A Book, a Burger a Compliment

Dear readers, I bought a book today, it is called "The Jane Austen Handbook (Proper Life Skills from Regency England)". The book sort of discusses what was expected of young ladies and gentlemen, the first chapter is "How to Become an Accomplished Lady" ans suggests that they study several languages, acquire a basic grasp of geography and history, become a proficient musician, draw or paint the picturesque, master the art of needlework and learn to dance gracefully. I should explain a little more, the author wrote the book so that people reading the lovely Jane would understand what the people that she wrote about lived like.

What would you recommend young ladies to learn today, not saying that the skills Jane recommended would not be useful today; but, certainly we would expect ladies today to have a different set of skills. Clearly a good understanding of language and math, an ability to cook and basic mechanical skills (should be able to take care of oneself). An ability with some art (music, painting, sculpture...) because we should all know the joy of art, it frees us to be more expressive. When I was younger I wrote music (just lyrics had to keep the rhythm in my head), drew quite extensively and of course I liked to write. Knowledge of basic geography and history is essential to understanding the world, it is even more useful now because the internet links us with people in other countries in real time and we should have some understanding of them and their history.

I was on a chat site and most of the people I interacted with were in foreign countries. It was nice to already have a basic understanding of their countries, it helped me to get a sense of them. Americans know too little about other countries and that is not going to help them as we interact more and more internationally.

I guess the question is why I bought the book. I bought it because of the burger. Really, the burger led to the book. I was driving home and decided to get a Umami Burger, they are exclusive to Southern California. I had read that they were supposed to be the best burger in Southern California, I decided to try one. Now, I do not promote any products and I paid for mine, I even had a friend come meet me and have one also. Two burgers, one beer, one wine and one Bubble up, fries and mushed potatoes later (between the two of us), including tip I spent about $60. Okay I didn't say it was cheap and I tip well.

I had the burger with truffle sauce, I like truffles. It was an excellent burger, top notch, the service was fantastic (had a very sweet waitress) and the atmosphere was young but calm. I would recommend it to others. Heck after eating half mine, that is when I decided to call my friend to come and try it. Just taking a little time to stop and smell the roses so to speak. Most days I just grab something easy.

Well, after having my burger I decided to stop in this little store that was nearby and had replicas of old stuff like games and jewelry and nick knacks. I saw the book, it was about Jane and I bought it.

Unrelated to all of this was something that happened today, a compliment. A very nice lady that works in my building told me that she loved one of my recent posts. She told me that when she read my stuff she could hear my voice in her head and that my writing was sort of addictive to her. That was of the kindest compliments I have ever heard and really made me feel good. I believe I write fairly clearly; but, when I read Jane, I know I can never write like she could.