Can we all agree that the name Claribel Brown is unfortunate? The Brown I take issue with on the grounds that this is the second time this week we've used it. Remember Augusta Brown of Tulips for Augusta fame. As colors for last names go, Brown falls at the end of the line after Grey, Green, White and Black as the most uninspired. And then there's Claribel. Only cows and pet goldfish should be encumbered with a name that conjures blank-eyed cud chewing.Betty Debbie, because of The Short Unhappy Incident of the Roller Skates, has spent a lot of time with physios. Claribel is described as Junoesque and from the descriptions of her time in physical therapy (ow, ow, OW) I think they would have to be hardy, strapping lasses (and now I'm imagining a sturdy blonde caricature with braids wrapped around her head--think East German swim team).
One evening Claribel spends her time "washing the smalls". I can't tell you how much more delightful that sounds than "undies" or "whites" or "unmentionables".
Bombs in Britain (I dare you to click). Claribel is able to tell Mrs. Snow (weather related surnames!) that, "There's a suspicious parcel in the waiting-room." She had no need to explain; everyone knew about bombs in plastic bags these days. The Course of True Love was published in 1988 and there hadn't been a bomb in London that killed anybody since 1983. 17 December 1983: Harrods was bombed by the IRA. Six people were killed (including three police officers) and 90 wounded during Christmas shopping at the West London department store.
Bombing picked up in 1990. Is the equivalent being asked to exit the light rail carriage without a flap because 'everyone knew about jihadists these days'? I doubt it would fail to raise so much as an eyebrow...Cover art. Dutch castle? Check. Pepper-pot towers? Heck yes. Hawt Dutch orthopaedist? Double check. But what's that she's wearing? It looks like a cinched-in sloppy cotton T-shirt dress with...Are those shoulder pads? You're wearing a T-shirt with shoulder pads to his castle?! Have you not seen how hot he is? Claribel, girlfriend, that is not an uncrushable jersey dress.
At the end Claribel threatens to get a job in Australia or New Zealand. ("New Zealand. Mother has cousins there...Probably the island is littered with the love-lorn dregs of Europe.) Auckland rates a step better than a Brazilian coal mine but he's already in Holland a good deal of the time and I'm sure that a sensible relocation to Manchester should take her sufficiently out of his orbit if Fate, in this instance, chose to be unRemarkable.
I had several t-shirt dresses with shoulder pads back in 1988. Admittedly the look has not stood the test of time but, back then, I thought I look quite chic!
ReplyDeleteI even have a photo of myself in front of a Scottish castle in a t-shirt dress with shoulder pads and a low-slung leather belt circa 1987. Sadly, I wasn't invited to visit by the handsome owner but I am sure he took my admission price happily!
I was in middle school in 1988 and I remember having a T-shirt dress with shoulder pads. I thought I was so cool! Then again, I also had braces so shiny, you could see them from Mars.
ReplyDeleteAlas, no castles for me.
Barbara here-
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who thinks that the cover girl's
face looks like Princess Diana?
Just sayin'
Founding Bettys here. From deep within our top secret Rocky Mountain Lair....
ReplyDeleteYes Barbara. She does bear a striking resemblence to Princess Diana.
Betty Lea...
ReplyDeleteWould you like to share your t-shirt dress picture with us? Please. Please. We could make it worth your while (*wink, wink*)
The "Bombs in Britain" link may have been the longest minute-and-fourteen-seconds of my life.
ReplyDeleteSince it was 1987, the photo isn't digital and I don't have scanning capabilities. My 9 year old daughter is still mad at me because her baby photos aren't on the computer screen saver slide show ( her first year was pre-digital camera for our family). Since I haven't scanned the baby photos in 9 years, I am thinking I probably won't make it to Kinko's to scan the t-shirt dress picture! I am working on not making promises I can't keep however much I would love to share my 22 year old self with everyone.
ReplyDeleteMy scanner bites. Hard. I can't use it at all for photos (although it works fine for faxes, go figure). My low tech solution (and sometimes it's quite obvious) is to take a picture with my lame-o digital camera and then upload that and tart it up as much as possible. Happy to do that for you.
ReplyDeleteWe have tote bags. Did I mention we have tote bags?
Betty Keira here.
ReplyDeleteThat link might have been on the weird side but it could have been so much worse. I didn't link to the one that would burn your retinas and alter your enjoyment of competitive ice skating forever. You have been warned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1T61vX4wm4
I scanned my age-15 passport photo for "Old Photo" week on Facebook. Even allowing for the embossing marks on my face (visible if you enlarged the photo), it's the best EVER photo of me. And not just because I was young. (All the other photos of me from that time were hideous -- spotty and stupidly "intense.")
ReplyDeleteNo tee-shirt dresses in my past. But in 1988, I was working for the New York State Department of Health in its AIDS Institute. I was badly dressed back then. No photos from those years; the world is a safer place, trust me.
I recalled being instructed on car bombs & the IRA on my stays in England in the seventies. Remember, Betty Neels would have known all about the Blitz; car bombs & explosives in carrier bags were a minor annoyance to anyone who lived through the Blitz.
I only made it through a minute-and-a-half of the second link as well: be afraid, be very afraid!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I went to London in 1985 (boyfriend at St. Andrews, trip to London in the autumn) and recall receiving printed handouts (from the passport office? my parents? travel agency?)about IRA bombings in London and what to do. Alas, I don't recall the actual details of what to do! Report suspicious packages, don't touch or move them? Something along those lines, geesh, getting older and/or having children has done something to my memory.... Second, I owned several tee-shirt style dresses with shoulder pads in the 80s, in fact, I believe every garment I owned between 1984-1990 had shoulder pads, including several unfortunate jumpsuits, yes jumpsuits. Try googling 1980s and jumpsuit, you'll find some interesting photos. In my defense, I believe that I rocked the shoulder pad/jumpsuit look, as I was very slender, had BIG hair, and metallic eyeshadow. Did I mention I was very young? Third, I love Tom Jones' Sex Bomb (even though he is a little old for me), so seeing Mr. Bean's version was not pretty, but could have been worse if I'd been sipping a hot drink at the same time....
ReplyDelete