11:00 Lois and I lead the local U3A Intermediate Danish group, and currently we're reading a murder mystery "Judaskysset" (The Judas Kiss) by Danish writer Anna Grue.
"Judaskysset" (The Judas Kiss), a murder mystery
written by Danish writer Anna Grue, the novel
that the members of our local U3A Danish group are reading
The book is centred on an affair between a menopausal college art teacher, Ursula, who's 65, and her young lover Jakob, who's 29. As most of our group members are female and 60 plus years of age, the storyline is a dream come true for many of them - their wildest fantasy. None of them has actually admitted that as yet - but you can see it in their faces sometimes on the zoom screen.
The zoom screen never lies haha!
Remember Anne Bancroft's role as "the older woman" in the classic film "The Graduate" (1967)? Ever since then, Bancroft has sort of been the spiritual leader of all the thousands of the world's older women who go to bed with younger men, hasn't she. You have to admit that!
flashback to 1967 and the iconic film "The Graduate" (1967):
Anne Bancroft as the "older woman" , who goes to bed with
one of her women friends' young sons, played by Dustin Hoffman
As joint group leader with Lois, it's my job to prepare vocabulary sheets for the group, to save them having to look up the more difficult words in a Danish-English dictionary, and today I'm reading the next 5 pages in our story and listing the difficult words. We don't have another meeting till January, but I figured I'd get this work out of the way before Christmas, so that it doesn't get forgotten.
There's a paragraph in today's portion, unfortunately, that may make uncomfortable reading for our group's female members. The story's "older woman", the menopausal college art teacher Ursula (65), is sleeping with Jakob (29), the guy who supplies the college with his home-made, non-toxic paints. And all Ursula's students know about their teacher's affair - some have even caught the couple "fooling around" in the college art room - Jakob can't seem to keep his hands off Ursula, they say, even in front of her students.
a typical "art room" at a Danish college
Ursula's students don't like it, however, when Jakob starts praising Ursula to them, implying how "she's fantastic in bed". And some of his language is starting to make a lot of the young students in Ursula's class want to "throw up", they're saying. Oh dear!
the passage from our Danish novel "Judaskysset" by Anna Grue,
the passage which may possibly cause some blushes
amongst our group's mainly female 60 yrs-plus membership - oh dear!
a typical random excerpt from one of the
vocabulary lists that I compile for our members
Surely in this day and age it's quite acceptable to talk about a 63-year-old woman being "fantastic in bed"? And isn't it a pity that the young students in Ursula's class obviously think that such language is "yuck", when it's being used about their senior art-teacher.
Generally, however, this kind of taboo about older people is on its way out, I think, as you can tell from the now frequent stories in the local press. Remember this one - it was quite recent!
I think privately that it's high time these so-called "enlightened" young Danish art students in our novel were dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, don't you!
This is 2023, for crying out loud!
20:00 Lois disappears into the kitchen to take part in her church's weekly Bible Class on zoom. I settle down on the couch and watch the latest edition of QI XL, the comedy quiz.
As always, the comedy quiz QI is a wonderful way of increasing knowledge without the pain of being a student and going to lectures, isn't it! I wish that Lois and I could catch the show more often, but unfortunately it's often on TV after we're already in bed. A particular pity, because these days it's presented by the UK's favourite "adopted Dane", Sandi Toksvig.
Did you know about the true origin of Santa Claus, I wonder?
You probably know that his real name was St. Nicholas, and that he came from somewhere in Turkey. But did you know that he was chosen almost at random to fulfil the role of the word's favourite "jolly old man", because back in the 4th century, Nicholas just happened to "walk through a door at just the right moment"?
Sandi explains:
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
And talking of Christmas, do you know why, despite all the overindulgence in turkey, roast potatoes and brussels sprouts and all that malarkey, we always seem to have room for tons of Christmas Pudding afterwards?
Yes we humans actually have 5 "appetites"! Who knew?
It seems that scientists at Oxford University in the 1990's fed 200 locusts with meals containing different proportions of protein and carbohydrates. They found that the locusts kept eating until they'd got all the protein they needed, regardless of what else was in their meal. So with a low-protein, high carb meal, they ate lots and got very fat. With the low-carb, high protein option, however, they ate much less, and lost weight.
And it's exactly the same for human beings as it is for locusts, as Sandi explains, and she reveals what our "5 stomachs" are all about....
What madness !!!!!
And do you know who invented the "modern traditional Christmas"? Bet you think it was Victorian writer Charles Dickens don't you, with his "A Christmas Carol" novel and its iconic Scrooge character, and all that malarkey.
Go on, admit it!
Wrong again!!!!! It was the American writer Washington Irving (1783-1859). and his book, "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon", written 1819-20, a quarter of a century before "A Christmas Carol" came out.
Irving talks about Christmas at a fictional place, Bracebridge Hall, bringing in mention of mistletoe, carols, ghost stories and dinner with pheasant pie and plum pudding. The story even has a character very like Scrooge in it. And story also did a lot to popularise the current image of St Nick as a loveable, jolly old Santa Claus.
Irving was one of Dickens' favourite authors, as Sandi reveals:
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
[That's enough madness for today! - Ed]21:00 Lois emerges from her zoom session, and we watch a fascinating, affectionate documentary about the career of impressionist Mike Yarwood (1941-2023), written and presented by one of his most devoted fans - Generation X impressionist Rory Bremner.
Yarwood's incredible record of biggest TV audience ever - over 21 million for his 1977 Christmas show - is never going to be beaten now, is it, with all the multiplicity of channels we have today.
He was the first person ever on TV to do comic impressions of current politicians, including Prime Ministers. Satirists had done it before, in the 1960's, but Yarwood wasn't a satirist - he was just interested in politicians for their comic value - something which they have in spades, don't they. Let's be honest!
It's impossible now to reproduce in the printed word Yarwood's brilliant but kindly impressions, when he was so accurately mimicking not just the vocal quirks, but also the facial expressions and body language of his "victims". But it's an indication of his reputation during his heyday that so many of the great and the good and the talented among his "victims" were willing to guest-star on his shows.
In this scene, Paul and Linda Macartney, get a visit from Yarwood in the guise of a "cool", "punky" version of Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey.
And before "Healey" steps into the room, we see Macartney hurriedly hiding a bunch of pound notes inside his piano.
And this unexpected visit by "Chancellor Healey" gives Paul an opportunity to complain about the tax rate he was paying as a former member of the Beatles.
Over the year, Yarwood's star "victim" of course was Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and Wilson even agreed to interview Yarwood on TV.
Wilson pointed out that Yarwood had been doing his impersonations for a long time at this point, and Wilson wanted to know, firstly whether many of his victims' voices and mannerisms had changed over all that passage of time, and secondly, whether it was a problem for Yarwood to have to constantly "update" his mimickry.
And finally, who can forget BBC presenter Esther Rantzen's iconic Boxing Day 1981 interview with Prince Charles, played by Yarwood, and Princess Di, played by actress Suzanne Danielle.
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!!
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