Christmas 2005 is over.
I know this because of three things.
First, we just took the ornaments off the tree. We're about two weeks behind the normal date, but we wanted to keep it up until we had our annual neighborhood get together, and that was yesterday. The get together was a success (we don't call it a party because we're not 'party' people; it was intended as a gathering of people who live nearby but who might never meet were it not for the school bus stop), though people came half an hour after we expected, which was in turn forty five minutes after we said it would start. After the first (and for a long while, only) guests showed up, my daughter motioned me to her room and confided that while last year she was ticked off because there were so many people (about 15 at one point), this year she was ticked because there were so few. It turned out well, though the family we invited that we don't know but who have a son in school with our daughter didn't come; too bad. Still, the daughter had a good enough time that I'm not sure she noticed.
Second, my Christmas cold, which started two days before Christmas, is finally gone. (Which was why the get-together was delayed; giving our guests the gift that keeps on giving would have seemed a bit tacky.) Well, okay, I have a bit of a lingering cough, but that's it. Blood readings are edging back down to normal, I don't sneeze and hack as much, all that gross body effluent stuff seems to be gone. Oh boy, just in time to go back to work.
And finally, I just saw my first trailer for a summer movie -- the new Superman. About which, I can only say that I hope he's very good, because the costume needs work.
Speaking of movies, we had a desultory discussion the other night about why there's a pause between the first and second words in the phrase "Bond. James Bond." Apparently, Pierce Brosnan commented in an interview that you have to pause. We concluded that it was because the original vision of the character -- Fleming's -- was an almost anonymous killer who would see it perfectly normal to introduce himself with just his last name, as in the English school tradition (my source for which being "To Sir With Love"). And then, remembering that he was in 'polite company', would have given his full name.
See what we think about?
3 comments:
Having been educated in England, I can confirm that this is normal in the slice of society that James Bond appears to come from. My friends and I used to call each other by last name only quite a lot, and it was appropriate for teachers to do it all the time. It is a dead giveaway of your social class to hail your friends by their last names.
The more you know....!
Sorry, that you caught my cold. Maybe I shouldn't have visited your blog. Actually, since I caught my cold the day after Christmas...maybe I caught it from you?
Hmmm...interesting possibility. Tell you what -- you keep the cold; I'll take your new house in trade. (And I would bet there are times, not many but some, when you'd MAKE that trade!)
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