Saturday, February 09, 2008

Well read - not

My retired lady who comes for an English lesson arrived last week with a newspaper cutting from a local paper which was about English people. More English people believe Sherlock Holmes existed that think that Sir Winston Churchill was a real person. They also think that King Richard the Lion Heart was a fictional character. I know there was a TV series when I was a child, but….

I added to the discussion with the news that I had heard. Woolworths was withdrawing its range of bedroom furniture for little girls after complaints from parents. They had called the furniture range “Lolita”. Apparently no one involved in the choice of name had heard of the book – or the films.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you know that there are actually some people who don't believe that Santa Claus is real? And that the tales of Gemima Puddle and Peter rabbit are a fib, made up by some woman who lived in the Lake District? Terrible!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, should have said "...Gemima Puddleduck & Peter Rabbit...."

Anji said...

Nice old gentleman: The reason why so many mummies and daddies have to spend a lot of money on Christmas pressies is because their children don't believe. Santa Claus doesn't visit houses where they don't believe. Brer Rabbit lived in the wood on our farm - my daddy told me.

Voegtli said...

People often think that people who have not existed did exist and the other way around. As for me, I know that Wilhelm Tell is a mith.

Neutron said...

Hi Anji...I get this all the time! Notably here:
http://neutronnews.blogspot.com/2005/05/fig-leaf-of-my-imagination.html

Anji said...

Peter: I remember you wrote about Wilhelm some time ago...

Neutron: great post!

I'm just waiting for Mr. Darcy to pop round for tea.

Doris said...

I didn't know they had given that reason for the Lolita beds. Gosh! I must be getting old!!!!