by the way, "heathcliff" -- i immediately thought of the comic strip cat. especially since you started with "cathy", which is also a comic strip. and i didn't quite get it.
then I figured heathcliff must be so very Brit... I've never met a Heathcliff, have you?
oh, and earthling, i met not one, but three (!!!) people from denmark tonight. one of them I'd known for a while without realizing his background and the other two were completely new to me. of course I thought of you.
Cathy and Heathcliff are a famous pair of doomed lovers, the protagonists of the classic Victorian novel Wuthering Heights.
For me, the iconic representation of them was in a series of comedy sketches on the 1970s BBC TV show 'Dave Allen at Large', where they would catch sight of each other at a great distance out on the wild North Yorkshire moors and run eagerly towards each other, yelling their lover's name over and over again. Of course, it would take a very long time for them to reach each other, and all kinds of things could go wrong along the way - it was a seemingly never-ending succession of comic variations: when they finally reached each other, they'd be too exhausted to make out; one or other of them would fall into a bog; it would be an embarrassing case of mistaken identity; etc., etc. Actually, I think my very favourite one was where they decided it was too much bother to race across the moors, and simply signalled to each other with semaphore flags (sub-titles for the audience: "Cathy!" "Heathcliff!").
Dave Allen was a great, great Irish comedian; he died a couple of years ago.
Yes, after the comic strip images I did think of Wuthering Height's Heathcliff, which is what made me think it was oh so Brit. (though i didn't recall that her name was Cathy. was I too focused on the male characters or is that how it is written? Or is Cathy just too common an American name to stick in my head the way Heathcliff stuck? it's been at least a decade since I read it and I simply don't remember.)
And while Dave Allen at Large doesn't ring a bell, the skit you described sounds very familiar. I'm sure I've seen clips of it on PBS or some Friday night watching Brit comedies on the VCR at a friend's place (yes, I had Brit friends even in the US).
I am becoming a little bothered about the recollection now. I have a feeling that Monty Python also had a semaphore skit that might have involved Wuthering Heights. The long-running series of Cathy/Heathcliff skits was, I'm sure on Dave Allen, but I wonder if I am wrongly attributing the semaphore gag to that.
youtube has a skit. i couldn't watch it from my office, but here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0vgZ2UNS54
and wikipedia comments on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore
and i found this comment elsewhere on an austen blog:
"...the old Monty Python skit, 揟he Classics in Code,?where Cathy and Heathcliff stand on opposite cliffs with semaphore flags..."
Finally, here's the script to a semaphore version of wuthering heights for the Flying Circus TV Show, Episode 15: http://www.orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/semaphor.htm
A leading presenter on China Central Television's English-language channel has revealed himself to be a xenophobic hate-monger. WHY does he still have a job? Lobby for his dismissal - by any and all means.
Days Ai Weiwei was detained
80
With ironic, sinister symmetry, the celebrity artist/activist was incarcerated on the same day that my friend Wu Yuren was finally released from 10 months' detention.
Now, like Wu, he's been released on extremely restrictive 'bail' terms - but could face re-arrest at any moment. He was detained incommunicado from April 3rd to June 22nd 2011.
Days Wu Yuren was in prison
307
"Released on parole" after 10 months; "parole" lifted another year later. The original charges against him were apparently dropped without his trial ever being formally concluded.
Froog is an escaped lawyer - but there is no need for alarm; he is only a danger to himself, not to the general public. An eternal wanderer, he now lives in an exotic city somewhere in the 'Third World' *, where he is held prisoner by an unfinished novel (or, more precisely, an unstarted novel). He spends a lot of time running, writing, taking photographs, and falling in love with women who fail to appreciate him. He also spends a lot of time in bars.
[* OK, I'll come clean: I've been living in Beijing since summer '02.]
13 comments:
First in First in (Tulsa, I'm not dead, just busy)
I never get jet-lags either, but then I always have the opposit day rythm to all other people where ever I am living!!
Earthling!!!!
Oh, this is all getting a bit "Cathy!" "Heathcliff!!" now. Stop it!
:)
Oi!! Froog!!! (come on, admit, you just wanted your own set of exclamation points.)
by the way, "heathcliff" -- i immediately thought of the comic strip cat. especially since you started with "cathy", which is also a comic strip. and i didn't quite get it.
then I figured heathcliff must be so very Brit... I've never met a Heathcliff, have you?
oh, and earthling, i met not one, but three (!!!) people from denmark tonight. one of them I'd known for a while without realizing his background and the other two were completely new to me. of course I thought of you.
Cathy and Heathcliff are a famous pair of doomed lovers, the protagonists of the classic Victorian novel Wuthering Heights.
For me, the iconic representation of them was in a series of comedy sketches on the 1970s BBC TV show 'Dave Allen at Large', where they would catch sight of each other at a great distance out on the wild North Yorkshire moors and run eagerly towards each other, yelling their lover's name over and over again. Of course, it would take a very long time for them to reach each other, and all kinds of things could go wrong along the way - it was a seemingly never-ending succession of comic variations: when they finally reached each other, they'd be too exhausted to make out; one or other of them would fall into a bog; it would be an embarrassing case of mistaken identity; etc., etc. Actually, I think my very favourite one was where they decided it was too much bother to race across the moors, and simply signalled to each other with semaphore flags (sub-titles for the audience: "Cathy!" "Heathcliff!").
Dave Allen was a great, great Irish comedian; he died a couple of years ago.
Yes, after the comic strip images I did think of Wuthering Height's Heathcliff, which is what made me think it was oh so Brit. (though i didn't recall that her name was Cathy. was I too focused on the male characters or is that how it is written? Or is Cathy just too common an American name to stick in my head the way Heathcliff stuck? it's been at least a decade since I read it and I simply don't remember.)
And while Dave Allen at Large doesn't ring a bell, the skit you described sounds very familiar. I'm sure I've seen clips of it on PBS or some Friday night watching Brit comedies on the VCR at a friend's place (yes, I had Brit friends even in the US).
I am becoming a little bothered about the recollection now. I have a feeling that Monty Python also had a semaphore skit that might have involved Wuthering Heights. The long-running series of Cathy/Heathcliff skits was, I'm sure on Dave Allen, but I wonder if I am wrongly attributing the semaphore gag to that.
okay. you got me curious. I sent you an email with some info I found about it.
youtube has a skit. i couldn't watch it from my office, but here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0vgZ2UNS54
and wikipedia comments on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore
and i found this comment elsewhere on an austen blog:
"...the old Monty Python skit, 揟he Classics in Code,?where Cathy and Heathcliff stand on opposite cliffs with semaphore flags..."
Finally, here's the script to a semaphore version of wuthering heights for the Flying Circus TV Show, Episode 15:
http://www.orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/semaphor.htm
Tulsa has some time on her hands today, obviously.
That was just what I was thinking Froog. What is happening in China since you guys have so much time to just blog??
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