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Happy birthday, kabal42 and lisajulie!

Three weeks for Dreamwidth: 12 & 13

(Because I missed yesterday for reasons, have a double-length episode)

The Comfortable Courtesan

I had not particularly wanted to go to Mr P-'s soiree, but since it was in honour of Miss A-, the young actress with whom he had become besotted, I felt it my duty to my pride to attend in order to indicate that I was in no way chagrined by this development. I even felt myself able to find something sincerely to commend in Miss A-'s performance, as peculiarly affecting in one particular scene. Shortly afterwards, Mr B-, the banker, begged leave to introduce his companion, a well-looking enough gentleman tho' somewhat provincial in style.

Mr F- (for 'twas he indeed) said that he had overheard my comment to Miss A-, and conveyed his opinion that although well enough for a new presence on the scene, she did not promise to be a second Siddons. Why, says I, even the incomparable Mrs S- does not always match her greatest heights. At which, we fell with great enthusiasm to discussing matters dramatique, and I found him to have a nice and discerning taste in such things.

Linkspam out of the dead land

Sweden is bringing rabbit showjumping to the London Pet Show (yeah, I'm doing the Bunny Boggle over here - 'hip-hop-hip, wiggle your nose, boggling the bunny is the way it goes' - a justly-forgotten B-side in the Bogglemen's oeuvre).

Oh dear, I'm not sure even being a postmodernist meta-fiction excuses exploiting Ms Evans for fun and profit: Sophie and the Sibyl by Patricia Duncker review – an audience with George Eliot: 'This sprightly postmodern comedy of manners wittily critiques the conventions of the historical novel'. (Query: is not the word 'sprightly' in a review or blurb something that sends a cold shiver down the spine?)

Tribute to Ruth Rendell (and are we not pleased that she and PDJ were pals?) and appreciation.

New translation of Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Divine Love is Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week.

And, in Dept of Coincidences, Church that gave refuge to Charles I and inspired TS Eliot in need of rescue - shall all be well for Little Gidding. But, WHUT??? no mention of George Herbert?

Also, life lessons from the Rule of St Benedict (ring my be-e-ell, ring my bell).

Hadley Freeman on her definitive movies.

This sounds vaguely creepy to me: can schools teach children how to be better people?

Dept of this is probably just me, groaning away about something that some journo has only just discovered, in this case Boulton and Park, aka Fanny and Stella, of the famous 1870 court case under the sodomy laws, which is so not 'a forgotten story', really, though maybe my own acquaintanceship with the historiography on Victorian homosexuality is the factor here. Even so, I don't think you can make a case that they were 'gay activists of their time' as opposed to two young men by chance caught up in the meshes of the law. (Also, in re Grayson Perry's claim to be 'probably the first tranny at the palace': there are claims that Prince George of Kent was given to cross-dressing along with the bisexuality and drug-addiction.)

Culinary

Saturday breakfast rolls: basic buttermilk 3:1 strong white flour/cornmeal.

Today's lunch: stirfried venison steak with soy sauce and sherry; sticky rice with lime leaves; okra simmered in coconut milk with fish sauce, ginger and green coriander; chicory halved and healthy-grilled and splashed with tarragon vinegar; padron peppers.

This week's bread: Elizabeth David's light rye loaf, which has turned out extremely nicely.