Saturday, May 15, 2010

God Ettermiddag*

What do Two Weeks to Remember, The Promise of Happiness, Heaven Around the Corner, Midnight Sun's Magic and The Silver Thaw all have in common? No, it's not RDD's....only 2 of them feature Dutch Doctors. I'm just teasing, I know you've already pegged that they all have a substantial amount of pages devoted to Norway. I also know there is at least one or two more books that I've left out - I just can't quite bring them to mind - in one the heroine is visiting Norway as a companion to an old lady - they are staying in a hotel, the old lady plays bridge in the afternoon...there is some sightseeing, a really bad car accident in a tunnel...aargh! I don't have time to root around in my collection. Why Norway? I have my own theory about that. I strongly suspect that The Venerable Betty took a cruise or two to the fjords. Her descriptions of the sights and scenery are most often places that tourists would visit - thus all those visits to Grieg's house, mentions of the funicular, cathedrals, stave churches, and Frogner Park.

*If I got that right, my post title says: "Good Afternoon" in Norwegian. If not, I'm probably guilty of blasphemy and will be burned at the stake.

1 comment:

  1. I pulled this up because I'm critiquing a classmate's story involving Norse mythology and I wanted to use my Betty-induced knowledge of Norway.

    My theory about The Great Betty is that either her daughter or (more likely) her son-in-law actually was an engineer working on something or other in the Norwegian Sea. That would explain why Betty knew what Norway was like in October--not a popular month to visit, as one might imagine.

    Oh, I so wish someone would make friends with her grandson and write up a little biography of The Great Betty! Maybe Betty van den Betsy, with her advanced powers of research and organization could manage this...

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