Betty and the Real World

Never Say Goodbye:
When Isobel arrives in Sweden she looks out the window and sees gardens that remind her of Andersen's Fairy Tales.  Two of my favorite stories are The Steadfast Tin Soldier and The Snow Queen.  Are you interested to know the critical reading behind the story of the Tin Soldier? (No, seriously.  If you'd rather it remain just a lovely story...):
"The story is unusual among Andersen's early tales, both in its emphasis on sensual desire and in its ambiguities. Blind fate, not intention, determines all events. Moreover, the narrative questions the very decorum it praises. The tin soldier's passive acceptance of whatever happens to him, while exemplifying pietistic ideals of self-denial, also contributes to his doom. Were he to speak and act, the soldier might gain both life and love. Restrained, however, by inhibition and convention, he finds only tragedy and death. The tale is often read autobiographically, with the soldier viewed as symbolizing Andersen's feelings of inadequacy with women, his passive acceptance of bourgeois class attitudes, or his sense of alienation as an artist and an outsider, from full participation in everyday life.
Translation: He was proposing to ladies out of his league.

Like, from Ikea

While in Sweden, Isobel buys a Dala horse for her mother:
The earliest references to wooden horses for sale are from 1623—nearly 400 years ago. In the 19th century, Stikå-Erik Hansson  introduced the technique of painting with two colours on the same brush, still used today. (Interestingly, in the book "The Wooden Horses of Sweden," the author discovered that this famous Dala painter is buried in a small churchyard in Nebraska after having immigrated to the Midwest in 1887 at the age of 64.) He changed his name to Erik Erikson upon coming to America and is buried at Bega Cemetery in Stanton County Nebraska.
Immigration at 64!  How daring and awesome is that?!  (I think Betty Ross is pretty awesome.  Betty Henry too for that matter.) We've got a hymn (sung diligently every July 24th) that always reminds me of a Willa Cather novel, called They, The Builders of the Nation that ends, '...Forging onward, ever onward,  Blessed, honored pioneer!'  Now I'm going to think of Stikå-Erik Hansson when I sing it.


Never Too Late
Prudence had done her St. John Ambulance Training:
Britain was one of the first countries to become industrial and in the 19th century there were many dangerous workplaces. Accidents were frequent but workers rarely saw a doctor in time. Death or disability from untreated injuries was common. Members of the Order of St John wanted to find a way to help. They (the English Knights of the Order of Malta) decided to train ordinary people in first aid so accident victims could be treated quickly and on the spot, and in 1877 they set up St John Ambulance to do this.

Chain of fools

They visit Zutphen, Saint Wallburg Church with its chained library.  A chained library, you say.  What's that?:
The old books are still chained to their ancient wooden desk, a habit of centuries ago, dating from the times when the library was a "public library" and the chains prevented the books from being stolen.
My reaction was, 'Wow, that was when books were very important.'  Mijnheer van Voorhees said it rather better, 'I like living in the future.'