A Birthday Girl

TODAY was Elder Daughter's birthday, and her celebrations seem set to go on all week. So far she's been partying since Friday, and shows no signs of easing off yet awhile! This is the fourth night running she's been out with friends, and she's had a Birthday Breakfast (I made her bacon and egg sarnies); a Birthday Cake and Birthday Dinners.

I won't reveal how old is she is, but I do remember that when she was born it was snowing, big flakes of snow drifting down outide the window, and when The Man of the House collected us to take us home great piles of snow were piled up each side of the road, and it was so icy I couldn't push her around without slipping over - it was three weeks before the weather cleared.

Today, by contrast, was like a spring day should be. It was warm, the sun shone from a cloudless blue sky, birds sang and flowers bloomed in gardens, parks, grass verges and roundabouts.

We celebrated by going for a coffee and looking for new dresses, but neither of us found anything we liked, so I bought some lovely cheerful material, red with spots, and plan to get the ewing machine out and have a go at making something. When I first started work I used to sew lots of my own clothes, and I made things for The Daughters when they were small - I was a dab hand at dunagrees on those days! I am not sure whether I can remember how to use a sewing machine, but I won't know unless I try - all I need is a pattern!

By the time we went out I had already been to town once, intending to buy cat food, loo paper and other essentials - but arrived back home with two bags of books! (Read about the on my other blog, The Book Trunk, at http://chriscross-thebooktrunk.blogspot.com/) Then, of course, I had to buy the thing I forgot to get, so I seem to have been out and about all day, but it was so nice I didn't mind.

Anyway, as well as being Lucy's Birthday, today is also the Feast of St Easterwine, about whom ver little seems to be known, beyond the fact that he was a 7th or 8th century abbot of Wearmouth. But he has such a wonderful name I think we should celebrate him - perhaps by eating an Easter egg, or drinking wine - or both!

Boop Oop A Doop Boop

BOOP oop a doop boop! Betty Boop is 80 today – and you must admit she doesn’t look bad for her age!

She first appeared in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes, on 9 August 1930, and became hugely popular in a very short space of time, and has retained her iconic status through to the present day.

Created by Max Fleischer and animator Grim Natwick for Fleischer Studios, Betty was originally envisaged as a cross between a poodle and a woman, but soon became all woman in a series of films distributed by Paramount Pictures.

She was the first cartoon character to become a sex symbol and both her appearance and the storylines, were considered to be more than a little risqué.

Betty Boop is said to have been modelled on Helen Kane, the actress, singer and dancer known as the original ‘Boop-Oop-A-Doop’ girl, but she may also have owed something to ‘It’ girl Clara Bow.



At any rate, Kane (pictured above)sued Fleischer and Paramount, claiming they had exploited her with a caricature, but lost her case because the judge ruled that neither her appearance nor her singing style were unique.

However, by the mid-1930s new guidelines for the motion picture industry meant studio bosses had to make Betty more wholesome, with less sexual innuendo. Out went her short skirt and trademark garter, replaced by more decorous garments - but respectability came at the expense of popularity.

Today she is more popular than ever before. There is a thriving merchandising business and her name has passed into popular culture.

She may be a male fantasy, but she is viewed as strong rather than weak or down-trodden – a woman with an enormous zest for life, who is vulnerable, but lives life on her own terms, without losing her femininity.