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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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The
Write Way
2 May 2008 What Do You Do? Greetings, When I was a girl (Sigh ... we've been through all this before ... I'll wait while you make all your cheeky comments about horse-drawn carriages ... Dum-de-dum ... La-de-da-da ...Finished? Good ... Now what was I about to say?) Yes ... ahem ... when I was a girl, I can vividly remember the excitement when the Waltons' Man came to call. He was always dressed in a suit and wore a hat and tie, regardless of the hot Australian summers. He carried a huge suitcase that was filled with samples of dresses, sheets, towels and other finery designed to delight the hearts of my mother and her sisters who would gather every couple of weeks for lunch at the home of my oldest aunt. There were usually three or four cousins in tow for me to play with, but the arrival of the Waltons' Man put a stop to any games as we all rushed to the lounge room to watch in wonder as he opened his case to display his wares. He wasn't a travelling salesman as such, because these visits were regular and planned. My mother and aunts would order clothes, napery, haberdashery and often even crockery and cutlery from the catalogues he left behind each month, but these items were invariably put on lay-by, which meant that the pleasure of possessing them was postponed until payment was complete, but what a celebration there was when someone finally made the last payment and the long-awaited sheets or shirt or shiny object was delivered! It was like Christmas every time it happened as everyone gathered close to ooh and aah over the new acquisition. It was passed from hand to hand and examined in every light, then carefully re-wrapped to be taken home and shown all over again to family and neighbours. After repacking his suitcase, the Waltons' Man would be offered a cup of tea and slice of my aunt's freshly-made, feather-light sponge cake, then would come the financial side of the visit, as each aunt in turn handed over her couple of shillings instalment on whatever she currently had on lay-by. Then with a doff of his hat, he was off to his next place of business, which could mean a long walk or a bus or train trip to the next suburb ... there were no cars provided in these post-war years -- it was strictly Shanks's pony. Since the poor man probably had to go through the same tea-and-cake rituals at every stop, it was probably just as well he had to walk and carry his heavy suitcase everywhere. There were very few overweight people in those days! You may have noticed the frequency with which the suffix -ery appeared earlier ... that's because it denotes a specialised area of trade, so this week, see how many you can match up in the quiz. And this week's Little Something Extra looks at some of the more unusual occupations that exist. You might be able to use these as jobs for your characters or as the starting point for an article ...
This week's quiz: What occupation or office (or class of goods) is designated in each of the following? mercery, grindery, chancery, haberdashery, livery, ironmongery, coopery, chandlery, farriery, joinery 1. the place where a smith shoes horses 2. textiles, especially silks 3. candles and other commodities; dealer in provisions and supplies or equipment of a specified kind 4. shoemaker's or leatherworker's material and equipment; shop where such material and equipment may be purchased 5. store where men's clothes are sold, especially shirts, ties, gloves, socks and hats; dealer in sewing notions and small wares 6. a store selling hardware 7. the care (feeding and stabling) of horses; uniform worn by some menservants and chauffeurs 8. where barrels are made 9. fine woodwork 10. an office of archives for public or ecclesiastic records; a court of public records; court with jurisdiction in equity I'm sure you can think of dozens more words with this suffix ... brewery, surgery, bakery, fishery, eatery This week's Little Something Extra makes passing reference to clowns, so I thought this little story was justified ... A clown moved into an apartment block reserved solely for circus performers. He liked everything about the apartment. The kitchen was modern, the bedroom was comfortable and the lounge was spacious. And there were plenty of facilities -- cooker, vacuum cleaner, refrigerator, washing machine. The only thing that was missing was an ironing board, something on which he could press his circus uniform after washing it. "Why is there no ironing board?" he asked the agent. "The lion tamer and the juggler have both got one." "You use the window ledge, like the other clowns," explained the agent. "It's in your contract. Every clown has a sill for ironing."
Last week's quiz: ganache, nougat, couverture, dragees, crimp, dredge, fondant, invertase, mousse, sotas 1. coat or sprinkle lightly with flour, sugar - DREDGE 2. yeast derivative, used in fondant centers to make them creamier as the fondant ripens - INVERTASE 3. round, edible sugar balls coated with silver or gold which are used for decorative purposes - DRAGEES 4. elaborate piping technique using a series of curved lines dropped in a random manner that yields a lace-like pattern - SOTAS 5. natural, sweet chocolate containing no added fats other than natural cocoa butter; used for dipping, moulding, coating and similar purposes; chocolate that contains at least 32 percent cocoa butter - COUVETURE 6. very light and airy filling similar to a dense whipped cream flavoured with fruit or chocolate - MOUSSE 7. sweet, rich chocolate, denser than mousse but less dense than fudge. It is made by pouring hot cream over chocolate and beating it with a wooden spoon until the mixture is glossy and smooth - GANACHE 8. mixture of caramelised sugar and almonds or other nuts, used in decorative work and as a confection and flavouring - NOUGAT 9. press together two pastry layers on edge of pie crust, sealing the dough and at the same time creating a decorative edge using fingers, a fork or other utensil - CRIMP 10. sweet, elastic icing made of sugar, corn syrup and gelatin that is rolled out with a rolling pin and draped over a cake - FONDANT Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK. For all the flash new browsers, you'll have to do a search on my mate google to find what to do. There's a search box on the archives page!) If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com And I'm even prepared to offer a shameless bribe. An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. A Little Something Extra "What do you want to be when you grow up? Chances are if you ask that question in any third grade class, your answers will include at least one fireman, one policeman, one cowboy and an assortment of other jobs that are glamorized on television and books. "But there are far more jobs than those that make good reading and television. Some of the most interesting and unusual jobs are those that most third graders have never heard of - unless, of course, a relative happens to be a flavorist or a research chef." Click here to read about some odd jobs. Word of the week: Shanks's Pony This is an idiom that may (or may not) be familiar to those of you brought up outside the realm dominated by Her Maj's English ... It means to walk (as opposed to riding or driving). According to some, the original Shanks's pony was a horse-drawn lawnmower with nowhere for the driver to sit, so he had to walk along behind. (And this is what one looks like.) Oxymoron of the week: boring job And a Latin phrase for when you're angling for a new job ... Prandeamus, vere! [prahn-day-AH-moos WAY-ray] (Let's have lunch, really!) Did you know that you can have your very own Latin reminders? How about undies proclaiming, Bene est rex esse? (It's good to be king) Or a shopping bag that warns, Emptrix nata sum (Born to shop)? Kind regards, Jennifer To unsubscribe from this list, send
a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips- Copyright Jennifer Stewart 2008 Individual articles copyrighted by their authors. |
