Uncertain Summer:Serena, for their first dinner party, chooses a dish (the nasty sounding Gurkas Norge) from the Galloping Gourmet. The Galloping Gourmet began in 1969 and ended in 1971 after a car accident that left Graham temporarily paralysed. (Seriously? What a wonderful plot for a Betty Neels book.)
Their engagement is announced in the Telegraph and Elseviers Weekblad. During the Second World War, The Daily Telegraph covertly helped in the recruitment of code-breakers for Bletchley Park. The ability to solve The Telegraph's crossword in under 12 minutes was considered a recruitment test. The newspaper was asked to organise a crossword competition, after which each of the successful participants was contacted and asked if they would be prepared to undertake "a particular type of work as a contribution to the war effort". The competition itself was won by F H W Hawes of Dagenham who finished the crossword in less than eight minutes
A Small Slice of Summer:
When the surgeons are doing their work they get a woman in for a Caesarean Section. They charmingly call it a Cae
sar as though they were ordering lunch from a greasy spoon. ("I'll get two flyers, slap 'em down and make 'em moo. Slip me a Caesar while you're at it.")Caesarean section usually resulted in the death of the mother; the first recorded incidence of a woman surviving a Caesarean section was in 1500, in Siegershousen, Switzerland: Jakob Nufer, a pig gelder, is supposed to have performed the operation on his wife after a prolonged labour.
This pic to the left is of one being performed successfully in Uganda in 1879. Wow. Show of hands for all you ladies willing to let a pig gelder anywhere near your delivery room?
WHY AM I DESPERATELY AFRAID OF CHILDBIRTH?
ReplyDeleteNaked knife-wielding tribalists not doing anything for you?
ReplyDeletePig-gelder? Ouch. Add's new meaning to the phrase "You did this to me!"
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteI owned the first Galloping Gourmet cookbook. Yes indeed. And watched the show on a regular basis. The Potts Point Fish Pot dish is from that cookbook(Potts Point being a waterfront location in the Sydney, Australia area).
I would look up the recipe, but alas, I no longer have the cookbook.
You will note the accuracy of the cover illustration when it comes to the RDD's motor vehicle. This artist did several of the Betty's covers and always got the car just right.
And----thank you So Much for the C-section illustration! Our British Nurses would be shocked and appalled at the lack of proper scrubbing-up and sanitized instruments.
P.S.: To see the recipe and pictures in the link you have to click on the picture of A Treasury of Great Recipes.
Delete