have never owned anything "designer" in my life...and I would have to say that it has never been an ambition of mine. The closest I ever come to "designer" clothes is when I stumble across a great sale at the Ann Taylor store in the local outlet mall. Why would a small-town girl have anything BUT off-the-peg (or possibly hand-made) clothes? I'm just saying that I don't think her clothes really deserve anyone's secret mockery. I do love it when Jules daydreams about Daisy...and in his daydream she is wearing her grey "I'm selling antiques" dress - thus proving that love is blind - even when it's daydreaming.
Ah, but part of Daisy's appeal is that she's the anti-Helene, so Daisy's grey dress is all that more appealing. After all, Helene wears red leather!
ReplyDeleteThe cheese board is better than you think: it comes with four or five types of cheese (a cheddar, a blue, a brie or Camembert, etc.), biscuits (i.e., crackers of the la-di-dah variety), celery (??), and (saved the best for last here) chutney. Chutney & cheese is one of the lesser-known great pairings, like chocolate & peanut butter, or chocolate & raspberry, or chocolate & orange. (Okay, so chocolate goes with a lot of stuff; sue me.)
Anyway, the cheese board/trolley is lovely.
Cock-a-hoop is a modifier, mostly of mood. My resident lexicographer, Betty Ross, is off felling trees with his mighty chain saw, so he can't help me research this and I am too lazy to get the information myself. I'll get back to you on its origins.
You would say you were cock-a-hoop, or chuffed (not a word Betty Neels ever used, I don't imagine) or over the moon. Be careful, though: "over the top" means excessive in a vaguely pejorative sense, and "over the eight" means too much alcohol.