Ken Miner
2008-03-08 20:53:42 UTC
It is not only in "Jeeves and the Impending Doom" but also in _Cocktail
Time_ that an angry swan is featured. (No doubt there are other such swans
in PGW; if so I am sure some of you can tell me.)
In _Cocktail Time_, Raymond Bastable (the eminent barrister) is also
marooned on an island (a different one) looking for an important letter, as
you recall; and we read in chapter 17:
"This hissing sound had proceeded not from it [Bastable's high blood
pressure] but from the lips of a fine swan..."
I have studied the matter closely, and I submit that swans, no matter how
fine, do not have lips. They have beaks. The upper beak is called the
maxillary beak, while the lower beak is called the mandibular beak. Ask
Jeeves. Not a lip to be found.
I thought editors in PGW's time actually edited, but apparently some of them
were no more alert than ours today.
Ken
Time_ that an angry swan is featured. (No doubt there are other such swans
in PGW; if so I am sure some of you can tell me.)
In _Cocktail Time_, Raymond Bastable (the eminent barrister) is also
marooned on an island (a different one) looking for an important letter, as
you recall; and we read in chapter 17:
"This hissing sound had proceeded not from it [Bastable's high blood
pressure] but from the lips of a fine swan..."
I have studied the matter closely, and I submit that swans, no matter how
fine, do not have lips. They have beaks. The upper beak is called the
maxillary beak, while the lower beak is called the mandibular beak. Ask
Jeeves. Not a lip to be found.
I thought editors in PGW's time actually edited, but apparently some of them
were no more alert than ours today.
Ken