A special thanks to Betty Keira for not only doing the review today, but also the discussion thread! On a side note, I made it out of Butte...but we'll be going back on Friday to return the exceptionally garish rental car (the ONLY one available - a bright red PT Cruiser!!!) and hopefully pick up our aging (but paid for) van. At Paul's lecture he mentally notices that it is the plain nurses that always ask questions--something to do with their egos. But then he also notices that they aren't any more or less intelligent questions than usual. This reminds me of Rose Comely (The Doubtful Marriage) and her getting the Gold Medal for her year because she didn't have any boyfriends distracting her from studying.
The wards are given funeral flowers (after the funeral the blooms are donated to the hospital) and Maggy hates them and feels sorry for the nurse assigned to making them look cheerful and normal. I'm thinking of those big horseshoe garlands for winners of various derbies. But I imagine that with floral tape and oasis foam bricks that anything could be made to look attractive. Still, it's not like the inmates...er...patients need any reminding them that the next stop on the communicable disease expressway is six feet under.
Paul's large drawing room has doors you could fold back half-way down its length to regulate its size. How handy would that be? La Casa van Voorhees hosts groups of various sizes--6 (just us), 10 (us and my in-laws), 15 (us and all my in-laws), 20 (us and my family). I would love to be able to make the rooms large or small at will--but the kids would be constantly hanging on the dividers and opening a
nd shutting them...Maggy sits in a Catholic church and worries that she shouldn't be there as she is Calvinist and the 'Popish' church is her ancient enemy. She overcomes these qualms and finds comfort (how could you not with all that gorgeous 'Popish' art?). Usually, later Neels classics are a bit more ecumenical. There are no inter-faith marriages (he's always telling her that he belongs to the Dutch equivalent of the CofE) or any Catholic main characters (right?) but there is a live and let live quality to her religious discussions.
While touring (Amsterdam I think), Maggy is asked to stay away from the area behind the Oude Kerk as that is the Rossebuurt (red-light district). In the interests of the discussion thread, here are some rules for the Rossebuurt: You must be at least 16 if you want to buy sex, and the prostitute must be at least 18. Twenty minutes will probably set you back some €50. Don't expect to meet any Dutch working women - by far the majority are from outside The Netherlands. If a red light is in the window then they're a sex worker.This area is also called De Wallen (the quays) and Walletjes (wallet) and, for the record, makes me very sad. No matter what your values are, nobody in the world hopes their daughter grows up to be a prostitute.
When Maggy is finally trusted to drive the The Rolls, she is a little nervous. No need to be, though. The 'Rolls was a lady and behaved like one'. If we're anthropomorphizing automobiles...I had a Mazda who was a slope-shouldered, drooping mustache Proletariat (and who behaved like one--you could never depend on it but it had leather seats), an asthmatic chain-smoker (low-class and aged Toyota that exploded on me one day) and a frowzy blonde with plenty of room in her trunk (if you know what I mean).
Like this one, though Maggy gets bigger and more Amazonian as the story progresses. She reminds me of a large beautiful dog who wants to be a lap dog. SIGH.
ReplyDeleteWe live in Amish country, and the traditional Old Amish houses all have movable walls on the first floor so that the entire first floor can become one giant room for church services. How cool is that?
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteI am more familiar with Victorian era houses where there were pocket doors dividing the front parlor from the back one. The doors could be opened to make it a bigger room, but there were always the door holding walls--so it was never a vast open space.
Ooh, a discussion on architecture. Love architecture.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a house that was built right on the cusp of Colonial & Federal styles, but because we're in the depths of the country, it's pretty simple. Well, it has some details because the guy who built it, Laban Capron, had pretensions to gentility.
But the coolest thing about my house is that it features a layout that is currently being used in McMansions. None of this Victorian nonsense about having all the kitchens & pantries in the back, out of the way so the help won't be noticed. Nope, we have a "keeping room" -- the largest room on the main floor because it had the huge fireplace with an oven built into the brick. And that's all open to the current kitchen and breakfast area. The only difference between that and a McMansion is that my entire house would fit into a McMansion's "great room."
Sorry to come in late on this one, but my grandparents Victorian farmhouse had doors suspended on wheels (within a doorframe, I don't mean they were just hanging there - LOL!) and it connected a large "living room" to an equally large parlor. Were you so disposed you could have a ball there.
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