James Fenton's highly enjoyable attack on "Downton Abbey" is… highly enjoyable. He may be largely right, that the soap opera has churches composed of the wrong stones and that certain behaviors are… at least improbable. (Also, sure, we all know the "burn victim" mini-plot was an episode of scripting derangement.) But Fenton's Englishness makes obscure to him the American love of the show, and so he goes far astray in his central criticism.
Ben Zimmer, who writes a language column for the Boston Globe, has edited a series of clips featuring all of Downton Abbey's various verbal anachronisms. (SPOILER ALERT FOR AMERICANS: This video contains some non-plot relevant bits from episodes 7 and 8, both of which will air in the U.S. on PBS this Sunday, February 12th. Of course, it's possible that you are some kind of scofflaw and have already watched all of season two with some illegal Internet trickery. Shame on you, but yes, you can watch this video without fear.)
Zimmer's written breakdown of the featured clips is here. (But he doesn't even take up with the whole [...]
Is the Daily Mail, London's news beast and one-stop hype beggar, right vexed with errors, false claims and scandals that beggar belief? Some people say yes!
The jazzy flap-paper shanks both celebrities and common folk on the regular, says Juliet Shaw, a lass originally from Barrow-in-Furness, late of Cumbria, and proud single mother of two young beauties. Juliet says the paper ran fecklessly roughshod over her romantic life, misstating her age, basic facts of life and inventing motivations and fabricating quotes along the way.
"I’ve never been to a garden party in my life!" shouted the misplayed miss.
The premiere of the second season of "Downton Abbey" airs on Saturday Sunday night—for British television viewers. Unfortunately, those of us on the other side of the pond have to wait for broadcast. In the meantime, here's a little project you might want to work on in anticipation, so that you will be properly attired when you do finally get to see it. Viewing parties, anyone? Some of you might want to don something similar to the gorgeous early feminist harem pants as modeled by Sybil—they're like pajama pants only totally not. I know exactly what I'm wearing: a purple hat like the Dowager Countess's.
I do [...]
