Re: agony column...

Han Donghoon wrote:

A newspaper named 'Mail' have their own column knowned as 'agony
column'. About that column the writer tells like this,

---------
Tragedy and comedy mingle in the Agony Column. Erring ones are
urged to return for forgiveness; unwelcome suitors are warned that
"Father has warrant prepared; fly, Dearest One!" Loves that would
shame by their ardor Abelard and Heloise are frankly published--at
ten cents a word--for all the town to smile at. The gentleman in
the brown derby states with fervor that the blonde governess who
got off the tram at Shepherd's Bush has quite won his heart. Will
she permit his addresses? Answer; this department. For three
weeks West had found this sort of thing delicious reading. Best of
all, he could detect in these messages nothing that was not open
and innocent. At their worst they were merely an effort to
side-step old Lady Convention; this inclination was so rare in
the British, he felt it should be encouraged. Besides, he was
inordinately fond of mystery and romance, and these engaging twins
hovered always about that column.

Is this actually an English novel or an American one? There's lots of
internal evidence that it's left-pondian.

---------
From 'Best of all, he could...' to 'old Lady Convention', I coundn't
figure out what it means. 'old Lady Convention'? What on earth!

"'Old Lady Covention" is a personification of the accepted beahavrioural
norms. What "he" is saying is that the entries in the column seem to him to
be very natural and not confined to the conventional modes and customs.


And one request of the column as...

---
WATERLOO: Wed. 11:53 train. Lady who left in taxi and waved,
care to know gent, gray coat? --SINCERE.

---
What a short, quite abrupt sentence... I can understand some rather
dignified request, but this seems to me too short, and ungrammatical
one.

Remember that people who submot entries to the column are reported as paying
ten cents a word, hence the abrupt phrasing.


--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus III
web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk

Defend the waterways.
Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk


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