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news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081...twist_odd_1
They say ""Given the limited number of food staples used, the workhouse diet was certainly dreary, but it was adequate," they concluded."
so who is correct? Charles or this new study?
They say ""Given the limited number of food staples used, the workhouse diet was certainly dreary, but it was adequate," they concluded."
so who is correct? Charles or this new study?
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London
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Thu, December 18, 2008 - 7:22 PMI wonder whether they were studying the workhouses before or after Oliver Twist was written. -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Thu, December 18, 2008 - 11:22 PMMr Dickens also pointed out the corruption of the system. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a vast discrepancy between what was delivered to the workhouse and what was actually consumed by its unhappy inmates.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Thu, December 18, 2008 - 11:28 PMI'd go with Dickens on this one. Aside from the unknown date as Rydell mentioned, the author of the study seems supremely naive in taking al records at face value. Corruption and embezzlement were at least as prominent in Dickens' day as our own, and to blithely assume that all the orphans and workhouse inmates actually recieved as much food as 'official' records stated seems rather...optimistic.
And 'best' oatmeal and 'wholesome' coarse bread? I'm sure the administrators of the workhouses were eager to charecterize it as such. Mr. Bumble would have extolled the virtues of the diet his charges reecived to the heavens, I have no doubt. Now, do you believe them? -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 4:48 AMAn ounce and a half of oatmeal per pint? Even if the full mentioned allowance actually made it to the inmates, that adds up to a single serving of oatmeal, watered down into a quart and a half of water, and spread out over the course of a full day. And that's a big if. Sorry, not buying it. -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 11:40 AMAnd the Yorkshire boy's schools were fine academic institutions.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 12:01 PMumm no... Ounce and a half to two and a half ounces (depending on wether you are going straight oats or packaged instant) is one serving of oatmeal. Plenty to fill me anyhow. For comparison, about half what you get at Mr. Browns and water it down.
Granted it isn't the way Americans eat (can we supersize that and add bacon and cheese?) Yeah, you will be hungry quite a while before eating, but it will keep you going, especially if you add a bit of butter or lard to it. -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 12:08 PMSounds like a veritable jolly feast. The poor wretches should have been more grateful for the bounty.
I suppose it beats eating urban pigeons and things that have fallen out of the produce carts.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 12:19 PM"Such a diet, comprising three pints of gruel a day, would sustain growth in a nine-year-old child like Oliver, unless he was exceptionally active."
I mean, it's not like they had the children crushing bones or picking oakum or working 12 hour days.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 12:55 PMBack to work or I'll tell Jeremy. You are getting enough. Aren't you? :-) -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 4:43 PMHalf my take, a meal a day and all the gin I can drink.
Jeremy spent far too much time in a work'ouse, he wouldn't touch gruel or make us touch it! -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 5:35 PMSounds like a good master, by Victorian standards -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Fri, December 19, 2008 - 10:25 PM>Sounds like a good master, by Victorian standards
Bloody saint, is Jeremy. -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Mon, December 22, 2008 - 10:55 PMI heard he put all the girls on a high protein diet...
There is a lot of protein in spunk, issnt?
[leer] -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 8:59 AMNice comment for a Public forum...
Way to Represent...
Classy. -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 9:32 AMso. very. ew.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 9:44 AMWow. That's.
Wow.
Way to keep it classy.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 10:20 AMThis tribe is public. As in our customers. You remember them, the people that actually keep us open. Not only are many of them members of this tribe, but all contents herein are able to be googled by an even wider audience.
Think before you write, folks. Seriously.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 12:32 PMSeriously, as far as we can tell, "half the take, a meal a day, all the gin you can drink" would've been the equivalent of a 6-figure income with full health and a pension plan.
We make backstage jokes about demanding double "ALL the take, two meals a day and TWICE the gin we can drink." The gin benefit explains why the characters are a couple sheets to the wind at any given time (keeps you warm! Lets you ignore the bedbugs at night! Lets you ignore the quality of customers!), though the actors are generally quite sober. ACTing! -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 12:46 PMNow if the girls would only cover their bosoms so as to not catch a chill and get sick, all would be well -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 1:25 PMMrs Finching, please put the hankie down and step away from the keyboard. There's a good girl.
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 1:26 PMBeth, just FYI, but I was referring to the "high protein diet" comment. -
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 1:30 PMWill there be tea, Mrs Gamp? -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 1:32 PMMrs Harris has already put the kettle on and there is a nice restorative sitting on the mantle place at the ready.
Will you do the honors of pouring, Mrs Finching?
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 3:23 PM>"Beth, just FYI..."
I know. I figured I'd try to take the thread back from narsty to bawdy (or just silly!).
Of course, I was in a Trader Joe's with Faith, Hope and Jeremy (yes, all of us still in costume) and he was buying 36 tins of cat food.
"Why so many?" asked Hope.
"Times are 'ard. Fink it's easy givin' all those tarts a meal a day?" I asked
"Roight!" said Jeremy. "'Ere y'are, girls, Ocean White Fish and Salmon or Turkey and Giblets?"
Turkey! Must be Christmas!
They should make Boiled Beef and Carrots catfood for East Enders' cats!
Seriously, though, we read the ingredients and figured it was probably better than the tea, bread and occasional bread-and-dripping and whatever-we-could-steal we'd've likely subsisted upon. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Tue, December 23, 2008 - 3:25 PMJust avoid the melamine and everything should be just fine
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Re: More? What the Dickens are you talking about?
Sun, December 21, 2008 - 7:06 AMTouching it and eating it...two different demons there!
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