Annotations and comments

Paul Chapin has posted 849 annotations/comments since 17 January 2003.

Comments

First Reading

About Friday 19 September 1662

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Sir Walter Raleigh the first English colonizer of America
True, but the key word was "permanent" colony. Sir Walter's colonies did not endure.

About Saturday 20 September 1662

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"the 18th century became known as The Age of Scurvy"
Until my hero, Captain James Cook, became the first sea captain to keep his men free from scurvy by forcing them to drink citrus juice from limes and other fruits. From which came the term "limey" - but you all knew that.

About Friday 19 September 1662

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Who's On First?
Not only were the Pilgrims not the first Europeans to establish a permanent colony in the New World (1620), they weren't even the first Englishmen. The Jamestown Colony in Virginia was established in 1607.

About Friday 5 September 1662

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Farmer of the Customs
Two of the worthies with whom Sam dined today are named in their L&M blurbs as "farmer of the customs". This was a new term to me, so I did a little searching, and found the following definition of "farmer" in Webster's Unabridged 1913 edition (sorry, don't have OED access):
(c) One who takes taxes, customs, excise, or other duties, to collect, either paying a fixed annuual rent for the privilege; as, a farmer of the revenues.

About Wednesday 20 August 1662

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Pogo Redux (partly)
I don't know how long Phil will let us stretch this Pogo thread, but I'll mention that Fantagraphics Books set out a few years ago to republish all of the Pogo strips. They got up to Volume 11, 1954, and then apparently stopped, I'm not sure why, or whether they plan to resume the project in the future. Most of the volumes can be purchased on Amazon. You can find more details at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

About Thursday 31 July 1662

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Coventry and Brown(e)
I read this incident differently from Terry F. I think the "he" that was "cruel angry" was Coventry, angry at Browne because he had not yet sailed the Rosebush for Jamaica as he was supposed to. Coventry threatened to go to the Duke (James) and have Browne dismissed from his command ("turned out") for dereliction of duty. Then over lunch Coventry and Pepys decided to go check on the ship, and found her unready for sea ("all things out of order"). They put a scare into the officers, on the ship and in the yard, deciding that that was the most effective way to get things in order and the ship under way.

About Wednesday 16 July 1662

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Who would be Lady Castlemaine's equivalent today?
You would need to look for somebody prominent in her own right who consorts with the most powerful political figures of the day. Paris Hilton doesn't qualify unless somebody catches her in bed with George Bush or Dick Cheney (now there is a truly disturbing image). Neither does Monica Lewinsky, who had no stature of her own. A recent example might be Elizabeth Ward Gracen, the former Miss America who had an affair with Bill Clinton. A better one would be Marilyn Monroe with John Kennedy, although the public didn't know about that one until much later.

About Movies set in Pepys' time

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The Libertine
Yesterday I read an interview with Johnny Depp, the actor, in which he said he expected the film The Libertine to be released in the U.S. toward the end of 2005. Depp stars in the film as the Earl of Rochester, and John Malkovich plays Charles II. The film was made a while ago, and has played at some festivals, but has not yet been generally released.

About Wednesday 2 July 1662

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"callousness"
Sam clearly thinks that Mr. Davis/Davies is exaggerating the impact of this family event to excuse himself from his duties beyond what is really warranted. I have certainly worked with people who did exactly that, so I can sympathize with Sam's annoyance, even though we can't know now how justified it was.

About Leads

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Is it pronounced "leds" (my guess) or "leeds" (my wife's guess)?

About Saturday 21 June 1662

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Wayneman - guilty or not?
Everyone seems to assume, with Sam, that Wayneman finally told the truth after being severely beaten. Maybe. We don't know the basis for the accusations by Elizabeth and "the maids" (one of whom was Wayneman's sister Jane). But it also seems possible that Wayneman simply gave in and said whatever it took to stop the beating. It is well known that torture victims can be made to "confess" to pretty much anything.
Today I don't like Sam very much.

About Thursday 12 June 1662

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"a full Board"
Well, not quite, Berkeley was missing as usual. Interesting that Sam doesn't even mention his absence - apparently it is taken for granted.

BTW, thanks to Cumgranissalis for explaining the 3p bit, which I had not understood.

About Monday 21 April 1662

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the profit will not be considerable?
I disagree with JWB's interpretation, on grounds of diction. I don't think that's a phrase Sam would use. Sam's style in the negative would be to say something like "the profit will not be much." But Mary or someone else with L&M can quickly set us straight on the correct text.