1 EAGLETON NOTES: Ignorance is, well, Ignorance.

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Wednesday 12 June 2013

Ignorance is, well, Ignorance.

Am I the only person in the world who didn't know until tonight what happened at the end of the third series of Downton Abbey aired in the 2012 Christmas Day Special when I was in New Zealand?  Because I hadn't seen the full second series I decided that I wouldn't seek any information so that I could watch everything at my leisure back here in the UK.  Until tonight that is when after the 6 O'clock News, Dan Stevens, was on The One Show.  He played Mathew Crawley in Downton although his real name meant absolutely nothing to me.  The Show started off with the clip from the Christmas Show giving the whole game away.  Despite the fact that many (including Frances Garrood) have nothing but robust contempt for Downton it is one of the most widely watched television programmes in the world! 

Although it has nothing at all to do with this post I thought that you might like to see a young Sparrow which posed this evening on a branch I have set up near the bird table so that I can get better photos of the birds that inhabit it.  She hasn't yet learned how to be elegant!  Apart from that I'm not quite sure how she managed to land like that.

30 comments:

  1. I'm sorry Dan spoiled it all for you...he didn't know that you're the only person in the world that hadn't caught up yet.....smile.
    Dan is a very bad boy....what on earth was he thinking????
    Hope you will be soon able to get a chance to watch all the episodes to catch up.

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    1. Actually Virginia they started off the programme with the clip. Plain inconsiderate if you ask me but then as I'm the only person who didn't know `i don't suppose they cared much.

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  2. I heard about the ending - but have have not watched it. If they are going to kill off the cast it loses its appeal.....this was one death too many too soon- I probably will watch it one day but not in a hurry - and I was glued to it before that!

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    1. Actually, Fi, I don't really mind knowing the ending because there's so much more to the programme than just the main characters. Leastways that's what I'm telling myself. Now if they killed off Lady Mary I might think differently!

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  3. No, you aren't the only person, Graham. I still wouldn't have a clue as I didn't see any of the series. Who knows, maybe one day I will. That's a lovely photo of the little sparrow, very cute.

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  4. It won't surprise you to know that I can be added to the list of folk, who have no idea what you're talking about. No need for a 'catch-up' for me. I have no idea who you are talking about - by either of his names. I think I still know who is the prime minister though.

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    1. But then Marcel you don't watch anything so you can't be expected to know.

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  5. I am with you there Marcel. I haven't watched any of them. Have we got a Prime Minister?

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    1. I think we've got about three, Spesh.

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    2. We only have two but they don't add up to a whole one.

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    3. I've nothing to add to that one.

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  6. I have never seen any either....Is it like a period version of Eastenders?

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    1. No Adrian, they shout in Eastenders. They just stab each other quietly at the other end of the scale.

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    2. Is Albert Tatlock still in that?

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  7. In Sweden we love British drama and I have seen the whole series including the last episode of season 3. And if anyone missed it, they're running the whole of season 3 again during summer. I also recorded it on DVD though. Should probably watch the last episode again because I could almost have sworn when I read your post above that I'd already seen season 4 as well. Whatever gave me that idea?!

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    1. Season 4 is being recorded at the moment I think Monica. I still haven't managed to finish Season 2! I need some long dark winters nights.

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    2. Yes, I looked it up to check when I read this post - and then realized there was no chance I could have seen season four yet... So I guess I'll have to keep my predictions to myself! (Just kidding. I had mixed up a few details in my head, that's all. I won't tell you how, since you have not even started watching season 3 yet.)

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  8. I like the title of your essay. It also illustrates one of my favourite theories about punctuation. Without the first comma, it reads:
    "Ignorance is well, Ignorance." Similar to, "All is well." And poetic with the repetition of the second use of the word ignorance.

    I was very sorry that Dan Steven opted to take himself out of Downton Abbey, Season 4. Our entire family loves the show. I particularly like the tension between Penelope Wilton and Maggie Smith's characters. We just recently re-watched "Gosford Park" for about the third or fourth time, and Maggie Smith is as enchantingly awful as ever. And I do think that Dan Stevens/Matthew Crawley will be missed in any future episodes. I mean, darn it all, we survived WWI with him and then he dies in a silly car crash? Please! That's not fair to his millions of fans! And I know life's not fair, which is why I expect good to triumph and life to be fair in art!

    By the way, I just finished Peter May's trilogy about Lewis: The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man, and the Chessmen. I loved them. Peter May is one of those rare writers who can limn the scenery in just a few words or phrases and make the weather and the environment almost a character in the story. The only other writer I can think of off hand who does that is Tony Hillerman, with his Leaphorn and Chee mysteries set in New Mexico. Love those too.

    It's good to see your posts again, for some reason, they vanished from my system for about a month, and I really missed them. Have a great weekend. xoxoxo

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    1. Thanks Carol. I'll watch anything with Maggie Smith in it. She's usually very good value. I enjoy period dramas as well. As for commas, I am a great believer in the correct use of punctuation although I seem to be part of a very small minority. The question is are you a believer in the use of the Oxfor comma? I've been meaning to do a post on that for ages.

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    2. GB, I am covered with shame to have to admit I don't know what the Oxford comma is. Perhaps I learned about it under another name?

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    3. You have given me the incentive to work more on my punctuation post Carol. I may, however, just do a short one on the Oxford Comma. There is a limit to how much interest one can muster on the subject of grammar or punctuation these days.

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    4. Thanks, GB, I appreciate the help. BTW, I have a friend Beth, and we amuse ourselves looking for (and sadly finding) tons of ways in which the English language is mangled, both on the air and in print. I'll have to see if I can find some of the more glaring ones to share with you!

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  9. Make that two people who didn't know, and put my name on the list of people who STILL don't know :-)
    I'll only find out when - and if - the friend who lent me the first two series on DVD will let me have the third.

    The little sparrow reminds me of what I dreamed last night. It involved robins and sparrows and tits, they were all resting on the small ledge above our front door, and in my dream, I was tall enough to reach there to stroke them.

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    1. That sounds, Meike, like a nice dream. I so rarely have pleasant ones. I'd love to know what I have done to earn unpleasant dreams.

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    2. Perhaps like Scrooge it was just a blot of mustard?? :)

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    3. Now it's my turn to confess ignorance Carol. After my Russian Novel phase in my early 20s I bought the complete works of Charles Dickens with the intention of working my way through them. I never got past the first few chapters of one or two. I just could not get into Dickens. So the significance of the blot of mustard alludes me.

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    4. Tsk, tsk, GB. The line is from Dickens' "Christmas Carol" when Scrooge doesn't believe he's actually seeing Marley's ghost but believes it might be just an hallucination brought on by a bit of undigested beef or a blot of mustard.

      BTW, I share your opinion of Dickens. I had to read some of his works for literature classes, and found them very heavy going indeed. Personally, I feel the Victorians have much to answer for in the hangups we all have as a result of their interests about death and sex, which were both puritanical and prurient, usually simultaneously!!

      xoxo

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