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It seems I'm the victim of natural selection
From Right Ho, Jeeves (1934):
Nevertheless, I found myself blaming Gussie. On discovering that he was stressing the newt note in this manner, he ought, of course, to have tuned out, even if it had meant sitting there saying nothing. No matter how much of a twitter he was in, he should have had sense enough to see that he was throwing a spanner into the works. No girl, when she has been led to expect that a man is about to pour forth his soul in a fervour of passion, likes to find him suddenly shelving the whole topic in favour of an address on aquatic Salamandridae.
"Bad, Jeeves."
"Yes, sir."
"And how long did this nuisance continue?"
"For some not inconsiderable time, I gather, sir. According to Mr. Fink-Nottle, he supplied Miss Bassett with very full and complete information not only with respect to the common newt, but also the crested and palmated varieties. He described to her how newts, during the breeding season, live in the water, subsisting upon tadpoles, insect larvae, and crustaceans; how, later, they make their way to the land and eat slugs and worms; and how the newly born newt has three pairs of long, plumelike, external gills. And he was just observing that newts differ from salamanders in the shape of the tail, which is compressed, and that a marked sexual dimorphism prevails in most species, when the young lady rose and said that she thought she would go back to the house."
"And then—"
"She went, sir."
I hope P.G. Wodehouse saw this film.
(Oh, my God, they did one on cellular slime mold. I don't care if the commentary is inappropriately jokey, I must find a copy.)
Nevertheless, I found myself blaming Gussie. On discovering that he was stressing the newt note in this manner, he ought, of course, to have tuned out, even if it had meant sitting there saying nothing. No matter how much of a twitter he was in, he should have had sense enough to see that he was throwing a spanner into the works. No girl, when she has been led to expect that a man is about to pour forth his soul in a fervour of passion, likes to find him suddenly shelving the whole topic in favour of an address on aquatic Salamandridae.
"Bad, Jeeves."
"Yes, sir."
"And how long did this nuisance continue?"
"For some not inconsiderable time, I gather, sir. According to Mr. Fink-Nottle, he supplied Miss Bassett with very full and complete information not only with respect to the common newt, but also the crested and palmated varieties. He described to her how newts, during the breeding season, live in the water, subsisting upon tadpoles, insect larvae, and crustaceans; how, later, they make their way to the land and eat slugs and worms; and how the newly born newt has three pairs of long, plumelike, external gills. And he was just observing that newts differ from salamanders in the shape of the tail, which is compressed, and that a marked sexual dimorphism prevails in most species, when the young lady rose and said that she thought she would go back to the house."
"And then—"
"She went, sir."
I hope P.G. Wodehouse saw this film.
(Oh, my God, they did one on cellular slime mold. I don't care if the commentary is inappropriately jokey, I must find a copy.)
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I'll bet he did. That is the most marvellous discovery.
I must find a copy.
Sings: "Oh here we go slithering, here we go slithering and squelching on..."
Can you hack into the BFI?
Nine
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Unfortunately not. And I am not a UK school, college, university or library.
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Well, sometimes.
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Thankfully, this is no longer always the case.
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One may view the relevant episode of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie's Jeeves & Wooster starting here, although not in the highest quality of video. (The odd amberish tint makes it look like an even more antique piece of photography than it purports to be.)
"Oh, Bertie! Life would be so much simpler if were newts!"
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Amen.
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Sorry, just had to say it.
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These things happen.