I have just read (or reread) The Autobiography of ALICE B TOKLAS by Gertrude Stein. I say or reread because I was convinced I had read it. However I could find no memory of it in the porridge inside my head.
Very early in the book I came across a passage which made me snort with mirth and recognition. The year was 1907 and Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas were living in Paris. Miss Stein had a cook, Helene. Helene objected to people, especially french people, inviting themselves to a meal - particularly if they asked before hand what there was for dinner. She did not, for this reason, like Matisse.
'So when Miss Stein said to her, Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening, she would say, in that case I will not make an omelette but fry the eggs. It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter but it shows less respect, and he will understand.'
And, more than a hundred years later Helene is still right. What a wonderful way of saying politely to people other than family and close friends, that inviting yourself to dinner is out of line.
Very early in the book I came across a passage which made me snort with mirth and recognition. The year was 1907 and Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas were living in Paris. Miss Stein had a cook, Helene. Helene objected to people, especially french people, inviting themselves to a meal - particularly if they asked before hand what there was for dinner. She did not, for this reason, like Matisse.
'So when Miss Stein said to her, Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening, she would say, in that case I will not make an omelette but fry the eggs. It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter but it shows less respect, and he will understand.'
And, more than a hundred years later Helene is still right. What a wonderful way of saying politely to people other than family and close friends, that inviting yourself to dinner is out of line.
