Rather Short in the Leg...

Elizabeth Taylor is gone. I always liked her because she seemed to have a lovely, bawdy sense about herself (which belied the stunning delicacy of her beauty, particularly when she was young). And she could act. And her life was such a mess it would have been rejected if it were a novel as too improbable. But what I really love is this, from The New York Times obit:

One prominent and perhaps surprising dissenter about her looks was Richard Burton, who was twice her husband. The notion of his wife as “the most beautiful woman in the world is absolute nonsense,” he said.

“She has wonderful eyes,” he added, “but she has a double chin and an overdeveloped chest, and she’s rather short in the leg.”

And when she acted in Lassie Come Home as a child, someone thought her eyelashes were fake and told her to take them off. Sorry: issued at birth.

She wasn't a Hepburn or a Bergman or a Monroe, but she was excellently herself.

Tarsio's Dry Goods

For those who inquired, goods of various sorts are now available. When I know what the cover is for The Sleeping Partner there will doubtless be more. I find this whole thing fabulously silly.

Business Cards

In one of the Cafe Press posts, bookmobiler asked whether Miss Tolerance had a business card. My suspicion was that she did not (she would likely have considered it a non-essential expense. Had she remained Sarah Brereton she might have had visiting cards--which my sources tell me were invented (in France) in the 17th century. If you made a call at someone's house and they were not there, you left your card so the recipient of the call would know if they had to return the call. Initially, visiting cards were playing cards with a note scribbled on the back. Of course things immediately got more refined.

In the 18th century England there was something like a business card, called a trade card. It was essentially a small ad, might have a map to the giver's shop; these were likely one color printing jobs (and classier than the handbills that plastered every wall in the less charming parts of town). Once printing got more refined (say, in the early 19th century) and color was added, things got even more interesting:



By the middle of the 19th century what we think of as business cards had become more what we think of today: small cards with the business's vital contact information on it. There was a sharp distinction between business cards and visiting cards--one would never think of leaving a business card on a social call. Just not done. Apparently everyone, rich or poor, might use a business card, but visiting cards were generally used by the well to do (and those who aspired).


So in answer to the initial question: I don't think Miss Tolerance has business cards. Emma Peel (whom Sarcasm Girl impersonated one Halloween) has business cards that say "Mrs. Emma Peel, talented amateur." I know because I printed them myself.