Strange names

 There are some names which are fairly common, or have been in the past, which are just almost never heard in the United States. For example: Cuthbert, Argyle, Percival. How often do you hear those?

Franklin who?

     You probably never heard of him. Franklin Farnum was a character actor who appeared in films from the 1910s to the 1950s. He holds the distinction of having appeared in more films that won Academy Awards for Best Picture than any other acture. Probably the most memorable of them was Going My Way, which starred Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald.

Talking it out thoroughly

     Though a very few hours spent in the hard labour or incessant talking will dispatch more subjects than can really be in common between any two rational creatures, yet with lovers it is different. Between them no subject is finished, no communication is even made, till it has been made at least twenty times over.

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Sounds like a snoozer

     The events of the evening were not very remarkable. The party, like other musical parties, comprehended a great many people who ahd real taste for the performance, and a great many more who had none t all; and the performers themselves were as usual, in their own estimation, and that of their immediate friends, the first private performers in England.

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Just show me the money

     His manners, to them, were perfectly kind; to Mrs. Jennings most attentively civil; and on Colonel Brandon's coming in soon after himself, he eyed him with a curiosity which seemed to say, that he only wanted to know him to be rich, to be equally civil to him.

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Fancy, but useless

     But the correctness of his eye, and the delicacy of his taste, proved to be beyond his politeness. He was giving orders for a toothpick-case for himself, and till its size, shape, and ornaments were determined, all of which, after examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every tooth-pick case in the shop, were finally arranged by his own inventive fancy, he had no leisure to bestow any other attention on the two ladies, than what was comprised in three or four very broad stares; a kind of notice which served to imprint on Elinor the remembrance of a person and face of strong, natural, sterling insignificance, though adorned in the first style of fashion.

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Just a gossip pipeline

     "Her kindness is not sympathy; her good nature is not tenderness. All that she wants is gossip, and she only likes me now because I supply it."

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Just land a good man

     "Aye, it is a fine thing to be young and handsome. Well! I was young once, but I never was very handsome - worse luck for me. However I got a very good husband, and I don't know what the greatest beauty can do more."

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Dedicated to idleness

     As there was no necessity for my having any profession at all, as I might be as dashing and expensive without a red coat on my back as with one, idleness was pronounced on the whole to be the most advantageous and honourable, and a young man of eighteen is not in general so earnestly bent on being  busy as to resist the solicitations of his friends to do nothing. I was therefore entered at Oxford and have  een properly idle ever since."

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Just leave me alone!

     She saw only that he was quiet and unobtrusive, and she liked him for it. He did not disturb the wretchedness of her mind by ill-timed conversation.

(from Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Not impressed by the D. A.

     His arm was seized from behind. It turned out to be a hanger-on from the D. A.'s office. "Mr. Roche wants you to phone him at once!"

    "You can tell Tom Roche, for me, that he can jump in the East River."

    "But he wants to know what it's all about. Who are you arresting, and for what? Some of them say the prisoner is one twin, and the rest of them say he's the other, and the D. A. is going batty . . ."

    "He hasn't far to go, if you ask me," the Inspector remarked.

(from Murder On Wheels, by Stuart Palmer)

All hail, Intellectuals

     "Laurie has that respect for intellect, even for twisted intellect, that most healthy young morons have."

(from Murder On Wheels, by Stuart Palmer)

The downside to Wyoming

     "Go back west, and be happy? Say, you don't think I like it out there, do you?"

    "But I thought . . ."

    "You've never lived through a Wyoming winter," Rose Keeley told her savagely. "Snowdrifts up to your armpits, blizzards three days a week, and mail about twice a month. You've never lived a day's drive from the nearest town, where you can't buy anything or go anywhere or have any fun! I hate it, I tell you!"

(from Murder On Wheels, by Stuart Palmer)

Sly lawyers' methods

     "I don't think that trail leads anywhere. Hubert was at the movie when the murder was committed, with the stupid but estimable Aunt Abbie. But I think I know - "

    Miss Withers stopped bustling about with her broom. "You mean?"

    "I mean the brotehr of Dana Waverly, that's who I mean. Charles Waverly, the distant relative and next male heir of the Stait family. He's a lawyer, and therefore in a position to know just what loot there would be in the Stait future."

    "Lawyers usually have better ways of getting loot than committing murder for it, " Miss Withers suggested dryly. "They play it safe, as a rule."

(from Murder On Wheels, by Stuart Palmer)