Mrs Satterthwaite, kindred spirit
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 6:28 pmI’ve been reading Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End (and am enjoying it quite a bit and admiring it immensely). Laughed when I read this concerning the main character’s mother-in-law, Mrs Satterthwaite and her “disreputable young man, Mr Bayliss” — :
“For Mrs Satterthwaite interested herself–it was the only interest she had–in handsome, thin and horribly disreputable young men. She would wait for them, or send her car to wait for them, at the gaol gates. She would bring their usually admirable wardrobes up to date and give them enough money to have a good time. When contrary to all expectations–but it happened more often than not!–they turned out well, she was lazily pleased. Sometimes she sent them away to a gay spot with a priest who needed a holiday; sometimes she had them down to her place in the west of England.”
July 18th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
…thus registering a “9″ on my Double Entendre detector.
By the by, if you find yourself in the west of England, Bath is a fine village…and not just for entertaining ones’ emancipated, emaciated, good-looking felons…
July 19th, 2007 at 1:21 am
I think perhaps I should cultivate such an interest…
July 19th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I met a woman like that once. but she dressed me up all fancy like and dumped me in a irrigation canal
July 19th, 2007 at 11:50 am
just remember to head by the 7 P’s
Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance
July 19th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I must agree with Mr. Al up there about the high Double Entendre register.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
(But then, where don’t I find double entendre?
July 19th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I’ve always liked FMF, though I know Hemmingway didn’t think too highly of him.
Parade’s End is a book I can really remember nothing about though. That is the interesting thing about Ford, is that however good his books are, they are totally unmemorable.
July 20th, 2007 at 4:56 am
And in the next paragraph he makes an obvious point of using “gay” in its “bright and cheerful” sense, just to pretend to pretend there was no double entendre.
Al - been to Bath twice and still can’t remember it (except for dark grey stone - was there a lot of that? And a dearth of Chinese restaurants?). There’s obviously something wrong with me, as everyone says it’s beautiful.
Colin - if she were just an ordinary fag hag she’d have dumped you in a Turkish bath, but an irrigation canal shows originality. I hope you went back to her and offered her a bouquet of pipe wrenches.
Brendan - now that you mention it, I remember loving “The Good Soldier” (the only other FMF I’ve read), but I can’t remember anything about it, except that the narrator called it the saddest story he’d ever heard. I’m finding “Parade’s End” nutritious - one of those books that seems to do your own writing some good. I wouldn’t expect many of Hemingway’s opinions about books, or anything else, to coincide with my own.
July 20th, 2007 at 5:25 am
No i just stole half her roof tiles and the other i left because i got lazy
July 20th, 2007 at 7:09 am
She learned a lesson that day Don’t push someone who fuled by cake into any body of water.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Actually, Hemmingway was talking about the author, not the book. It is in “A Moveable Feast.” It seems like the kind of book you might enjoy actually, as it is full of anecdotes of the writers of that time.
I understand of course, that you are probably not very macho
July 20th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Colin - I hope you live near a cake shop; it seems to be very important to you…
Brendan - Why, and only last night I was admiring my chest hair and banging the maids!
July 21st, 2007 at 5:27 am
yeah i have like three cake shops near me.
6 if i wanna take the bus
Ah all the joys of living in altona north
July 21st, 2007 at 5:47 am
If I remember, you have a great cheesecake shop nearish-by.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:16 am
yep at the 16 shops on millers road. Funny bit of trivia. ther have never been 16 shops there.
16 shop windows but never 16 shops.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:17 am
all with in a 3 min walk from my place 8 if i take my time
July 21st, 2007 at 8:23 am
and 106 min if i walk to altona beach
July 21st, 2007 at 8:47 am
We were nearly neighbours, as Melbourne distances go - I lived in Flemington before I moved to Thailand. My husband worked in Altona for a couple of years and often spoke fondly of that particular cake shop.
July 21st, 2007 at 2:25 pm
its an alright cake shop but i know of many that far exceed it. But you end up paying for the difference.
I need to get me a missus. One that make good cakes.
Any takers?
July 21st, 2007 at 3:16 pm
As a woman married some 15 years I can say this: learn to bake good cakes. This will help you get a woman and keep her.
July 21st, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Thats a good idea
I should make a wedding cake for the hell of it
I already make good cakes.
or so i have been told.
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:56 am
Oh, you should. And a wedding cake can be anything, really. Ours was chocolate.
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
yeah but it need to have at least three levels