I’m currently trapped in deepest Derbyshire, where very few people seem to have heard of the internet and the news is dominated by the recent death of the “Duke of Devonshire”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/derbyshire/3699595.stm. But I just caught this great opening paragraph from the “Seattle Times”:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001925335_rumsfeld11.html which is worth repeating:
bq. President Bush extended Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a full-throated endorsement yesterday for a “superb job,” then went into Rumsfeld’s Pentagon office for his first private glimpse of Iraqi prisoner-abuse pictures never seen in public.
{ 12 comments }
Mrs Tilton 05.11.04 at 10:51 am
As I began to read this post, I was wracked by the inescapable image of a Timberite helping a self-hating and hopelessly closeted NRO columnist come to terms with himself. Sorry, couldn’t help it (believe me, I tried); and I was greatly relieved to read on and find you were talking about something else altogether.
Zizka 05.11.04 at 2:01 pm
Mrs. Tilton got there first. Is the whole district homophobic in bizarre, creative ways like its namesake? Also, is there a Derbyshire cheese? I don’t remember it from the cheese shop sketch, but it seems that there should be.
Stan 05.11.04 at 2:13 pm
On a slightly related point, does anyone know the origin and correct definition of the social and political term “cheese eater”?
rea 05.11.04 at 2:44 pm
And why is the late Duke of Devonshire the focus of news in Derbyshire? Shouldn’t the news in Derbyshire be about the Duke of Derbyshire, leaving mourning for the Duke of Devonshire to those people down in Devon?
rea 05.11.04 at 2:46 pm
And why is the late Duke of Devonshire the focus of news in Derbyshire? Shouldn’t the news in Derbyshire be about the Duke of Derbyshire, leaving mourning for the Duke of Devonshire to those people down in Devon?
Chris Bertram 05.11.04 at 3:26 pm
The Duke of Devonshire’s country seat is Chatsworth in Derbyshire, near Bakewell (where I went to boarding school from the age of 8). There is no Duke of Derbyshire. It is one of the most beautiful of the English country houses and his wife, the youngest of the Mitford sisters (and probably the sanest) wrote an excellent book about it called “The House”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0711216754/junius-20 , which should be owned by all building afficionados.
David Sucher 05.11.04 at 5:06 pm
Chris, I’d be very grateful if you could please expand — it might make a nice post, in fact — on why The House is such a worthy book.
Chris Bertram 05.11.04 at 7:40 pm
David — Consider that a promise for the future. Today I’m too snowed under.
nick 05.12.04 at 3:37 am
Andrew Cavendish will be missed. I saved an Observer profile on him, written a few years ago, which touched on his marriage, his struggle to keep Chatsworth in the family by settling a huge death duties bill… and, of course, his penchant for yellow socks.
Unsurprisingly, the Telegraph obit is worth a read.
Zizka 05.12.04 at 6:33 am
“Cheeseater”: Can be an American ethnic slur for the Dutch (Hollanders, Netherlanders, whatever the P.C. word is for y’all). Obsolete, though it did figure in a National Lampoon spoof a couple decades ago.
“Wine and cheese liberal”: USA: an artsy elitist liberal who goes to lots of receptions. Brie is often mentioned in new updated versions of the slur.
“Blessed are the cheesemakers”: Monty Python.
“Venezuelan Beaver Cheese; Japanese Sage Darby”: Monty Python.
“Cheese-eating surrender monkeys”: Bart Simpson.
“Cheeseheads”: Green Bay Packers fan.
A prominent cheese-hating blogger (Scalzi, I think) asks why people should eat a food which smells like their feet.
My favorites: Fontina, Gorganzola.
bg 05.14.04 at 12:37 am
“‘Cheese-eating surrender monkeys’: Bart Simpson.”
Sorry Zizka, off by a bit. Although from “The Simpsons,” the line is actually delivered by Groundskeeper Willie, a Scotsman, forced to substitute teach a French class.
His first line upon entering is, “Bonjour, ya cheese eatin’ surrender monkeys!”
My fave: Mimolette
JP 05.14.04 at 7:32 am
There’s nothing so slick as a greased Scotsman.
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