Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Unalike in that respect

My Mum came over for a short stay this week. While she was here, I read her out a bit of an article by Katharine Whitehorn on being a "domestic slut." It had originally been published in the Observer in 1963.
Have you ever taken anything back out of the dirty-clothes basket because it had become,relatively, the cleaner thing? How many things are there, at this moment, in the wrong room – cups in the study, boots in the kitchen – and how many on the floor of the wrong room?

She also asks if you could confidently strip down to presentable underwear in a changing room at short notice, and argues that a slut isn't something you become, it's something you are born to.

I thought it was hilarious. My Mum looked at me in bewildered incomprehension.

9 comments:

Ms Mac said...

I much prefer the more formal term, Slattern to describe my slovely, unkempt ways.

Slattern is one of those words, like Whore that just sounds better with a Scottish accent, no?

christina said...

Have you ever taken anything back out of the dirty-clothes basket because it had become,relatively, the cleaner thing?

Well, yes, just this morning, in fact. But my underwear is impeccable.

Lucy said...

Oohh dear...

Lesley said...

Ms Mac: I'm quite fond of the Scottish word "besom" too.

Christina: I hasten to add that my underwear is impeccably clean too, but sometimes a little grey.

Lucy: It's good to have standards to live up to though.

Anonymous said...

Is that besom as in Besom broom, Lesley?

Have plenty of yellowing articles by Katherine Whitehorn sent to me over the years by my mother. This makes me want to read them again!

I better not go into what I take out of laundry basket/state of underwear/number of mugs and glasses in all the rooms.

Anyone out there who loves to laugh at articles could try Michele Hanson who writes for the Guardian.

spentrails said...

As my mother likes to say, "It's all right if it's clean dirt."

By that I think she means if it's your own.

meredic said...

Presentable underwear in a changing room....hmm, do people still wear underwear?

Anonymous said...

Besom is pronounced Bism in Aberdeenshire. To quote my grandmother, it means someone who is No Better Than She Should Be. I've never managed to perfect the sniff she usually added after saying that.

I am proud to be a domestic slut. Life's too full of far more interesting things with which to occupy oneself.

A neighbour in The Weeg once took me to task for having dirty windows. I told her one didn't notice such things when one was busy reading.

Lesley said...

Deborah: yes, I think that the woman word is derived from the broom word.

Teuchter: I say bizim.

Confinement

Being confined indoors most of the day, just the four of us, is reminding me of the days when my children were wee and most of our weekends ...