Adelaide was 'disappointed in Belgium'. It wasn''t as 'tidy' looking as Holland. While this may or may not be true, it's fairly plain that The Venerable Neels didn't have too great an opinion of Belgium. She never has anything good to say about the country. Obviously she didn't go to a good chocolatier...because that's a good enough reason to like Belgium for me. As far as I'm concerned, Belgium will always mean chocolate to me(and if you ever go to Bruges, Dumon is a great place for chocolate).The Baron blows a smoke ring! In early Bettys, it is not uncommon to have a pipe smoking RDD. Personally I am very much against smoking. Not just the "it's bad for your health" thing, but also the fact that being around smoke generally gives me a headache. That said, I have to admit that I do love the smell of some pipe smoke (in very small doses). My grandfather was a pipe smoker and I loved my grandpa. That doesn't mean I approve of smoking - it's bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.
Adelaide is hit on by Dr. Vos (an almost elderly widower). I find this a little humorous and slightly pathetic - it's too bad that at 25 yea
rs old Adelaide is reduced to dating aging lechers.
Phenomenon never heard of since! While Coenraad and Adelaide are traveling to England they whistle together in the car. They whistle several tunes together. Wow. That's some whistling dedication. Maybe if I had been a trumpet player I'd have the cheeks for whistling, but really, after a few bars my cheek muscles are knackered.
Adelaide has vivid red hair. The first of many, many, MANY red headed heroines in Neeldom. What strikes me as weird is how startling the red hair is to the Dutch natives. It's like they've never seen it before. Why is that
?
Ok now, that picture of Lucille Ball is just TOO much like the picture of Addy in the cover. Yes some differences, but if you put them side by side, there are more similarities than differences!
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is just weird. Back in the mid-70s (so about 20 or so books into The Canon) my parents had a Dutchman to visit us in Schenectady, NY where I grew up. I asked him about the dislike of red hair, and he happily admitted that it was true. In fact, the Dutch were deeply disappointed when Jeanette MacDonald (star of 1940s musical films, often with Nelson Eddy and often involving Canadian Mounties) showed up in person...and had red hair.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't find any evidence of Dutch prejudice against red hair on the Internet. Mostly, it's supposed to be the British who dislike that hair color, probably stemming from their prejudice against the Celtic races. (Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the world -- hence the nickname "Sandy.")
I'm guessing that The Great Betty was a redhead, even though she's white-haired in all her publicity stills. I'm also guessing that her husband had partial blindness as a result of his treatment in the war, but we'll never know that either.
I swear -- I so want a biography of this woman I'm half-tempted to write it myself.
Incidentally, The Great Betty didn't live long enough to see Redhead Day in Breda, a city in The Netherlands. It started in 2005 when a painter wanted some models and ten times as many people showed up as he expected. It's now an annual thing.
re.: Dislike of red hair
ReplyDeleteI remember people commenting back in the 1960s that red was a hair colour people disliked. This was in Germany. I never asked why. Witches were thought of as redheads, by the way.These days having (natural)red hair is not an issue any more.
I'm quite partial to it myself.
re.: Head-mirrors
Saw one quite often as a kid in the 60s. On our ears, nose and throat doctor's head. She was a she, by the way, and she was really great.
Had a very bad cold two years ago, really really bad, and went to see an ENT doctor (for the first time in decades) and he used a head-mirror when looking down my poor little throat.
Betty Anonymous
I have to take my son to an ENT doctor sometime in the next week or so (follow up to him being punched in the head)...I will be anxiously awaiting the head mirror thingy!
ReplyDeleteI believe Judas Iscariot is generally believed to have been redheaded and that's partially where the prejudice arose from.
ReplyDelete