Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Question of the Week

Rachel, sure that Radmer was married, hied off to the Speed-dating event wearing her lucky cardigan and crossing her fingers.
For my part, I think Melville the Slim-Hipped Man-Child of Off With the Old Love is a wonderful Neels villain.  He's got all those swanky friends and he swans about (I know that's something women are supposed to do but can't you just see it?) with blonde tartlets who have more experience in Brighton than a board-walk barker.  My only question is: How does a guy like that even meet a girl like Rachel?

Your short-form essay answers count toward your final grade...

7 comments:

  1. I actually thought about this. She's pretty, so that's part of it. My guess is, he had to go to the hospital to visit someone (some lowly but vital crew member -- the key grip or best boy or something) and he saw Rachel crossing the lobby. Imagine her: tall, lovely in that crisp navy uniform -- quite the authoritative-but-nurturing fantasy figure for a "man-child" like Melville.

    So he chats her up. What's he's imagining -- half mother-smotherer, half dominatrix -- isn't at all what Rachel is, of course. She a highly competent professional nurse with a gooey, rather inexperienced center. Melville might have dumped her sooner but she's convenient when he's in-between his blonde Brighton birds.

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  2. I'm with Magdalen here...it just about had to be at the hospital - but not while she was on duty since she's a theatre sister.

    Option #2. Crossing the street one day she gets the heel of her lace-ups caught in a grate and he trips over her.

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  3. Her gorgeousness notwithstanding, I don't imagine Melville looking at a girl on speaking terms with 'sensible lace-ups'. :0) I think she'd have to be in her uniform (going on duty, not coming from).

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  4. Betty Barbara here--
    Good question! Because Melville's profession is not one that a hospital nurse would normally come in contact with. In terms of those useful Venn diagrams, her circle of family and friends and his circle of family and friends would not intersect at all.
    So I like Betty Magdalen's scenario. Works for me.

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  5. Betty Barbara here--
    Alas! to puncture a few of our theories.
    I went back to the source: wherein Our Betty says that Melville and Rachel meet "at a party". But I still don't see it-no matter what The Betty says.
    Re: uniforms. Melville, the rotter, is unimpressed! Rachel is careful never to be around Melville in her uniform because he has no tolerance for outrageous outfits! Well!!!(to be delivered in a Jack Benny one of voice).

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  6. Hm.. How did I miss that? So, what kind of guest list includes a range of invitees from gad-about Melville to solid-substance Rachel?

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  7. Betty Barbara here--
    I suspect Rachel agreed to accompany a fellow nurse to this party being thrown by said nurse's cousin who works at an art gallery/upscale boutique/the BBC. Melville was at the same party with a co-worker, who knew the hostess. Et Voila! Melville looks across the room, spots Rachel and the rest is history.

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