Satunnainen kirjavalikoima kirjastosta, jonka omistaa PlumCrazy
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - tekijä: Douglas Adams
Jeeves in the Offing (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse
The Code of the Woosters (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse
The Mating Season (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse
Bill the Conqueror (The Everyman Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse
Laughing Gas (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse
A Damsel in Distress (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse
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Jäsen: PlumCrazy
Kirjasto84 kirjaa — katso kirjasto
ArvostelutEi vielä yhtään
Pilvetavainsanapilvi, tekijäpilvi
AvainsanatPGW wish list (6), PGW 05 (5), PGW 10 (4) — kaikki avainsanat
RyhmätThe Drones Club (all things P.G. Wodehouse)
LempikirjailijatDouglas Adams, Garrison Keillor, P.G. Wodehouse (Yhteiset suosikit)
Tietoja minusta A small maid-of-all work appeared in answer to the bell, and stood transfixed as the visitor, producing a monocle, placed it in his right eye and inspected her through it.
“A warm afternoon,” he said cordially.
“Yes, sir.”
“But pleasant,” urged the young man. “Tell me, is Mrs. Jackson at home?”
“No, sir.”
“Not at home?”
“No, sir.”
The young man sighed.
“Ah, well,” he said, “we must always remember that these disappointments are sent to us for some good purpose. No doubt they make us more spiritual. Will you inform her that I called. The name is Psmith. P-smith.”
“Peasmith, sir?”
“No, no. P-s-m-i-t-h. I should explain to you that I started life without the initial letter, and my father always clung ruggedly to the plain Smith. But it seemed to me that there were so many Smiths in the world that a little variety might well be introduced. Smythe I look on as a cowardly evasion, nor do I approve of the too prevalent custom of tacking another name on in front by means of a hyphen. So I decided to adopt the Psmith. The p, I should add for your guidance, is silent, as in phthisis, psychic, and ptarmigan. You follow me?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“You don’t think,” he said anxiously, “that I did wrong in pursuing this course?”
“N-no, sir.”
Splendid!” said the young man, flicking a speck of dust from his sleeve. “Splendid! Splendid!”
Käyttäjätilin tyyppijulkinen, ilmainen
YhteysuutisetYhteysuutiset
URL:t
http://www.librarything.com/profile/PlumCrazy (profiili)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/PlumCrazy (kirjasto)
RekisteröitymispäiväDec 14, 2006
Uusimmat toimet
 PlumCrazy antoi tähtiä, tallensi:The First Men's Guide to Ironing - tekijä: E. Todd Williams Tähdet:  Uusi! |  PlumCrazy antoi tähtiä:Sam the Sudden (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse Tähdet:  Uusi! PlumCrazy antoi tähtiä:The Girl on the Boat (The Collector's Wodehouse) - tekijä: P. G. Wodehouse Tähdet:  Uusi! PlumCrazy antoi tähtiä, tallensi:The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time - tekijä: Douglas Adams Tähdet: Uusi! |
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Lähettänyt: CandySchultz 5:56 pm (EST) Aug 20, 2007
Well, I never actually said that I had fully learned the lesson myself ... I merely stated that I had now been made aware by Plum's characters in Leave it to Psmith of the dangers that are inherent in being an owner of a joint bank account. As an analogy, my grammar school English teacher may have also made me aware of the dangers of using dangling prepositions at the end of sentences, but that still doesn't mean that I now never take a morbid delight in dangling some unsuspecting preposition here or there whenever I'm feeling in an impish mood. You might even say that PlumCrazy is to English prepositions what Michael Jackson is to babies. But, then again, if you know any better, you might not! :(
However, that has not always been the case. When I was younger I used to be very strict on myself with respect to the correct use of English grammar. Not once would you catch me misplacing a modifier or so much as entertaining the thought of dangling a preposition or straggling a trailing participle. But that was then and this is now. Now I'm much more lenient and forgiving ... thank you for asking. :) Today, not dangling prepositions is exactly the sort of English grammatical pedantry up with which I will not put!
WRT joint bank accounts, what my point is is that ... OMG, now I'm doubling my copulas - my old English teacher must be having conniptions! I believe the last person to double his copulas was Sir Christopher Wren ... oh, wait, maybe that was cupolas that he doubled up on. :( Aha, now I remember, it's Hollywood that I was thinking about, not Mr. Wren. First there was Francis Ford Copula, then his daughter got in on the act ... Hmmm, conniptions??? Lady Constance Pshung would make a great Wodehouse character, don't ya think? Let's see now ... Connie Pshung??? ... Connie Pshung??? I think she would probably be an American news anchor person if Plum was still writing today.
Where was I? Oh, yes. Joint bank accounts. What I was really referring to with that remark was the fact that Leave it to Psmith was not the first Wodehouse novel where the husband/wife joint bank account is used as a way to prevent a millionaire (such as Joe Keeble) from writing a cheque for a relatively paltry sum. Well it may have been the first one written by Plum, but I'm pretty certain that it was not the first one of his farces that I have read that used this particular plot artifice. Unfortunately, I have now read so many of his books that I can't remember exactly in which of his other novels Plum uses this same expedient. (There, see ... no damn danglies in dat one! :) Phew!)
However, I do suspect the fact that in real life Wodehouse held a joint bank account with his wife Ethel, and that she was in complete control of it, has a lot to do with why Plum saw both the humor (or even the humour) and plot contrivance possibilities in such a relatively innocuous situation.
I also think that "Across the pale parabola of joy' could be greatly improved with a few silent letters chucked in here and there.
That should be "Across the pale parabola of Joy"! I believe the capital 'J' is actually quite important to the parody. And sprinkling it with silent 'P's (OMG, that sounds almost naughty, doesn't it? ... the kind of prank English public schoolboys with bursting bladders would get up to in the middle of the night!) might also lessen the actual import of the parody that Wodehouse intended by repeatedly using that particular phrase. In effect, it would be a case of overloading the joke to the point that it is no longer funny anymore.
I did also want to make a comment about 'whale of a hat' hats but unfortunately this message is already far too long.
posted by PlumCrazy at 11:55 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2007
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Thanks for your reply! I am afraid that I haven't learnt the joint bank account lesson, but then I'm not married to anyone nearly as fearsome as Constance.
It did, however, give me a lifelong weakness for buying 'whale of a hat' hats.
I also think that "Across the pale parabola of joy' could be greatly improved with a few silent letters chucked in here and there.
posted by lizzy_bb at 9:46 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2007
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I see that Leave it to Psmith is your favourite Wodehouse too.
Hi, lizzy, I just logged onto LT and saw your comment. Actually, Leave it to Psmith is NOT strictly speaking my favorite Wodehouse. Yes, yes, it's ONE of my many favorites - truth be known, you've gotta like almost anything by Plum, so I guess I could claim almost ALL his novels as my favorites! - but I tend to favor the later Blandings "pig-purloining" and "manuscript-stealing" novels rather than this "necklace-nicking" one. Although, I have to admit it, the secretary Baxter is one of my all-time favorite Wodehouse characters and the flower pot episode is probably the comedic highlight of this book. :)
But I do like the origins of Psmith's name. So when I saw the quoted text while surfing online I decided to cut and paste it into my profile as I hadn't written anything yet - and consequently I felt my profile to be a little naked and in need of a quick fig leaf. Plus pthe payoff of posting pthat particular piece of purple Psmith prose is pthat Plum provides appropriate pronunciation pointers ptoo!
That novel also taught me the dangers of opening a joint bank account with anyone!
posted by PlumCrazy at 11:31 pm (EST) on Feb 12, 2007
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I see that Leave it to Psmith is your favourite Wodehouse too. You get Psmith and Blandings plus the Molloys! Value for money.
posted by lizzy_bb at 7:13 am (EST) on Feb 7, 2007
Lähettänyt: PlumCrazy 6:26 pm (EST) Apr 29, 2007