Dragaera

Thoughts about Piro and Krytaan....

Tue Nov 18 15:11:12 PST 2003


On Tue, 18 Nov 2003, Matthew Hunter wrote:

> 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:
> > >   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.

Dude, you're standing on my joke.  And wiping your muddy boots off on it.


> > 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.


Half of these seem to contradict the others - but ok.  Anyway I
really just wanted to coin or use the word "one-up-womanship."