Romance during war time

As corny as those black-and-white movies about love and marriage during the war years may seem now, they were a reflection of what was happening to couples across the country. Newly married couples didn't have an opportunity to adjust slowly to the complexities of suddenly sharing a life.

And then they were separated, often for years. Husbands were living in an intensely male environment, trying to deal with the stresses and dangers of war, while young wives were left at home, staying with relatives or living alone in strange cities, working when they could or caring for a child conceived before the father shipped out and born while he was away.

(from The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw)

He made his opinion clear

It is one of the drawbacks to the historian's task that in recording dialogue between his characters he must select and abridge, giving merely the gist of their remarks and not a full stenographic transcript It will be enough to say, therefore, that Lord Blicester, touching on his nephew's moral and spiritual defects, left nothing unspoken. The word "wastrel" occurred with some frequency, as did the adjective "hopeless." By the time he had rounded into his peroration, the conclusion anyone hearing it would have come to was that it was a mystery how such a despicable member of the human family as Frederick Fotheringway Widgeon had even been allowed inside a respectable establishment like Barribault's Hotel.

(from Ice In the Bedroom, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

On the home front when World War II started

In 1940 only about 54% of the homes in America had complete plumbing - running water, private bath, and flush toilet. Almost a quarter of the homes had no electrical power. Economists estimate that most American homes in 1940 had only 1000 square feet of living space. In 1998, they estimate new single-family homes have more than double that, a little more than 2100 square feet of living space.

(from The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw)

Old Concrete Brain

She loved him dearly and yielded to no one in her respect for his ability to sell worthless oil stock to the least promising of prospects, but, except for this one great gift of his, she had no illusions about his intelligence. She knew that she had taken for better or worse one who was practically solid concrete from the neck up, and she liked it. It was her view that brains only unsettle a husband, and she was comfortably conscious of herself possessing enough for the two of them.

(from Ice In the Bedroom, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Fairbanks moved in high company

Douglas Fairbanks certainly was Hollywood royalty. He was the son of one of the great stars of the silent movie era, and was one of the best of the swashbucklers (the best, in my opinion). He served on Lord Mountbatten's commando staff during World War II and received the Silver Star. In 1949 he was knighted and became Sir Douglas. He moved in the highest social circles in the UK, often entertaining Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at his London mansion.

One tough job

There was another role for the women of the Nurse Corps [during WWII]. They were surrogate mothers. Wandrey writes of working in a shock ward in Sicily and seeing an eighteen-year-old who was just brought in from the ambulance. "I went to him immediately," she said. "He looked up at me trustingly, sighed, nd asked, 'How am I doing, nurse?' I was standing at the head of his litter. I put my hands around his face, kissed his forehead, and said, 'You're doing just fine soldier.' He smiled sweetly and said, 'I was just checking up.' Then he died."

(from The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw)

Dolores Hart and Patty Duke

When I first saw a picture of actress (later nun) Dolores Hart, I thought she was Patty Duke. Fairly remarkable resemblance.

Tongue twister lawyers

In at least one of his novels, P. G. Wodehouse invented the law firm of Shoesmith, Shoesmith, Shoesmith, and Shoesmith. Just imagine being their receptionist and having to answer the phone with that name a hundred times a day.

Why tarry?

Leila Yorke was a woman who believed in doing it now, and although Sally was extremely fond of her, there were moments when she found herself wishing that she would less often model her behavior on that  of those American hurricanes which become so impulsive on arriving at Cape Hatteras.

(from Ice In the Bedroom, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Asta: A well-paid pooch

Skippy was the name of one of Hollywood's most talented and famous dogs. He was called Asta in the famous comedy/mystery The Thin Man, and went on to appear in (at least) 21 movies before he retired in 1941. He was an absolute scene-stealer, and seemed to work very well with William Powell and Myrna Loy in the Thin Man series of movies. He was paid $250 per week. If you calculate the inflation rate between 1941 and 2018, that translates to $4270 per week.

He is pictured below with Wendy Barrie on the set of It's A Small World.

A large lad

"I was engaged to him once."

"Really?"

"Broke it off, though, when he started to bulge at every seam. Couldn't keep that boy off the starchy foods. I don't mind a poop being a poop, but I draw the line at a poop who looks like two poops rolled into one."

(from Ice in the Bedroom, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Revol Bunin's mother's death

Revol Bunin was a minor Russian composer (1924-1976). His mother had always been sickly, and when she was dying (when he was 14), she asked him to play the piano for her. Through the night he played Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Mussorgsky. The next morning he had his first attack of asthma, the disease that ultimately would kill him.

Those loopy authors

It was some slight consolation to me in this dark hour to reflect, as I tooled back to the house, that the news I was bearing would, if he were still eating sardines, cause those sardines to turn to ashes in Boko's mouth. I am not a vindictive man, but I was feeling in no amiable frame of mind towards this literary screwball. I mean, it's all very well for a chap to plead that he's an author and expect on the strength of that to get away with conduct which would qualify the ordinary man for a one-way ticket to Colney Hatch, but even an author, I felt - and I think with justice - ought to have had the sense to glance through his car before he locked it up for the night to make sure there weren't any shipping magnates dozing in the back seat.

(from Joy in the Morning, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

The real-life Mikado

You have no doubt heard of The Mikado, an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan? Well, of course, there was and is a real-life Mikado (although that title is now considered obsolete in English). Emperor Akihito is the current holder. The Imperial House of Japan is the oldest continuing monarchical house in the world.

Myaskovsky Symphony #19 - for band, not for orchestra

One of the lesser-known (undeservedly) Russian composers was Nicolai Myaskovsky. He was interesting for several reasons, not the least of which was the number of symphonies he composed (27). His 19th symphony is unique in that it was for band, not for orchestra. I doubt that you will find very many orchestral composers who wrote symphonies for concert bands. It became a part of the standard repertoire for Russian bands. According to the YouTube notes on this symphony:

"In Russia there was a great tradition of the bands. With the political changes, excellent military bands were formed, their importance being so great that their directors came to be named Major Generals only because of their musical merits. Therefore it is not strange that Myaskovsky composed them a symphony."

Ol' Seal Beam

There is, or has been, such a thing as a "sealed beam" headlight. During the year I attended school at Alma (my sophomore year), the local policeman was known among the student body as "Seal Beam," because he had once upon a time bragged about his new set of headlights.

She must be one tough babe

Circumstances had so arranged themselves as to extract most of the stuffing from what had been a closish boyhood friendship, but I had to respect a man capable of turning on Florence like a tiger. I would hardly have thought Attila the Hun could have done it, even if at the peak of his form.

(from Joy in the Morning, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

A BRIEF LESSON IN POLITICAL SCIENCE

A BRIEF LESSON IN POLITICAL SCIENCE

Students of American political history need to be paying close attention to the broad overview of the landscape these days. Twice before in our history the more conservative of the two dominant political parties was replaced: the Federalists gave way to the Whigs, and the Whigs were eclipsed by the Republicans. (That is the modern Republican party of Abraham Lincoln. In Thomas Jefferson’s days the more liberal of the two parties was termed Republican, then Democratic-Republican, and finally Democratic.) We could be seeing that happening again, because the Republican party, it appears to me, is perilously close to self-destruction.

Mr. Trump knows precisely where his base of support is (those who would actually vote FOR him), and he has done a masterful job of playing to that support and keeping them deliriously happy. They love him. The problem is that that base, though very deep, is not very broad. And the President has no apparent desire to broaden his support beyond that base. His policies, by themselves, MIGHT have done it; but his behavior has rendered it very near to being an impossibility. I have no idea who David Frum is, but he expressed it nicely: “Trump’s conduct as candidate and President long ago deprived him of any power to persuade anyone not already predisposed to support him.” What he means is that Mr. Trump’s policies are almost beside the point, because so many people have become disgusted with him personally that they ignore anything positive he might say or do.

What that means is that the Republicans’ only hope is that the Democrats are stupid enough (and they probably will be) to nominate some left-wing nut whose behavior is as obnoxious, offensive, and seemingly-deranged as the President's has been, thus making a level playing field. They seem to have a growing field of candidates to choose from with those dubious qualifications. IF the Democrats can somehow stumble across a candidate who at least has a public persona that comes across as dignified and somewhat reasonable, Mr. Trump could be in serious trouble in the next election.

What will determine the next presidential election (assuming Mr. Trumps runs again) will be the “hold your nose” factor. What do I mean by that? Those are the voters who are not really voting FOR a candidate, but are holding their noses against the political stench coming from one candidate, voting for that person anyway, in order to vote AGAINST the other candidate who is even more objectionable to them. Sometimes, if you hold your nose, you can block out the scent. But, if the smell is so strong that even holding your nose won’t shut it out, then you either vote for the other candidate, or more likely, just do not vote at all in disgust.

Mr. Trump is so utterly self-absorbed that he would never notice the odor, since he assumes that if he says, “Everybody loves me,” the fact that he said it automatically makes it true. But the rest of the Republican party OUGHT to be aware of what is going on – and they ought to be alarmed. I suspect some of them are, but the combined rigidity of the backbones of the current Republican leadership is roughly equivalent to warm Jello, so they are studiously avoiding anything that might make Mr. Trump upset.

The problem that the Republicans have is that since the days of Wilson they have been, for the most part, the minority party. That means a hundred years. Over that period more people have identified fundamentally with the Democrats than with the Republicans; but in some elections enough of the “swing” middle of the political spectrum would slide over that the Republicans could win. At the moment their base of support is narrow enough that they cannot afford to lose anyone. Thus, the noisy Trump base has evidently petrified them to the point that they are scared to death to do anything to lose them, even if it means risking the dissolution of their party in the long run. In a two-party system, neither party will be able to be dominant in the long term without being able to get the votes in the middle – “moderates” we call them. During the peak of FDR’s administration perhaps the Democrats were past that point, but it has been a rarity. The Republicans are allowing Mr. Trump to maintain his base of perhaps 20%, but they are placing in dire jeopardy the middle of the body of voters. They are taking a huge risk that the entire party becomes identified as “Trump’s party,” with no one within the party who constitutes “the opposition.”

Disgust is a powerful motivator. Irritation might cause us to stay away from an individual whenever we have the opportunity, but disgust can cause us to sever all relationship with him. I believe the GOP is greatly underestimating the disgust factor in the current political landscape; and it is just possible that the overlooking of a critical political factor could do them permanent, irreparable damage. IF that is the case, then we could be on the cusp of a permanent shift in the American political landscape. Two years ago the Republicans had the presidency and both houses of Congress, and a golden opportunity to shift the balance of power strongly in their favor. In those who short years they have gone from that to the distinct possibility of having done just the opposite.

Young students of political science should pay attention, because this does not happen very often. You may be watching something about which you can tell your grandchildren, "I was there."

He would not have made it around here

One of the characters in P. G. Wodehouse's novels is D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright. He is a policeman. I am sorry, but that name would just not work for a cop in western Arkansas. He would be laughed out of town in no time.

Seven is a lot

Actress Jeanne Crain had seven children. That is an unusually high number for Hollywood, where women are greatly concerned about their figures.

An apt description of some folks I know

(And likely of me, if the truth were told)

"Useless as life preserver for fish."
(from Charlie Chan's Chance)

Don Rickles was really funny

We saw a rerun of the Dick Van Dyke Show this week that featured comedian Don Rickles as a guest star. Rickles was a busy stand-up jokester with a thick NYC accent who specialized in insult humor, especially along ethnic lines. After he would make an ethnic dig, he sometimes would ask the audience, "Is he laughing or walking toward me?" Likely in this hyper-sensitive age, his humor would not work as well, but it was funny in its time.

On one occasion, Rickles ribbed mobster Joe Gallo  in a routine despite being warned not to do so. Gallo accepted the digs in good humor.

Once over lightly, thanks

The mind of the New York Customs inspector being the unpleasant, suspicious thing it is, a motion picture star returning to her native land from a visit to Europe usually finds the clearing of her baggage a rather lengthy process. But today Lottie had got through quickly. The official told off to examine her belongings had begun by examining the little wickerwork basket which she was carrying, and after that had seemed unable to put any real heart and thoroughness into his work. His sense of duty was strong enough to make him ask her to unlock he trunks, but his whole attitude when going through them had been that of a man who has had his lesson and felt that prudence is best. Perfunctory about sums it up. [There had been a small alligator in the basket.]

(from The Luck of the Bodkins, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Mayhem on his mind

What he was giving at this moment was a perfect representation of one of those men who are always getting arrested by the police for loitering with intent. A policeman, had one been present, might have been uncertain as to whether Reggie was meditating murder, arson, robbery from the person with violence, or the purchase of chocolates after eight p.m., but he would have known it was something pretty bad.

(from The Luck of the Bodkins, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

A word I had never used

In his novel, The Luck of the Bodkins, Sir Pelham Wodehouse uses the term "inspissated gloom." That was a new one on me. It means "thickened or congealed." (Inspissated - I did already know what "gloom" means.)

Frontier Circus

This was a television series that aired for one season in 1961-62. It has a unique idea: a circus that toured the old west, complete with all the problems that you might expect in such a project. Because it was so different it is enjoyable to watch, although one can see why it only lasted one season, since the concept starts to grow a little threadbare after a while. Chill Wills is part-owner of the circus and the central character. It is available on YouTube and is worth watching.

Discretion the better part of valor

"Are you aware, miss, that the reptile is navigating at the rate of knots along the corridor and may at any moment begin scaring the daylights out of nervous people and invalids?"

Lottie Blossom uttered a bereaved cry. "Didn't you fasten the lid of its basket?"

"No, miss. In answer to your question, I did not fasten the lid of its basket. When a lady instructs me to open a wickerwork basket and I find inside a young alligator which if it had aimed half an inch more to the left would have took the top of my thumb off, I don't hang around fastening lids."

(from The Luck of the Bodkins, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

She had an impact

But principally, as we say, it was her hair that caused the eye of the beholder to swivel in its socket and his breath to come in irregular pants. Seeming on the screen to have merely a decent pallor, it revealed itself when she made personal appearance a vivid and soul-shattering red. She looked as if she had been dipping her head in a sunset: and this, taken in conjunction with her large, shining eyes and the impression she gave, like so many of her sisters of the motion picture art, of being supremely confident of herself, usually hit the stranger pretty hard. Monty, for one, felt as if he had just been run down by a motorcar with dazzling headlights.

(from The Luck of the Bodkins, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

That steely-eyed look

William Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy in a ton of movies, but he hardly would be considered a notable actor because of that. He just was not that good. However, he was a master of that steely-eyed look that struck ice into the souls of bad guys (at least according to Louis L'Amour, who wrote four Hopalong Cassidy novels under a pseudonym).

Just leave her strictly alone

"George won't steal Grayce's necklace."

"Why not?"

"He knows Grace."

Mr. Llewellyn was compelled to recognize the force of her argument. His wife in her professional days had been one of the best-known panther-women on the silent screen. Nobody who had seen her in her famous role of Mimi, the female Apache in When Paris Sleeps, or who in private life had watched her dismissing a cook could pretend for an instant that she was a good person to steal pearl necklaces from.

"Grace would skin him."

(from The Luck of the Bodkins, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

But she can cook!

Myrtle Cootes proves to be very much the sort of niece you would have expected a man like Jas Waterbury to have. In features and expression she resembled a dead codfish on a slab. She wore steel-rimmed spectacles, topping them off with ginger hair and adenoids. But Oofy wasn't looking for a Venus de Milo or a Helen of Troy: what he wanted was a Grade A skilled wielder, and a private word with the cook assured him that the culinary arrangements of the training camp could safely be placed in this gargoyle's hands.

(from "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

It challenges even cast-iron stomaches

No doubt wrestlers can eat almost anything. Nevertheless, there is a point beyond which the human stomach, be it even that of a wrestler, cannot be pushed, and that point has been reached - nay, passed - in this establishment. The meal of which we have just partaken was the sort of meal an inexperienced young female buzzard might have prepared for her newly married buzzard husband. When I was a boy, I had a goat that ate brass doorknobs. That goat would have passed up tonight's steak with a dainty shudder of distaste. Who does the cooking in this joint? Lucrezia Borgia?

(from "Oofy, Freddie and the Beef Trust," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Frances Drake married well

Add to the list of Hollywood actresses who married British bluebloods that of Frances Drake. Actually, she did not marry among the peers, since her husband was one of those infamous "second sons" - specifically Lt. the Hon. Cecil John Arthur Howard. However, his father was Henry Howard, 19th Earl of Suffolk.

Drake gave up her Hollywood career after her marriage, since Howard did not approve of it. She was well prepared for her role among the nobility, as she was born to a wealthy New York City family. Her voice was rich, sultry, and patrician-sounding.

Irritating authoress

Mrs. Lavender Botts had a distressing habit of writing books and talking a good deal about them. Her works were not novels. I am a broadminded man and can tolerate female novelists, but Mrs. Botts gave English literature a ad name by turning out those unpleasant whimsical things to which women of her type are so addicted. My Chums The Pixies was one of her titles, How To Talk To The Flowers another, and Many Of My Best Friends Are Field Mice a third. The rumour had got about that she was contemplating a fourth volume on the subject of elves.

(from "Joy Bells For Walter," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Add Desmond to the list

As we accumulate our list of private detectives from fiction, we can add to the list "Dauntless Desmond, the crooks' despair." He is found in "Leave It To Algy," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse.

Babies are no feast for the eyes

          "Ugh!" said Purkiss, shuddering strongly.
          "I beg your pardon?" said Bingo. He spoke coldly. He had no illusions about his first-born's appearance, being well aware that though Time, the great healer, would eventually turn Algernon Aubrey into a suave boulevardier like his father, he presented to the eye as of even date, like so many infants of tender years, the aspect of a mass murderer suffering from an ingrowing toenail. Nevertheless he resented this exhibition of naked horror. Purkiss, himself far from being an oil-painting, was, he felt, in no position to criticize.

Jimmy Stewart encouraged a kid

Brendon Boone was one of the stars of the Garrison's Gorillas television show, which ran for one season in the 1960s. One interesting fact about his life is that he was the Mississippi state Soap Box Derby champion in 1952. He came in second in the World Soap Box Derby championship held in Ohio, and was very discouraged because of it. However, he was encouraged by no less a figure than famous actor Jimmy Stewart to return home to Mississippi with his head held high because he was still a champion in his home state.

Dumb as a brick

Apart from his ability to sing Old Man River, probably instinctive, he was not a very gifted young man. Amanda Biffen, the girl he loved, though she admired his looks - for, like all the Mulliners, he was extraordinarily handsome - had never wavered in her opinion that if men were dominoes, he would have been the double blank.

(from "Big Business," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Those Wodehousean towns

In the story, "Big Business," we meet the quaint village of Lower-Smattering-on-the-Wissel. Now, how is that for a monicker for a town? It would take a double-sized sign on the main road coming into town in order to get the whole name shown.

In short, he was too fat

It was at the conclusion of one of these promenades that he had asked her to be his wife, and she had replied that the only obstacle standing in the way of the suggested merger was his adipose deposit. She refused, she said, to walk up the aisle with a human hippopotamus.

Horace Prosser chuckled again. "The whimsical way she put it was that a woman who married a man my size ran a serious risk o being arrested for bigamy. She confessed that she had often yearned for someone like me, but was opposed to the idea of getting twice as much as she had yearned for. Very bright, amusing woman. She comes from Pittsburgh."

(from "The Fat of the Land," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Thea Gregory had six children

Actress Thea Gregory married actor John Gregson in 1947. They remained married until his death in 1975. And, they had six children. All that is an unusual combination for Hollywood.

Reck

"I recked little whether anybody saw me." This is a line from a Wodehouse novel. The verb to reck means "to pay heed to something." I think it is safe to say it is virtually never used today.

Drexdale Yeats

Here is another in our growing list of intrepid private investigators of fiction. We meet him in Sir Pelham Wodehouse's novel, Thank You, Jeeves. Supposedly he is a character in the fictitious novel, The Masked Seven, which falls into the genre know as a "goose flesher," at least according to Bertie Wooster.

A tasty invitation

"I shall be frightfully bucked if you will come and mangle a spot of garbage on the boat tonight."

Now, how is that for a dinner invitation? It is borrowed from Thank You, Jeeves, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse. I doubt that the chef would have been overly complimented to hear his employer speaking thusly about his renderings.

Garrison's Gorillas

This is an interesting twist in the group of post-World War II television series from the 1960s. The "gorillas" were all cons, chosen for some particular specialty. It ran in the 1967-68 season. The result was fairly pleasing. It had the realism of Combat!, with aspects of humor from Hogan's Heroes (although not going quite so far with it). Well worth watching if you are a fan of that genre. By the way, if the music of this show sounds a lot like the score for Combat! it is because they had the same composer.

Did he get the point across?

"You have friends, have you?"

"Lots of them."

"So have I, mostly in the Collectors Club. That's a club in New York, called the Collectors Club because its members are collectors. You have to be a collector to become a member, and by collector I imply a man who collects things."

(from The Purloined Paperweight, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Life among the health food nuts

"Sorry I couldn't offer you a cocktail, my boy. We don't have them here. But they serve an excellent glass of parsnip juice, if you would care for it. No? Then suppose we order. Will you have stewed lettuce, or would you prefer an orange? Ah, but wait, I see we are in luck. This is grated carrot day. How about starting with potassium broth, going on to grated carrots and winging up with a refreshing cup of dandelion cofree?"

(from "The Fat of the Land," by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

The Old Story of Bertie and the Pea

As two-seaters go, I had always found mine fairly comfortable, but then I had never before tried to get the eight hours in it, and you would be surprised at the number of knobs and protuberances which seem suddenly to sprout out of a car's upholstery when you seek to convert it into a bed.

(from Thank You, Jeeves, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Did Bogie have many namesakes?

It has been a fairly common custom in this country to name children, especially boys, after famous individuals. The initials A. J. (Andrew Jackson) and G. W. (George Washington) are frequently found. One can surmise, however, that famous actor Humphrey Bogart did not have many babies named after him.

He was a LARGE constable

This Voules was a bird built rather on the lines of Albert Hall, round in the middle and not much above. He always looked to me as if Nature had really intended to make two police sergeants and had forgotten to split them up.

(from Thank You, Jeeves, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Tell-a-woman

Girls may mean to keep things to themselves, but too often, even for the best of them, the strain becomes too much and top secrets are poured out in the strictest confidence to an intimate female friend. And one knows what intimate female friends are like. Tell them anything in the strictest confidence, and you might just as well arrange with the BBC to have it broadcast on their Light Program.

(from The Purloined Paperweight, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Avoiding asininity

          It isn't pleasant for a man who has a cast-iron scheme on the fire and needs only a friend's sympathy and cooperation to steer it to success to be fobbed off with a flippant instruction not to be an ass. How do you suppose John D. Rockefeller, when he was trying to raise capital to start Standard Oil, would have felt if people had told him not to be an ass?
          Bill pointed out that all this embarrassment could have been avoided if Algy had refrained from being an ass, but added, for he was a fair-minded man, that this was perhaps too much to expect.

(from The Purloined Paperweight, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Not a good crook

It may be that the collecting of French eighteenth-century paperweights does something to a man's nervous system, unfitting him for a life of crime by robbing him of the coolness and calm with the criminal classes find so essential in the exercise of their profession, but whether this is so or not, it is an undoubted fact that Wendell was completely lacking in the qualities that go to make a good crook. Where Henry had seemed unmoved by the dark deed they were undertaking and Kelly as plainly as nonchalant as a fish on ice, he had felt from the very inception of the scheme as if spiders to the number of several dozens were parading up and down his spinal cord.

(from The Purloined Paperweight, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Bachelor Pimpernel

In the movie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, as well as in the novel behind it, one of the main themes is the forlorn love that his wife has for him, but which seems to have waned when he assumed the role of his fatuous alter ego in order to hide the identity of the Pimpernel. (They live happily ever after, happily.) However, in the TV version of the Pimpernel, there is no wife, thus making room for bits of romance as he rescues various lovely ladies in distress.

Stay with me, now

"I was telling Algy, I'm going to settle down in the country somewhere."

"What will you do there? Raise chickens?"

"Write."

'Oh? Well, I suppose you know your own business best," said Jane dubiously. I don't think I'd like to run a poultry farm myself." Bill saw that the intricacies of the English language had misled her.

"When I said write, I didn't mean right, I meant write," he said helpfully.

"Oh, write?"

"Right."

"I'm glad we've got that straight. It was worrying me."

(from The Purloined Paperweight, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Somewhat gone to seed

In appearance Kelly was on the buxom side. in her middle forties she still retained much of the spectacular beauty of her youth, but a carelessness these last years in the matter of counting the calories had robbed her figure of its old streamlined look. Today she resembled a Ziegfeld Follies girl who had been left out in the rain and had swollen a little.

(from The Purloined Paperweight, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Hard to sneak

It is amusing watching cowboys sneaking around in the old movies. Cowboy boots, which are clumsy at best; often wearing noisy spurs; large hats on their heads. Just hard to sneak up on anyone wearing such a get-up.

Billy Brooks vs. Kirk Jordan

In his novel, A Man Called Noon, Louis L'Amour refers to a confrontation between these two gunfighters. In 1913, Robert M. Wright gave the following account of the conflict:

A hunter by the name of Kirk Jordan and Brooks had a shooting scrape on the street. Kirk Jordan had his big buffalo gun and would have killed Brooks, but the latter jumped behind a barrel of water. The ball, they say, went through the barrel, water and all, and came out on the other side, but it had lost its force. We hid Brooks under a bed, in a livery stable, until night, when I took him to the fort, and he made the fort siding next day and took the train for the East. I think these lessons were enough for him, as he never came back. Good riddance for everybody.

The epic dance-off of all time

According to Wikipedia, "in 1938, at the Cotton Club there was a face-off dance competition between the Nicholas Brothers and the Berry Brothers. It has become a legendary confrontation, a sort of dance-fight for supremacy." In case you think this was just a friendly little neighborhood dance contest, look at the two links below that show both sets of brothers at their best. Don't you wish you could have been a fly on the wall for that one?

NICHOLAS BROTHERS

BERRY BROTHERS

Evil and error both grow like cancer

"You cannot submit to evil without allowing evil to grow. Each time the good are defeated, or each time they yield, they only cause the forces of evil to grow stronger. Greed feeds greed, and crime grows with success. Our giving up what is ours merely to escape trouble would only create greater trouble for someone else." (from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour)

The Bible backs up the general principle that L'Amour set forth here. "But shun profane and vain babbling: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker" (2 Tim. 2.16-17).

The price of freedom

The weak, and those unwilling to make the struggle, soon resign their liberties for the protection of powerful men or paid armies; they begin by being protected, they end by being subjected.

(from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour)

Louis cites the Hanging Judge

"You mean you think he's one of those Judge Parker gunslingin' marshals workin' out of Fort Smith?"

This is a quote from The Man Called Noon, by Louis L'Amour. Wherever authors write about the old West, sooner or later they are going to run into Judge Isaac Parker, who presided over one of the roughest jurisdictions in the United States during his term on the bench.

Learn something

In a country like this, ignorance is a crime. If a man is going to vote, if he is going to take part in his country and its government, then it's up tp him to understand.

(from Sackett, by Louis L'Amour)

Hollywood's World War I connection

Ronald Colman, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone, Cedric Hardwicke, Herbert Marshall all served in the London Scottish Regiment in WW1.

Just be sure you are right

There was a Texas Ranger one time who said that there's no stopping a man who knows he's in the right and keeps a-coming. Well, I've often been right and they had to pay mind to me or bury me, and mine is a breed that dies hard.

(from Sackett, by Louis L'Amour)

The problem with gold

Gold is never a simple thing. Many a man has wished he had gold, but once he has it he finds trouble. Gold causes folks to lose their right thinking and their common sense. It had been lied for and killed for, and I was in a lawless land. Gold has weight, and when a body carries it, it is hard to hide. Gold seems almost to have an odor. Folks can smell it out even faster than gossip.

(from Sackett, by Louis L'Amour)

Old Bill Williams

Early in his novel, Sackett, Louis L'Amour mentions Old Bill Williams along with better-known Kit Carson. Williams lived from 1787 to 1849, led several expeditions westward, served as an interpreter for the government, and actually married the daughter of an Osage Indian chief. Interestingly, after he married Wind Blossom, he never returned to life among the whites. However, after the death of his wife, he did send their two daughters to school in Kentucky.

What did Mrs. Whistler really look like?

We all know the famous painting commonly called "Whistler's Mother." So what did his mother look like in a photograph?

 

Get right with it

She wasted no time waiting for explanations. Too often in emergencies had I seen people who took the time to ask "Why" not live long enough to receive an answer.

(from The Warrior's Path, by Louis L'Amour)

Why we have sons

It is given that no man can do it all, that each must carry the future forward a few years and then pass the message on to him who follows.

(from The Warrior's Path, by Louis L'Amour)

Concerning law

There must be law, for without it man descends to less than he is, certainly less than he can become. (from The Warrior's Path, by Louis L'Amour)

How to make Indian whisky

Indian whiskey is a simple concoction of river water, not strained, straight alcohol (roughly two gallons to the barrel), three plugs of chewing tobacco, five or six bars of soap (very strong lye soap), one half pound of red pepper, and a liberal dose of sagebrush leaves. To this is added two ounces of strychnine, and the resulting brew is something to make a mummy rear on his hind legs and let out a regular Comanche yell.

(from "Monument Rock," by Louis L'Amour)

Couther

Uncouth is a common word today. It means "lacking in sophistication or delicacy." Couth, then, is its opposite: "cultured, refined, and well mannered." "Couth," then, is an adjective. Since it is of one syllable with nothing extraordinary about its spelling, it stands to reason that the standard "er" suffix would be proper to take it to its proper form. Although I cannot remember ever having seen it, I would assume that "couther" would be proper English; for instance, "I am couther than you are." (No one ever had any reason to say that about me.)

Frontier diet problem

When a body lives off the country around, fat is the hardest thing to come by. Fresh meat was no problem, but it was lean, mighty lean.

(from The Warrior's Path, by Louis L'Amour)

Home

As I get older, I like to travel less and less, and like staying home more and more. Perhaps this in some way mirrors my life, as I anticipate my long home, my heavenly home.

Not used to early snow

I am sitting in my daughter's living room looking out on a snow-covered yard - on November 10th. That is just strange. My father said that he could remember one time that it snowed in Arkansas before the end of October, but that was just once in 94 years. It just looks cold! It IS cold!

Am I smarter than a fifth grader?

Well, that depends entirely on the fifth-grader, of course. Not Mozart. Not Sir Isaac Newton (who would not have been knighted in the fifth grade, of course). Not the fifth grader who eventually engineered the construction of the pyramids in Egypt.

Elections

I am glad that elections fall under the providential government of God Almighty, because I certainly would not know what to do if I could determine the outcome. When your choices have slipped to the point of being between none and none, things are really bad.

Be happy in your work

"Ugliest trade sometimes have moment of joy. Even gravedigger know some people for whom he would do his work with extreme pleasure." (Charlie Chan, from Dark Alibi)

One of Hollywood's best chefs

Vito Scotti was a familiar face on television for a generation. He played a wide variety of nationalities. (On Gilligan's Island, he was once Japanese, and another time Russian.) Off the screen, he was highly regarded as a chef, especially enjoying cooking the recipes of his mother and grandmother. (As you might guess, he was of Italian heritage.) According to Wikipedia, two generations of Hollywood's finest left his dinner parties raving about the food and wine.

I saw the Hope Diamond

It was in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and I saw it on a family trip we made following my senior year in high school. It is impressive by any measurement. Yes, I was only a few inches away from it, but there is a thick pane of presumably impenetrable glass between it and the public.

Not the Gabby you thought

George "Gabby" Hayes made a good living playing crusty, crochety sidekicks in old B western movies. In real life? Well, here is how Wikipedia and IMDB portrayed him.

"Hayes, in real life an intelligent, well-groomed and articulate man"

"Offstage an elegant and well-appointed connoisseur and man-about-town"

Nicotine in a who-done-it

In the novel Death of a Ghost, by Margery Allingham, one of the murders is done by poisoning, and the poison of choice was nicotine, which I never would have thought of. It was in concentrated form, of course.

Outrage

Outrage, combining as it does shock, anger, reproach, and helplessness, is perhaps the most unmanageable, the most demoralizing, of all the emotions.

(from Death of a Ghost, by Margery Allingham)

Morey had a rough start

Those of you who watch TV reruns will know the Dick Van Dyke show. One of the regulars on the program was co-writer Buddy Sorrell, who was portrayed by actor Morey Amsterdam, the biggest laugh-getter of the cast.

Amsterdam was born in Chicago to Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary. By 1924, he was working in a speakeasy owned by gangster Al Capone. Later, after he was caught in a gunfight (presumably involving gangsters), he moved to California. Who could blame him?