The Clucking of Hens

My brother and I didn't grow up with television.  (No, that isn't a picture of my brother.)  For one thing no one HAD television then.  It only came in when I was around ten.  For another, we couldn't afford it.  Besides, we were used to our routine, our life-style, and though we found TV to be a distraction, we didn't feel we needed to be distracted.  We preferred doing crafts on the kitchen table or reading some of the childhood classics like Robert Louis Stevenson or going out on bike rides around the neighborhood or helping our mother make cake or ice cream or visiting cousins and playing games.

So now when I turn on TV, I too often feel sorry for children who have to watch programs made for them. Who have no introduction to other things to do in life than sit glued (good word) to the TV since it CAN mesmerize one. But the noise it provides can be rather disruptive.  To my mind, children do not need the constant ups and downs of loud noise even from what are known as "the educational programs"-- what (to my ear) can come across as yelling. All supposedly in good fun, mind you.  They need time for gentle sounds.  The clucking of hens.  The telling of a good story.  The sound of spring rain.  The hum of the car's motor on the way to the beach.  If a child is being baby-sat by being placed in front of the TV, something less frenetic than the children's programs I happen on could be advisable.  Even turning off the volume.

Call me unrealistic.

Or, what about this:  find a CD of hens clucking and play that.  Wouldn't that be soothing!

Thank You, Downton

(This celebrates the end of my fifth year with Door Number 8--all 251 postings.  In the future, I'll post pieces on a more casual basis rather than on a weekly schedule.)

York Minster ... since the setting for Downton Abbey is Yorkshire

What appealed to me about Downton Abbey, aside from the casting, the setting, the costumes was the genteel quality that seems missing from our lives today--that which is polite, courteous. With a generosity of spirit.  I appreciated seeing people dress well, speak well, act with integrity and respect for each other.  I also appreciated the ritual of good manners, especially when so much today seems sloppy and graceless.  Is it any wonder that watching six seasons of those exhibiting dignity and self-respect is very beguiling!

For what it's worth, not able to sleep one night, I lay in bed and ran through the cast members.

I thought of the "names" who had had bit parts:  Shirley MacLaine, Paul Giamatti, James Fox, Iain Glen, Tim Piggot-Smith, Richard E. Grant, and of course, Kiri Te Kanawa.  The real-life people who were written into the story:  Virginia Woolf, Dame Nellie Melba, Neville Chamberlain.  Then there were the Boyle, Coyle, Doyle, and Foyle folks.  Zoe Boyle played Lavinia, Brendan Coyle played Mr. Bates, Kevin Doyle played Mr. Molesley, and Tom Cullen's character, Viscount Gillingham's other name, was Anthony Foyle.  As well, I noted the very British custom of naming girls/women after flowers:  Violet, Daisy, Ivy, Marigold.  Plus Lady Rose played by Lily James, another flower name.

Then there were Lord Grantham's dogs:  Pharaoh, Isis, and Tiaa, all ancient Egyptian names, very possibly as a tribute to the Earl of Carnarvon, the Lord of Highclere (the real Downton Abbey) who (along with Howard Carter) was responsible for finding King Tut's Tomb in 1922.  

In truth, I preferred the early and later seasons to those in the middle which bordered on the melodramatic.  As for my favorite characters, I particularly enjoyed Lord Grantham, Mrs. Hughes, Mr. Carson, Mrs. Patmore, Isobel Crawley, Tom Branson, Mr. Molesley, and, of course, Maggie Smith's, Dowager Countess.  Oh, yes, and Matthew Crawley.

Do you suppose Julian Fellowes may come up with a sequel one day?

Thank you, all!