Yorkshire saying, funny meaning peculiar. I was just reading people on Twitter explaining people's jokes to the people who wrote them, and it reminded me of a couple of hilarious encounters of the weird kind right here in this blog.
As you know, I use Boud as a screen name, largely in honor of a long gone cat Boudicca, named for the British warrior queen who came very close to defeating the Romans at the battle of Colchester. Small but deadly. Boud the cat was six pounds at her heaviest, and a handful in both senses.
She would do awkward kid tricks like run and put her tiny paw into the insignificant little hole in my oriental rug, caused by a cinder falling out of the fire. Usually when I had guests admiring the rug before she pointed out its flaw. After that it was all oh what a pity it's ruined..
Anyway I had a series of emails from a lady who found the name Boud on my blog, said she'd been directed to it by a website about genealogy.
She wanted me to tell her all I could about her ancestor Elizabeth Boud. I explained it wasn't my name, and she got angrier and angrier that I wouldn't help her.
I asked for the website so I could get in touch and have them remove the false lead. She refused, and said you're the kind of person who makes genealogy hard, refusing to share information. We're probably related, you might be a distant cousin.
I couldn't dislodge the idea, so I quietly retreated. She's probably still complaining about this vital contact who wouldn't share!
Then there's the floor lady who had read my posts where I crowd-sourced my choices of laminate flooring, showing pix ofaof sample colors, and having people reading this blog help me choose.
It was during the caregiving years, I couldn't leave Handsome Partner to go to see samples at the store. So they kindly brought some to the house, knowing I was serious, needing to replace carpeting which is dangerous for a wheelchair and a Hoyer lift. Anyway I needed input and blogistas got right into it with me.
This lady tried to book me to lay flooring at her house. No amount of explaining I didn't do floors worked. I offered to tell her the company I'd used and been pleased with. Then she accused me of fobbing her off to any old workers when she wanted my work.. again, quietly strolling away was required, leaving her threatening me with reporting for refusing her business. I wondered if there were a Floor and Rug Police Force somewhere.
Amazing what contortions people can get themselves into with no outside assistance.
Back to today. Books ahoy!
My latest library drive-by loot:
Stormy days this week, so I'll be occupied.
(Ed.note to Marilyn: notice Meg got me Bel Canto. She got a copy for herself, too,so we're on.)
I just looked up and there's the afternoon hummingbird whipping around the butterfly bush. It's a female. Solidarity!
Anyway, Beautiful Metaphor calls. Wait till I write it then check.
https://beautifulmetaphor.blogspot.com
Tea next. Sadly no cake left, sigh.
As Robert Owens said, "All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer."
ReplyDeleteYou're going to love "Bel Canto." Or at least I hope you will. I sure did.
Ive read several Ann patchett works, and like her a lot. Bel Canto is the one most people I know start with, and I'm finally getting around to it.
DeleteThank you for my laugh - even though I know it wasn't the least bit amusing when you were in the throes of it. Reminded me of the time I mentioned on my blog that I was suffering from 'piles' (meaning of the sort that amass on flat surfaces) but someone took it to mean I had hemorrhoids and very seriously informed me that Preparation H was an excellent product for those sorts of things. I didn't enlighten her because I couldn't stop laughing long enough!
ReplyDeleteYou may end up with two comments saying the same thing - blog-grrr hiccuped. Again.
DeleteI remember that one. At first I thought she was pulling your leg, then realized she was being very caring and helpful. At least that was the idea.
DeleteI have never had any such incidents with blogging thankfully. People can be persistent by the sound of it. It must have been frustrating to deal with.
ReplyDeleteIt went on for weeks and got funnier and funnier. Neither person was able to admit she'd been mistaken, and leave gracefully. So I was as kind I could be, not wanting to mortify them further.
DeleteYou really had your share of, shall we say insisting and intruding people on your blog. The worst thing that's happened to me lately is so many thinking I'm homesick for Sweden. You said you could relate. I left in 1962, haven't been there for a visit since 2005. Love it here in my canyon on my 20 acres with no neighbors, except Joyce. And bel canto is an interesting book, I think you will enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for people who've never done it to realize that you know what you're doing when you emigrate. And there are good reasons. Heck, if you're still here after decades, clearly you're not homesick for a place you scarcely know any more. I've never looked back. This was home from the minute I set foot on it. It felt right, which my native land never did, and still feels right, even in our current crisis. But this is I guess next to impossible to grasp if you've never done it.
DeleteI've read Bel Canto. I think it was the first Ann Patchett I read and it sent me in search of her other books.
ReplyDeleteMy problem in my blog name...My Tate Gallery. I get emails from artists wanting to show me their work. And, like you I have had issues. Quite a few do not believe me when I tell them I have absolutely nothing to do with the Tate gallery. I try to be polite but after awhile I just ignore their emails. My husband is a Tate from Liverpool and despite many years of genealogical research I have not found any link to the Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle that the Tate Gallerys are named after. Coincidentally I was born in the same part of London where Henry Tate lived.
ReplyDeleteSounds like amateur night at the Bijou, people imagining you can get into the Tate by just asking out of the blue! Like the "I could write a best seller if I had time"!
DeleteThey're probably unaware that your talent is streets ahead and you act on it, putting it out there. Oh well.