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| Almost soft...entirely awesome. |
Another nurse says Mr. van Tacx has 'such a lovely dark brown voice'. Betty Debbie was telling me that our grandmother had such a 'metallic' voice the other day. After much thought (okay, no thought at all), I figure Mijnheer van Voorhees has the voice of not-quite-ripe pears. Lovely.
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| Set it and forget it |
Teetotaler Question: Is 15-30 percent alcohol content a lot? Is gin considered a low-class drink (I'm thinking gin-joint here...) or high-class (I'm thinking of 007 here...mmmmm)?
At Stourhead he says 'I find it hard to work up any romantic feelings over statues...'. Betty Debbie is quite right to remember the classical story of Pygmalion--a fellow who did not have that problem one whit:
According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves (more accurately, they denied the divinity of Venus and she thus ‘reduced’ them to prostitution), he was 'not interested in women', but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it. In the vertex, Venus's festival day came. For the festival, Pygmalion made offerings to Venus and made a wish. "I sincerely wished the ivory sculpture will be changed to a real woman." However, he couldn’t bring himself to express it. When he returned home, Cupid sent by Venus kissed the ivory sculpture on the hand. At that time, it was changed to a beautiful woman. A ring was put on her finger. It was Cupid’s ring which made love achieved. Venus granted his wish.
There are no pictures of Pygmalion and his statue without boobies or bottoms so you'll have to google it yourself. This is a family blog. ;0)
He bought a flat from a friend - because they will need one...yes, just before he gets married, he goes out and buys a flat without any input from the girl he loves. Discuss
This was the comment Betty Debbie left for me, "Jo and her mum go to London for a shopping trip. They first buy mum's hat, suit, handbag, gloves and shoes...THEN they go looking for a wedding dress." This part really chapped her hide. I suppose you might excuse the mother if she just wanted to get her purchases out of the way in order to turn their full attention to the more important wedding dress purchase. But then Betty Debbie reminded me that they were only in London for one day and that Mama ought to have taken a back seat to her daughter. I remember Betty Debbie, my neighbor Super Nurse and other assorted mothers-of-the-bride sweating about their outfits but none that would have the poor taste to put their worries ahead of the bride's outfit.
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| When Mother shopped for her finery first, she awoke the sleeping Bridezilla |
The children at the village school are given a traditional Christmas Box. I refuse to look this one up. At a guess I would assume that this contained an orange, small candy, and a box of crayons or other small toy... Does anyone have a more educated guess?
I think a Christmas Box is money. What say you?
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteAnswering a few of your gin questions. The alcohol content mentioned is fairly standard for a distilled spirit. Most modern dry London gins (a style, not a brand)run close to 40% ABV (alcohol by volume). Most red wines are in the 11-15% ABV and most beers are lower than that.
Today's gin is no more low-class than vodka or whisky--depends on the brand you are drinking. The low-class connotations come from gin's history in the mid 1700's in London, where the spirit was unregulated and dirt cheap! Lots of 'gin joints'. See Wiki's article HERE
According to gossip/legend Elizabeth Taylor would soak her diamonds in gin to clean them.
The popular drink of gin and tonic was invented in the tropics as a malarial remedy. Tonic water was basically quinine and water and the gin was mixed in to make the taste of the quinine palatable.
Betty Barbara is not overly fond of gin.
Betty Barbara again--
ReplyDeleteChristmas Boxes are probably related to the Boxes of Boxing Day--which were traditionally filled with goodies and money and given to the house servants by their employer.
So I think Betty Keira is spot-on--small toy, bit of something sweet to eat and coinage.
I am quite fond of gin - and can't imagine messing it up by sticking berries in it. It is hard to imagine a rector's wife with a recipe that involves such a beverage. It just doesn't seem very pious - unlike sherry, which is apparently not considered liquor in Bettydom so much as a "aide de digestion".
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ReplyDeleteI was not offended by Mum's outfit being got out of the way first. I had the impression that the idea was to deal with that first so it wouldn't be on their minds when they were doing the much more important wedding dress shopping.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of gin, while not a teetotaler, I tend to steer clear of hard liquor and stick mostly to an occasional glass of wine (beer is nasty stuff.. I leave it for the ancient poor of Egypt to enjoy). The one exception is the very very occasional gin & tonic, which I find quite tasty (made very weak). I too cannot imagine adulterating it with berries, but perhaps that is because I have never had it without tonic, which is very unsweet.
February 17, 2011 2:52 PM
I too am not very fond of alcohol in any form (I prefer to *eat* my forbidden calories...) but gin is my friend. At a traditional English pub, I'm hard-pressed to know what to order. I hate beer (warm, cool or cold - doesn't matter); shandy is better (half lemonade -- which is a carbonated lemon drink -- half beer) but it's still half-beer, see above; and until I met Betty Ross I didn't know about ordering a St. Clements, which is half lemonade, half orange juice. Solution: "gin & lime," which translates to a small amount of gin and a healthy dose of Rose's lime juice (actually a tart lime syrup).
ReplyDeleteWord to the wise: ask for ice, otherwise you get it warm. It's nicer with ice. (Better yet: order the St. Clements -- non-alcoholic & very yummy.)
I used to make sloe gin (and even better - damson gin) when I lived in the UK. It's a bit labor intensive, as you have to prick the sloes all over with a pin before you add them to the gin. I always added a bit of sugar, since the sloes could be eye-wateringly tart. You don't buy sloes; you forage for them, and they're best right after the first frost. I think sloe gin is considered pretty tame as spirits go, because it is usually consumed with lots of ice and tonic, so the actual ABV % is quite low. It's considered pretty quaint and old-fashioned, I think.
ReplyDeleteHey, when you do Betty in the Real World on this book, be sure to include photos of Bettys, the very famous tea room in York. No way that wasn't where Julius and Josephine have tea while they're there. (You can see why The Great Betty didn't specify that by name...)
ReplyDeleteIf beer tastes anything like it smells, Betty Magdalen, I can't imagine anything worse than adding lemonade to it! Gah. Shandy is such a nice name for a beverage too!
ReplyDeleteMy parents were both alcoholics, as were two of my sisters, so the rest of us are, understandably, a bit wary of any alcohol on anything but a very rare happenstance. (Wedding toasts, a night out with the girls, once ever five years - that sort of thing!) but, having been raised in a home where booze flowed readily, I have tasted quite a few drinks in my day. Beer - why would anyone take a second sip? Blah!
ReplyDeleteWhiskey, brandy, rye - all the same, but worse. They burn the throat all the way down! One sniff was bad enough. A taste cured me of any desire to repeat the effort.
But, my sisters used to drink a little thing they called a sloe gin fizz, back at parties before any of us got too sensitive about alcohol. Ginger ale, gin, and maraschino cherry juice. It may have even been sloe gin - it was a very long time ago.
For those of us who weren't of age, there was the virgin version, which was quite tasty and made us feel quite grown up in those little old-fashioned glasses with a cherry floating with the ice, and a skinny little red straw with which to tinkle the ice.
But I digress - my real point is, why the 2nd drink? Same with smokes. I tried them, like most kids. One timid puff that made me gag and choke and I'd had enough!
me<><
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteAmazed at the number of Bettys for whom alcohol doesn't taste good.....
I, on the other hand, would dearly love to have an RDD's wine budget!
I have outgrown any taste for 'hard' liquor, just can't tolerate it anymore, so I don't drink it anymore!
However, I feel I must say a good thing about beer--after all of y'all dissing it so much--there are times when there is nothing better. I don't often drink beer, generally preferring wine, but there are times when a cold brew just hits the spot!
I'm with Betty Barbara on this one (and not just because I'm a Canuck!). There are times when only a beer will do.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note - I want to thank the compiler of the BN canon. I finally printed off the list so I could figure out what I'm missing. Sadly, only a few but I am excited to think that there are some I haven't read. Anticipation building.....hopefully Canada Post can move faster than usual.
Betty Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteYou should check the Betty Book Swap thread to see if any that you are missing are up for swap (do you have any doubles to trade?) I'm hoping somebody will want my extras and have extras for me. :-)
I might do that. I am going through all the old discussion threads now to see if I did, in fact, read the books and just can't remember or whether (please, please, please) there may be a few books that I missed. Also, I'll have to pull my bed away from the wall to search for strays. It's amazing how the darned things escape my "bin'o books".
ReplyDeleteI remember my English born Irish Bred Mother drank shandies. She made them out of Ginger Ale and Beer.
ReplyDeleteI can't see that our gal would have much to say about a flat provided for her by her soon to be spouse, that he arranged before he even proposed.
ReplyDeleteComplain too much and she might be considered Taxc-less. Sorry....
Actually, I'm quiet undemanding when it comes to housing. I would prefer that everything is a done deal when I show up. Our first six months we were in a roach infested garage apartment, so it was all gravy after that. 18 years of military moves has me pretty flexible as to what is acceptable.
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteWhen Jo is in the York fur shop she is forced to admit her size. This splendidly figured Betty heroine is a 1985 UK size 14.
So just how big was that??
And the answer is--nowhere near as big as a US size 14 is today, that's for sure!!
In the 1960's a US size 12/UK size 14 was a 32" bust,34" hips. By the 70's, a size 12US/14UK is up to a 34" bust line, 36" hips. By the 80's, the measurements had crept up a bit, of course. So we are looking at 36" bust, hips 38", max.
So our Jo was indeed splendid of figure: no doubt an absolute stunner, with the height to carry the curves.
Re: home-buying; I expect that in Neelsland an 18th/19th c. aristocratic ideal held fast -- the man owned the home and brought his bride to it. Over the years, she would express her personality upon it with decorating changes, and they might together decide on more dramatic structural changes. C.f. Lord Peter Wimsey in Busman's Honeymoon .
ReplyDeleteRef: booze; James Bond drinks gin in martinis, though he's more likely (esp. in the movies) to have a vodka martini, which to the martini purist is still an abomination, even though the world's second-most famous martini drinker liked them (#1, Churchill; #2, Bond; #3, Dean Martin/other Rat Pack). Bond also liked Scotch whiskey.
Ten years ago, an English friend told me that his government's guidelines for alcohol consumption suggested no more than four glasses of wine - practically a bottle - or four pints of beer, or 2-3 cocktails per day! So I've finally gone and looked it up, and it turns out he got his 'units' wrong -- the actual guidelines are for 3-4 units per day, which equals two pints, two glasses, or two cocktails. Or a martini before dinner and a single glass of wine with, as my 1920s-era pater preferred. Personally, I stick with half a glass of red for medicinal purposes on weeknights...
My nutritionist pointed out that a "glass" of wine, from the nutritional perspective, is 3 ounces. So that glass that certain people might pour (I'm thinking of my sister) would be three "glasses" in the nutritional sense.
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