by jphilo | Jan 28, 2014 | Current Events
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM 5) recognizes the addictive nature of Downton Abbey. They warn fans to watch for the following signs of Downton Abbey Addiction (DAA):
10. You or those you love no longer call their spouses by their first name. Instead, in a thick English accent, they use their surname. As in “Mr. Philo, could you pick up bread at the grocery store on the way home?” To which your loved one replies in kind. As in “Certainly, Mrs. Philo, I’d be delighted.”
9. You or someone you love plans to wear a beaded flapper dress or black tails and white tie on a Valentine’s Day date.
8. Your children or the children of someone you love get this Sesame Street skit the first time they see it.
7. The first response you or someone you love as to the Harry Potter movies is, “Oh look, Professor McGonagall is played by the Dowager Countess of Grantham.
6. You or someone you love wishes your local news channel would carry more stories like this one which aired on KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa. You or someone you else also TiVoed the clip and show it when company comes to your house.
5. On Sunday evenings, you or someone you loves sets an alarm clock for 20 minutes earlier than Downton Abbey’s start time, so you can pop popcorn beforehand.
4. You or someone you know snorts liquid out your nose every you see the Downton Arby’s spoof.[youtube]http://youtu.be/NMykqW9ibiY[/youtube]
3. You or someone you love is circulating a petition to demand the Olympic Games be suspended when Downton Abbey is on television.
2. Ditto for the Super Bowl and the Grammys.
1. The list of potential baby names for your next child or grandchild consists of these names: Mary, Edith, Sibyl, Violet, Cora, Ivy, Anna, Daisy, Rose, Bates, Grantham, John, Matthew, Tom, Robert, Carson, and Alfred.
The DSM 5 recommends that if you or someone you love is displaying three or more of the above behaviors, they should begin attending Downton Abbey Addiction Anonymous (DAAA) immediately. Groups meet 24/7 except for Sunday evenings when the show airs.
What DAA symptoms are you or someone you love exhibiting. Begin your comment with, “Hi, my name is ______________________ and I’m a Downton Abbey Addict.
by jphilo | Apr 2, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
A favorite recent pastime of mine has been watching BBC TV comedies and dramas via Netflix streaming. The origin of this bad habit can be traced directly to last spring, when Hiram was laid up with a bad back for 6 weeks. After 2 weeks of me driving to the library every day to check out more DVDs for the man of steel to watch, we decided a free month of Netflix was well worth the money.
Well, you know how that kind of thing goes. By the end of our free month, we were hooked on Doc Martin and Lost. We’ve been paying for the service ever since, and to make sure we get our money’s worth, a whole lotta BBC TV dramas…and a few comedies are part of our instant queue. So now, almost a year into my addiction, here are the top ten perks United States citizens can enjoy while watching BBC TV entertainment shows.
10. BBC miniseries of classic English novels are a much more entertaining way to “read” CliffsNotes than CliffsNotes.
9. Dr. Who is an inter-generational bonding experience. Hiram and the kids talk about episodes all the time. So do high school kids when I talk to their classes. So do middle and high school kids at church. Though I have yet to watch the show, the time is drawing near to bite the Dr. Who bullet and start laughing with them.
8. BBC shows allow Americans to vicariously enjoy a good, old-fashioned English tea–complete with scones, clotted cream, lemon curd, and cucumber sandwiches–while wondering how the English can eat 4 meals a day and not struggle with obesity as much as we do.
7. Nobody does costume dramas like the BBC. Ever heard of Dowton Abbey? Case in point.
6. Thanks to the scenery shots in several shows, Hiram and I are developing quite a list of places in the United Kingdom we plan to visit when we are rich.
5. All those Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Cockney, Yorkshire, and aristocratic English accents make a person admire Hugh Laurie for nailing his plain, old, ordinary American accent in House.
4. BBC shows are the perfect opportunity to visit a different culture without having to learn a new language.
3. Then again, you can feel sorta bilingual once you’re able to translate the following UK English terms into good ‘ole US of A English:
jumper=sweater
trainers=tennis shoes
boot of a car=trunk
bonnet=hood of a car
vegetable marrow=squash
spanner=wrench
torch=flashlight
2. When you get tired of watching BBC shows, you can day dream, as I do, of a movie where Rowen Atkinsen and Robin Williams are co-starts. Do you think they would stick to the script?
1. English actors rotate from show to show, and from miniseries to miniseries. So every new series or production is like old home week. For example, consider the BBC miniseries North and South based on the English novel by Elizabeth Gaskill. (Not to be confused with the American miniseries based on John Jake’s books.) The male lead, John Thornton, Richard Armitage, plays Thoren Oakenshield in The Hobbit. Anna Maxwell Martin, who is Bessy Higgins in North and South, was the female lead in Bleak House. And guess who plays Nicholas Higgins, the father of Bessy? Brendan Coyle, also known as Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey. Kinda feels like watching Hollywood westerns from the 1960s when the same actors played the character roles in every movie.
What are your favorite BBC perks? Leave a comment
photo source
by jphilo | Mar 6, 2013 | Recipes
Between yesterday’s top ten list and today’s recipe, it feels like Downton Abbey Week along our gravel road. Today’s recipe comes compliments of Downton Abbey Cooks, the brainchild of food historian Pamela Foster. You can find Foster’s original recipe, along with many other Edwardian England dishes, in her post about guilt-free scones.
I spotted the recipe while sitting under the dryer and reading the paper at the hair dresser’s. It sounded so good, I came home and created my own dairy-free version. The scones were an immediate winner, receiving the coveted Hiram seal of approval. They were light, crispy, and flavorful. They will be a staple at our house, even though we don’t have a kitchen maid to sift the flour 3 times!
Downton Abbey Dairy-Free Scones
1 cup unnbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons frozen lard
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup dried fruit (I used dried cranberries)
Heat oven to 450°. Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder. Sift three times. (Or have Daisy the kitchen maid do that part.) Add sugar and mix in well. Grate frozen lard (another job for Daisy) and add to dry ingredients. Lightly cut in by hand until mixture has the consistency of sand. Stir in dried fruit. Add almond milk, a tablespoon at a time, mixing dough with a fork after each addition. Stop when dough holds together, but before it gets sticky.
Kneed dough gently a few times. Do not overwork! Form dough into a circle and place on a cookie sheet or heated baking stone. Press dough until it’s a circle 1/3 inch thick. With a knife, cut into 8 wedges.* Separate them slightly. Bake for 5–7 minutes.
by jphilo | Mar 5, 2013 | Top Ten Tuesday
While waiting for my stomach to stop rolling from all the plot twists in Downton Abbey, Season 3, several burning questions came to mind. The top ten made this week’s list. Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t yet watched Season 3, stop reading now!
10. Would citizens of the 1920s really have been so open-minded about homosexuality?
9. Can Mrs. Hughes and Phyllis Logan possibly be the same person?
8. Will Daisy accept her father-in-law’s offer to take over the farm?
7. Are Lord Grantham and Lady Cora up to the task of riding herd on Rose?
6. What will come of the Dowager Countess poking her Maggie Smith-shaped nose in the business of a fallen woman?
5. Why did Lady Sybil have to die? Ditto for Matthew?
4. How will Lady Mary ever recover?
3. Could Lady Mary and Tom Branson become an item? Or is that too tidy? How about Tom and Rose instead?
2. Is Lady Edith about to ruin her reputation by engaging in a scandalous romance?
1. Will there ever be a bouncing Baby Bates?
What are your burning Downton Abbey questions? Leave a comment.
Photo source
by jphilo | Feb 7, 2013 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- At the risk of sounding like a poor hostess, I would like to ask the 2012-13 cold and flu season to leave our house. Now.
- Anyone else unhappy with Season 3, Episode 4 of Downton Abbey?
- When our grandson grows up and becomes president of the United States, my plan is to sing the National Anthem live, rather than lip sync it, at his inauguration.
photo credit: www.stock.xchnge.hu
