On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 02:42:31PM -0800, Philip Hart <philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU> wrote: > On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 Talpianna at aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 11/18/2003 1:26:15 PM US Mountain Standard Time, > > philiph at SLAC.Stanford.EDU writes: > > Dumb question, but is Sethra technically a noble? I can certainly imagine > > she's been knighted or whatever, but maybe titles, uhh, expire upon death. > > Or she might not have bothered. I believe I recall Vlad saying she likes > > to be announced as just SL - maybe he doesn't realize there's nothing > > more to be announced... > > Perhaps in the spirit of one of the great rival courtesans of fin de siecle > > Paris. One of them once entered Maxim's one evening wearing all the jewelry > > she'd been given--lit up the room with the blaze. Next day her rival entered > > Maxim's wearing no jewelry at all--followed by her maid wearing all her > > mistress's jewelry. > Were maids allowed openly to have mistresses? The maid's mistress, ie, the rival courtesan herself. > Even in gay Paree that might have been a bit much. > Seriously, I don't understand how this is effective one-up-womanship. The rival courtesan demonstrated, in a single stroke: 1) That she was beautiful without need for jewelry 2) That she didn't care about the financial rewards of her position 3) Indirectly accusing her rival of caring about those rewards 4) That her MAID, whose taste may be questionable, and whose status is certainly lower, could afford jewelry of a quality and quantity (presumably) to match her rival's best. 5) And if 4 is true, the rival courtesan herself must be able to match and exceed the original display... 6) ... but has the taste not to do so, as it would be a petty contest.... 7) ... with one of her inferiors. Thus, indeed, a masterstroke. -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp