So based on two nights of research, we have determined that Clara Jane has her days and nights mixed up. Thus, today we began a concerted effort to encourage the wakeful periods she had during the day. Julie being Julie, she pulled out a book. This tome was called White on Black (companion tome: Black on White). These books featue big white pictures on a black background (or vice versa). Today's lesson included the finer points of sailing. We learned about bow and stern (and aft--synonymous with stern); and which side of the boat is port and which side starboard (hint for our less nautical-minded readers: port has the same number of letters as the side to which it refers). All this per Ted who can actually sail, for which Julie thinks he is quite yar (Ted is not a boat of course; Julie just likes that word).
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wakey Wakey
So based on two nights of research, we have determined that Clara Jane has her days and nights mixed up. Thus, today we began a concerted effort to encourage the wakeful periods she had during the day. Julie being Julie, she pulled out a book. This tome was called White on Black (companion tome: Black on White). These books featue big white pictures on a black background (or vice versa). Today's lesson included the finer points of sailing. We learned about bow and stern (and aft--synonymous with stern); and which side of the boat is port and which side starboard (hint for our less nautical-minded readers: port has the same number of letters as the side to which it refers). All this per Ted who can actually sail, for which Julie thinks he is quite yar (Ted is not a boat of course; Julie just likes that word).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Fancy sailor people, making your kid all Eastern smart already. I believe there are also more sober and properly Midwestern object lessons in those books, such as the butterflies. No special training needed to talk about "wings" and "legs."
ReplyDeleteWell, I had to look up "yar", and I am surprised I haven't seen it in a crossword. Julie's expression "out of pocket" is a very midwestern saying that I have only recently heard. Great picture of Clara. Grandpa Tom
ReplyDeleteOf course yar is a word that every Mawrter knows - thanks to my fellow Katharine :)
ReplyDeleteI learned yar in the old MGM musical High Society with Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra. Grace Kelly refers to a boat called the True Love as yar, just before launching into a duet of the same name with Bing. It's the only time in my life I've heard it, but I'm trying to bring it back into circulation.
ReplyDeleteDexter: Yes, yes. She was quite a boat, the True Love, wasn't she?
ReplyDeleteTracy: Was, and is.
Dexter: My, she was yar.
- Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story
Exactly! That's it Fran. I believe High Society is the musical version of The Philadelphia Story? Exactly the same exchange--and so it's Dexter/Cary Grant/Bing Crosby that says yar, not Tracy/Katherine Hepburn/Grace Kelly.
ReplyDeleteThe plot thickens:
ReplyDeleteTracy: [after Dexter has proposed] Dexter, are you sure?
Dexter: Not in the least. But I'll risk it. Will you?
Tracy: You bet! You didn't do it just to soften the blow?
Dexter: No.
Tracy: Nor to save my face?
Dexter: Oh, it's a nice little face.
Tracy: Oh Dexter, I'll be yar now, I promise to be yar.
Dexter: Be whatever you like, you're my redhead.
In High Society, they have the same exchange, but it stops after "Oh it's a nice little face." So unfortunate as TWO more uses of yar! And of course, Grace Kelly's Tracy Lord was not a redhead.
ReplyDelete