Girls with Curls

There I was, enjoying a scene between Mary Crawley and the maid Anna when suddenly the pause button was employed.  "Is that a curling iron?" "A curling iron with an electrical cord?" What?!" Too bad no one was watching the episode with me at the time to prevent me from talking to myself. 

Electricity, as everyone knows from the hub-bub in season one, has entered Downton in the form of lights.  But with it, I forgot came the possibility of other electrical gadgets.

Modern hair curling irons have been around since the 1860s.  Credit is given to Hiram Maxim's patent who apparently enjoyed creating beauty products and machine guns (I haven't figured out the connection yet).  By the late 1910s-1920s, ladies were working on perfecting the Marcel Wave (which swoops back and forth curl-wise), most commonly remembered now a days by being flaunted by Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago.

To the left- a Victorian curling iron with a wooden handle and a plug that can draw electricity from an light bulb socket.
To the right- I think I prefer the safety added into our current day curling irons. 
I can see the family resemblance.

If You Were The Only Girl in the World

Lady Edith at the piano

         How could one make Downton Abbey any better other than by including a good old Broadway showstopper?  Apparently our American traditions are slowly leaking into the show.  Next thing you know they will be eating apple pie.  If You Were The Only Girl In The World was written in 1916 by Clifford Grey and Nat D. Ayer.  It was originally sung in the musical The Bing Boys are Here as a duet. Just as in the season two episode, the song became a symbol of escape from the reality of war.

        Only segments of the song made it into the episode sung by Michelle Dockery and the cast.  Here are the rest of the lyrics, so the next time you are humming it to yourself you can complete the song.  I'll admit I've already been spotted in my apartment singing it while doing dishes.

Sometimes when I feel bad
and things look blue,
I wish a pal I had... say one like you.
Someone within my heart to build a throne,
Someone who'd never part, to call my own.

 

 

If you were the only girl in the world
and I were the only boy,
Nothing else would matter in the world today
We could go on loving in the same old way.

 

 

A garden of Eden just made for two,
With nothing to mar our joy.
I would say such wonderful things to you
There would be such wonderful things to do
If you were the only girl in the world
and I were the only boy.

Welcoming Martha Levinson

Shirley MacLaine knows the beauty of pearls.

Tuesday, January 31st, USA Today released a statement that Shirley MacLaine, the Virginia native, would be joining Downton Abbey for the third season as Martha Levinson, Lady Grantham's mother.  IMDB does not have her role listed either under Shirley MacLaine's page (as of today) nor under the Season Three page for Downton Abbey.  I knew there was a reason why I read the Life section of USA Today and used the rest of the newspaper for paper mache.  Rumors are that Season Three will begin filming next month and thus we may finally know more.

Tea Talk

My kind neighbors bring me back Darjeeling Tea from England as a thank you for house sitting their place when they are gone.  An absolutely wonderful treat!

I will never claim to be a tea connoisseur, just pour me a cup of black tea (I used to love it straight up but now I drink it with milk since it is supposed to help reduce tea-stained teeth) and I am one happy camper.  I love Darjeeling for loose leaf tea.  If I am on the run (which more often than not I am), I pick the fast track versions of tea.  Twinings English Breakfast Tea is a delightful tea bag for popping into a mug of boiling water and running.  Tetley British Blend fashions their tea satchels without any staples so you can pop the bag in while you are boiling or microwaving the water to a boil and thus eliminating time needed to steep.  It's how one drinks tea on a time schedule.

The Art of Tea

My mother's co-worker was talking about how much she loved Downton Abbey and how it teaches one to make a good cup of tea.  My first reaction was-tea, in season two?  Where?  You mean when Thomas complains to Daisy about the tea being tepid and makes her fetch another cup?  Then I realized how many scenes of season one consist tea.  In fact, one where Cora and Violet have sat down for tea, Maggie Smith does a remarkable job at making a proper cup of tea while continuing the conversation.  For those of you wondering how to make tea, here goes.


Ingredients:
Fine bone china tea pot and tea cups
Loose Leaf Tea
Tea Strainer
H20
Milk and Sugar to taste

1) Fill the tea pot with hot water to let the china warm up (unbeknownest to anyone really, this is a crucial step in tea making). 
2) Boil a seperate amount of water- 1 cup (literally the size of the tea cup) per person approximately. 
3) When the water is about ready to boil, empty out the warm water from the tea pot and add one teaspoon of loose tea per person plus "one for the pot". Now you know, if you didn't connect it before in your mind, where the terms 'teaspoon' and 'one for the pot' come from.  This still does not explain the term 'tablespoon' however...
4) Pour the boiling water into the tea pot over the leaves.
5) Let steep for 3-4 minutes. 
6)Strain the tea as you serve it.
7) Let each member of your tea party add their own amounts of milk and sugar.
8) Eat with a biscuit (a dry, sweet cookie meant to be eaten alone or dipped in tea).
Enjoy!

My $1 tea pot that I bought at a garage sale- not fine bone china I understand, but the clear glass helps show the steps.  Warming up the pot, steeping the tea and then the final product (I added milk to this tea).  I promise to pull out the fine chia should the Queen ever come to tea.

Hint: Baking Soda does wonders for cleaning up tea stains on your china.  Wet the Baking Soda, rub it into the stain (let it sit a minute if the tea has built up over time), and rinse.  Simple as that.

On The Dole

Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham, a force not to be reckoned with

           In season two, episode 4 or 5 (depending on the release), there is a conversation of a potential widow claiming a “widow’s dole from a grateful nation”.  Dole is the equivalent of welfare.  To live “on the dole” is to live off of welfare or to be unemployed.  In the 2002 film Possession, Gweneth Paltrow’s character describes Aaron Eckhart’s character, who is working on a fellowship with a college in London, by stating that he is “on the dole”.  This elicits a chuckle out of those listening and from anyone who has worked in the university system.

          Naturally, the incomparable Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham (such a formidable title), sets it all right on the issue of ‘dole’ in Downton Abbey.  Now you know.

Pronouncing Downton Abbey

               Just to be clear- it is Downton, not Downtown Abbey.  When briefly looking at it, roommates, family members and acquaintances have all asked me about my obsession over Downtown Abbey, and why I pronounced it so oddly.  It isn’t like the 1964 song by Petula Clark.  It is officially Downton Abbey, and here is the best that I can do in describing how to pronounce it.

                Downton is two syllables; let’s tackle one at a time.  “Down” is gulped down.  The letter ‘d’ starts  on your tongue, and then it is as if you want to swallow the vowel.  “Ton” does not have a hard letter ‘t’.  It is barely recognized, or completely lost to the hearing ear, depending on the exactly dialect and will sound like –tun or –un depending on whether that ‘t’ comes flying out of your mouth or not.  “Abbey” is simple, just keep the letter ‘a’ soft.  There you have it down (gulped)- un abbey. Now simply repeat it one hundred times, or go watch it to hear it first hand from the actors.

The Scoop on Downton Abbey

Most of the cast of ITV's Downton Abbey

How does one describe Downton Abbey?  Usually referred to as an Upstairs/Downstairs drama, it revolves around one household comprised of some of the richest and most affluent people in England pre-WWI and the servants who, behind the scenes, are entirely responsible for helping the employers “keep up appearances”.   The upper class stories are like fairy tales, everyone knows them.  What Downton Abbey shows us is more than the fairy tale; it reveals the hidden mechanics behind an English Estate.

Julian Fellowes, the writer of the series, artfully juggles many story lines in the air at one time.  Therefore, I would advise anyone new to the world of Downton Abbey to start with series one before jumping into the second series.  I predict you will be simply agog at how fast you finish a season when you get swept up into the plot.  Series two has finally been released in America (all who were devotees-watching since the series premier in America, have been patiently waiting for it to be released over here and trying not to read spoilers since it was premiered in the UK many months before), you can catch it on Sunday nights during your PBS’ Masterpiece hour.  Or, if you actually have something to do on Sunday nights other than avoid the inevitable homework or next day’s work load, they are all released for a short time on the PBS Masterpiece website to watch.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/index.html