- When Oliver goes tearing after Bertha at the end he is initially told that she went to an aunt in Yorkshire somewhere. In actuality she went to Cornwall--as far from Yorkshire it is possible to be and still be in England. So, here's the visual distance--Yorkshire is
that red spot on the top and Cornwall is the furthest point on the bottom left--which only underlines what a stinker that step-mum was.)
- Oliver tells Bertha as he whisks her away from her home,'Even Belgravia must have its pubs.': It was one of London's most fashionable residential districts from the beginning, and remains so to this day. It is a relatively quiet district in the heart of London, contrasting with neighbouring districts which have far more busy shops, large modern office buildings, hotels, and entertainment venues. Many embassies are located in the area, especially in Belgrave Square...The average house cost in Belgravia as of March 2010 is £6.6 million.
That works out to around 4,600 pounds per square foot. (Oh. That sound is the sound my windpipe makes when I'm sucking air incredulously...)
A Happy Meeting
Cressida reads aloud to Lady Merrill. 'Lady Merrill's taste was catholic; ...Trollope, P.D.James, Herrick, Keats...Mary Stewart, odd chapters of Jane Eyre.....". Mary Stewart! I have an entire shelf on my bookshelves devoted to that author--I recommend staying well away from The Ivy Tree (gag) and picking up Touch Not the Cat (my first and favorite but I was in middle school when I read it in a Reader's Digest condensed book with some of the racier bits scrubbed out) or Nine Coaches Waiting or The Moon-spinners (made into a Disney movie).Aldrik uses a Dictaphone which is very Mad Men of him. I wonder how easy they were to transcribe from. Did secretaries just listen and type (hoping that the speaker spoke in a steady thread) or listen and then listen and type or listen and take shorthand? Ah, my kingdom for a working knowledge of outmoded office protocols!
She teaches the ter Beemstra kids Good King Wensceslas...in English. Here is the first verse:Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even; Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel, When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.
It really has very little to do with Christmas even though sung as a carol. My favorite is intoning cru-u-el.
The Feast of St. Stephen is also known as Boxing Day in the UK - December 26. Traditionally the day the wealthy spread cheer (well, nowadays it's money) to the less-well-off. Back when it was food & wine, it would be delivered in boxes, hence the name.
ReplyDeleteI've used a dictaphone in my day. You'd have a foot-pedal, so you can type with both hands. You press down to start the tape, and then down again to stop it, allowing your hands to type what you've just heard. It was a pretty efficient system. Nowadays, people use those mini-digital recorders, but I can remember those little dictaphone tapes being in use within the last 20 years. (Well, okay, that does sound long ago. But considering I had my first job nearly 40 years ago, not so much...)
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteI first read Mary Stewart a long, long time ago and loved her! I am especially fond of her older stuff--unlike Betty Keira, The Ivy Tree is one of my favorites, as well as Madam, Will You Talk?, Nine Coaches Waiting and The Moonspinners. And I read her Arthurian stuff, too, but it never ranked among my favorites.
I've also read a lot of Trollope, which I liked. Alas, I find PD James too depressing for words. But I love, love, love Jane Eyre.
Ah, Jane Eyre. Happy sigh.
ReplyDeleteSo, when I graduated college in 1973 and couldn't find a teaching job in NYC, I was a secretary for a few months and used a dictaphone. I would type as I listened and since I was a fairly fast typist, it didn't take too long. I used carbon paper so when I made a mistake, I had to erase it throughout all the carbons and use Correct-to-Type on the type copy. Of course, this would seem like the stoneage to many of you. Betty Ellen
ReplyDeleteHow about having to scratch off the mistakes on a mimeograph stencil? I resorted to making upper-case Xs over mistakes on test stencils instead.
ReplyDelete