 |
| But, Betty Keira, we're not going to make you wear creepily short imitation silk shorts and win the tournament. We're just asking you to make Dennis Hopper quit the hooch. |
Anyway, though we're casual here at The Uncrushable Jersey Dress about all things sports-related, we understand passion and obsession. Those wild-eyed March Madness watchers are our soul-cousins. (Take a long, hard look in that mirror Bettys.)
 |
| Betty Keira's eyes became glazed over when Today Show segments were interrupted by speculations on whether Kim Kardashian's bracket had been well thought out. Did she seriously think that Old Dominion had a chance against Butler? But, Eureka! Betty Keira cried. How gorgeous to do it with Betty books! |
So, we're starting our own playoffs (Inspired by Brilliant Betty Magdalen!). Single elimination, head-to-head contests. I've got thirteen divisions of ten-ish books each. We'll go through two divisions each week--picking winners and duds and advancing our favorites into other matches. Arguments will ensue. Rivalries will begin. Heat. Anger. Love. Obsession. It will be just like a Mexican novella!
It is bound to take much longer than a month but what fun! We'll have an undisputed champion! (snort)
So here we go:
Sister Peters in Amsterdam vs. Nurse in Holland (aka A Match for Sister Maggy and Amazon in an Apron)
Blow Hot, Blow Cold (aka Surgeon from Holland/Visiting Surgeon/Visiting Consultant) vs. Tempestuous April
Damsel in Green vs. Fate is Remarkable
Tulips for Augusta vs. Tangled Autumn
The Fifth Day of Christmas vs. Tabitha in Moonlight
Vote for your favorite one in each of the match-ups. Feel free to fight (in a well-bred manner, naturally). The most votes will go against winners in other divisions. The second division of the week will be posted on Tuesday.
Have at it!
I love it,Excellent article.
ReplyDeleteBridesmaid Dresses|Trumpet Wedding Dresses|Ball Gown Wedding Dresses
Okay, now for the NON-spam comment. No seeding? Really, I have to knock out Damsel In Green in the FIRST ROUND because it's up against my beloved Fate is Remarkable? Wow, Betty Keira -- I suspect you doth protest too much and you're channeling the NCAA more than you realize. (They have "odd" seeding as well.)
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'll go first:
Sister Peters in Amsterdam vs. Nurse in Holland (aka A Match for Sister Maggy and Amazon in an Apron)
Sister Peters in Amsterdam
Blow Hot, Blow Cold (aka Surgeon from Holland/Visiting Surgeon/Visiting Consultant) vs. Tempestuous April
Blow Hot, Blow Cold
Damsel in Green vs. Fate is Remarkable
Fate is Remarkable
Tulips for Augusta vs. Tangled Autumn
Tulips for Augusta
The Fifth Day of Christmas vs. Tabitha in Moonlight
Tabitha in Moonlight
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteI'm with Betty Magdalen in loving the idea but calling 'Foul' on the lack of seeding. You really don't start off with high rated books battling each other in the first round. I'm going to have to think, a lot!, about which book to vote for--because I really don't want to vote against most of these.
Betty Barbara here--
DeleteOh well, since we are stuck with these match-ups--here goes:
Sister P
Blow Hot
Fate
Tulips
Tabitha
Sorry for using short titles, but I am typing one handed at this time. I broke my right wrist on Tues and I am, of course, right-handed! I am hoping my new cast will free my fingers enough that I will be able to use them at the keyboard.
Betty Barbara! Do mend quickly. I hope at least you broke it doing something fun.
DeleteBetty Barbara here--
DeleteI'd be lying if I said I broke it while skiing/skating/surfing, etc. I was walking across a parking lot and a pick-up truck backed into me, knocking me to the ground, with my wrist taking most of my weight in the fall. No other injuries and the driver was just as stunned as I was. A swarm of Good Samaritans appeared and I was quickly tended to.
It makes a good story, even if it's not glamorous!
Makes an even better story if one of your Samaritans is a mousey nurse with a pretty voice and another is an unusually tall doctor with a hint of an accent...
DeleteSo, Betty Barbara, should I have forgone my votes in protest? So shall we just march around with placards objecting to the notion of listing them in chronological order?
ReplyDeleteC'mon, Founding Bettys--you've rated them all! Just seed them so all the Beans on Toast stories are up against the Queens of Puddings!!!!
Here are the results of the German jury:
Delete...The Netherlands 12 points, Les Pays-Bas douze points.
(Dont't worry if you don't get it. It's a European thing.)
Sister Peters in Amsterdam
Blow Hot, Blow Cold
Damsel in Green
Tulips for Augusta
The Fifth Day of Christmas
Betty Anonymous
Fights! Passions! I have succeeded. (wicked laugh)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, there wasn't a perfect way to do this. I think the down side of doing it this way is that the Golden Age of Betty will have to go against others of the same vintage (at least in the first round--once this hurdle is taken, it'll be easier to mix it up). Alphabetical order would have been lovelier and seeded even better (but imagine all those fights about seed placement! We'd never get out of the garage. So I went with the route that was easiest for me and would start the most fights right off. Charlie Sheen would call that winning.
Ladies, ladies, ladies. I have risen from my sickbed (where's a cool hand on a fevered brow when I need it?) to cast my vote.
ReplyDelete(tempted to type "suck it up" here...)
Our goal here isn't necessarily to have a perfect seed (pretty sure there isn't such a thing), it's all in the name of good clean fun.
Before I have to use a pressure hose to clean the phlegm off my moniter, here are my votes:
Sister Peters in Amsterdam
Blow Hot, Blow Cold
Damsel in Green
Tulips for Augusta
Tabith in Moonlight
Now it's back to my couch and tv remote...yesterday it was North and South, I'm still debating about what to watch today.
Betty Debbie, you need to speak to your sons about the kind of women they court. Surely there should be a daughter-in-law of convenience available to prepare dainty meals for you while you convalesce for two weeks.
DeleteAlas, all I have at my disposal is one 16 year-old boy - who is also sick.
DeleteBetty Keira, what a fiendish idea. Okay, here goes:
ReplyDeleteSister P. in A., for getting the whole thing started and because Maggy's accent is just too distracting
Blow H Blow C, making its inexorable way to the champion slot
oh dear
Tangled Autumn, partly to be ornery and partly for the name Sappha and partly for the pregnant woman and the causeway and partly for our first animal-in-canal scene
Tabitha for pluck, and because Fifth Day of C has just too much guff about how women don't need to be smart, just pretty and charming.
And I guess I'll go with Damsel for a great Christmas and no MOC, though I do love Hugo and Sarah getting together over Mrs. Whosit and then naming their first daughter for her.
Sister Peters in Amsterdam - the bus wreck!
ReplyDeleteBlow Hot/Blow Cold (otherwise known at Visiting Consultant at my house) - I like Sophy and Max
Fate Is Remarkable - my favorite Betty book (well, tied with Once for All Time) because I love Hugo and Sarah and the cottage and the stew on the stove.... must read again soon
Tangled in Autumn - Rolf and his satyr's eyebrows
Tabitha in Moonlight - the doctor in nothing but oil-stained shorts (very daring) and poor Tabby left on the island
Betty AnoninTX
I have a request for Betty Keira. For the next set, would you please link the book titles to the reviews? I'm embarrassed to say that I had to peek at the reviews to jog my memory. What!? A Betty fan not memorize the cannon? Sad but true. I wanted to make sure my votes were not based on foggy memory.
ReplyDeleteHere are my votes:
Sister Peters (can't stand Paul in Visiting Consultant)
Tempestuous April (can't stand Sophie's low self-esteem in Blow Hot, Blow Cold)
Fate is Remarkable (very romantic; Damsel in Green was a bit boring)
Tulips for Augusta (loved Augusta)
Tabitha in Moonlight (can't stand Ivo in Fifth Day being in like with Marcia--ick!)
Sure thing!
DeleteYikes, I'll never understand seeding, especially in sports!!! But here goes.
ReplyDeleteSister Peters
Blow Hot, Blow Cold
Fate is Remarkable (and in MHO the overall winner!)
Tangled Autumn
Tabitha in Moonlight.
There's no doubt in my mind on this round:
ReplyDeleteSister Peters in Amsterdam
Blow Hot, Blow Cold
Fate is Remarkable
Tulips for Augusta
Tabitha in Moonlight
Betty Ross
(I believe you may be able to imagine the ::cough:: leverage I employed to "encourage" him to vote for Fate is Remarkable. Of course I did it SOLELY for Opramum! Of course.)
DeleteI am just going to start making up names and voting -- is that allowed?
ReplyDeleteSports analogies, yuck. I do not WANT to "be the ball", unless, of course, it's the belle of the ball. Can we go back to fluffy dresses and food? I don't want to have to pack up my uncrushable jersey dress and go home but you girls are playing too rough. Just kiddin', maybe. haha.
ReplyDeleteWhich one of these colors from the OPI Holland collection would make a good title for a Betty novel:
Vampsterdam / Thanks a Windmillion / Gouda Gouda Two Shoes / A Roll in the Hague / Wooden Shoe Like to Know / or Kiss Me on My
Tu-Lips ?
Betty von Susie
Get in the game, Betty von Susie! Man up and share your votes!
DeleteThose OPI nail colors you offered are not, for the most part, Betty-approved. The only one that would pass muster, being a pale pearly pink, is (coincidentally?) Pedal Faster Suzi, which is certainly a scene from a Betty book, if not a title.
Love the names of those nail colors!
DeleteI tend to read OPI "Opie" (and that's one Dutch word for Grandpa). I looked it up and found out that, in former times, the company's name was Odontorium Products, Inc. No dentists in Neeldom, though, to make use of their products when they still produced dental supplies.
Betty Anonymous
Opi = Grandpa (not opie)
DeleteOh for the love of Pete...
DeleteSister Peters/BCBH/Fate/Tangled/Tabitha.
You ladies just don't realize what a seething cauldron of testosterone I have to work in all day! In case anyone wonders, yes I am whingeing. Surrounded by men all day - 10 hours a day - this is what I hear :
SPORTS guns SPORTS pickup trucks SPORTS chewin' tabackey SPORTS pit bulls SPORTS huntin' SPORTS fishin' SPORTS star wars SPORTS alcohol SPORTS tatoos, and then a little more SPORTS.
You see why I come here for a daily estrogen infusion?
Betty von-na go crazy soon Susie :P
DRESSES pie DRESSES quilting DRESSES poetry DRESSES Tiger Moms DRESSES bringing up bebe DRESSES shopping DRESSES dry cleaners DRESSES Hugh Grant movies DRESSES earrings and then a few more DRESSES. And pie with cream.
Delete...and chocolate. Don't forget the chocolate.
DeleteYou had me at pie.
DeleteBetty von Susie
Chocolate pie.
DeleteDang. Now I'm hungry.
Thank you, Bettys Ross and Madalen!
ReplyDelete(Shhh. Don't tell Betty van den Betsy, but I've got Betty Henry on speed-dial. He and Betty Ross are certified Bettys, of course, and if Betty JoDee were around she could verify that, but yeah, they're gonna vote with me, so I can understand that it looks hinky.)
DeleteThe sad thing is that Damsel in Green deserves to make it to the quarter-finals, at least. But I've lodged that protest already and the NBAA (National Betty Athletic Association) has already said they prefer controversy. *sigh*
Sakes alive, Betty Magdalen, I'm not accusing anyone of hinkiness. (Although I do hope the Bettys Ross and Henry aren't allowing their long experience of monarchy distract them from the adoptive duty to vote their own hearts and consciences.) I'm just wondering if it doesn't behoove me to make use of the interwebnet's unique anonymity to ensure the victory of Blow Hot, Blow Cold/Surgeon from H/Visiting Cons. Yes, said victory ought to be inevitable, but with people tossing about reckless "in MHO the overall winner" comments about lovely but clearly inferior volumes, I have some concerns.
Delete(Opramum, please do not take me seriously -- pretty much ever.)
Now, if you're suggesting that the "Golden Volumes" (the first 20 or so) are superior, on average, to the rest of The Canon, then you & I are soulmates. And truly, Blow Hot Blow Cold (the appendicitis scene alone...) would be a worthy winner (even if I happen to love Cassandra by Chance more, just as it happens).
DeleteBut calling Fate is Remarkable inferior...? Them's fightin' words.
Betty Henry is, I believer, neutral on the monarchy. Betty Ross is a republican, at least as to the question of the monarchy. I will steer clear of all shoals of controversy (pronounced con-TRAW-vah-see) by omitting his American political views...
Not only does Sister Sophy stand on her box handing gut while the operating room bursts into flames, but also she turns student nurse Robbins from a flighty child with more hair than wit (G. Heyer, thank you) into a darn fine nurse. She is perfect. Meanwhile, Sarah Ann smokes. And outpatients? C'mon.
DeleteI call this reasoned debate, although if the minister would like to descend to personalities...
...I'll be stumped. I'm still hoping to get a crack at your profiteroles.
My copy of Fate is Remarkable must have been Bowdlerized because I have no recollection of her smoking. In my book, Hugo's love for Sarah is unparalleled in all of Neelsdom.
ReplyDeleteI did make profiteroles for Betty Ross (his favorite dessert) over Christmas; how clever of you to remember that. And *then* I went out & bought the proper size of tip for the icing bag needed to pipe out the gobs of dough. But have I made them since? No. Must get on to that, once the Dreaded Lurgi has passed through my system. (A Spike Milligan reference from the 1950s radio programme, the Goon Show. The Dreaded Lurgi was a horrible disease about to decimate the populace. I feel decimated already...)
I, too, cannot recall Sarah smoking. Wasn't it the aforementioned "Mrs. Whosit" aka Mrs Rosemary Brown who used to smoke, emphysema not withstanding?
DeleteBetty Anonymous
I do remember Hugo asking Sarah if she wanted a cigarette, minded if he smoked, ..., and she said something like she only smoked at parties so she would have something to do with her hands.
DeleteBetty AnoninTX
Found it. P. 25. As many times as I have read Fate Is Remarkable, I should have had it memorized!
DeleteBetty AnoninTX
My aunt was like that -- and I think she smoked like a dozen cigarettes per year. I guess I don't think of that as a smoker. (My parents were smokers, and I have the lungs to prove it.)
DeleteThank you, Betty AnoninTX for finding things for us. The elusive ball from a Girl in a Million and now Sarah's smoking habit.
DeleteI started reading Fate Is Remarkable last night, bits and pieces. It is sooo romantic. We get so many scenes with the two of them where you can feel how much they care for each other. (And I voted for Damsel in Green?)
Betty Anonymous
You're welcome. :) I have no idea why my mind retains and focuses on such oddball pieces of books sometimes. It comes from being a school librarian for thirty years. I have a mental card catalog of sorts.
DeleteBetty AnoninTX
Okay, ladies. This is the last day to vote on these! I'll post round two tomorrow and tally these just before I do!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I will make the post full of estrogen and dresses and chocolate to off-set the mannishness of odious athletic comparisons.
Long sigh of happiness and relief, muscles unclenching, jaw relaxing, tension melting away....
DeleteI forgot power tools, SPORTS power tools SPORTS.
Betty von "y'all know not to take me seriously, right?" Susie
Does my new immersion blender count as a power tool?
DeleteIf it cannot be used to decimate the wildlife population, overhaul a '52 Chevy, or blow leaves outside my window while I am sleeping, then I am totally cool with it.
DeleteEspecially if it is involved in pie-making activities.
Betty von "a la mode glace s'il vous plait" Susie
Immersion blender. Can't remember what it was called in the 80s. Good for making glace, too.
Deleteglace à la framboise.
300 g frozen raspberries
100 g sugar
200 g whipping cream or yoghurt (or both)
Process and enjoy.
Betty Anonymous
I can't believe I've missed all of this....If only I had Nanny and a couple of Jollys (perhaps an upstairs maid)....I was out-of-town then quite sick (I think it was Baby Paul's inceptuwhatever). Now, without aforementioned Faithful Family Retainers, I am snowed under. I decided last night after midnight that my priorities were hinky (I love my new word), and The Betty and TUCJ must come first.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, maybe Bettys Magdalen and Ross will invite me for a bit of R&R on their country estate....
Drive up now if you don't mind dust bunnies!
DeleteIf your preference would be to stay in a guest room not currently populated by the aforementioned dust critters (some approaching the size of dust Shetland ponies, I concede), then might I suggest April? Bring all the kids, too. They can run around outside and get exhausted the old fashioned way.
I can tell, Betty Magdalen, that you're not a mother of four in your association of "R&R" with "Bring all the kids, too." I'll take dust bunnies over Consequences of Brighton any day.
DeleteUnfortunately, Poor Little Me doesn't have a dutiful, mousey nurse daughter to whip up supper, hang out laundry, and ward off butcher bills so I can't jump in my battered Mini and head north into the country today. Maybe tomorrow....
Speaking of Nanny. I just read Audrey Hepburn's Wikipedia entry. Did you know her father was an English-Austrian banker and her mother a Dutch baroness? As for the nanny...Brighton calling...
DeleteBetty Anonymous