This week has been all about big households and servants. It wasn't by design. It just happened this way.
• I'm a big fan of Downton Abbey and caught the new movie at my local theater yesterday. I wanted to see it before I read or heard too much about it. (I loved it.) Anyway, it shares the parallel points-of-view of the aristocratic Crawley family and their loyal staff.
• My movie group is discussing Cluny Brown, so I have to finish it before tomorrow's meet up. This 1946 movie is about an English girl (Cluny) whose uncle/guardian is concerned about her tomboyish ways and sends her off to a grand country house. There, as a parlor maid, she will see firsthand how ladies behave. There's romance and mistaken identity and hijinks.
• Then there's our nation's grand house, the one on Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm reading First Ladies: The Ever Changing Role. Because the role has no job description, each First Lady has handled it in her own way. Whatever else she does, there's one constant: Every First Lady is responsible for managing the White House staff of butlers, maids, cooks, and gardeners.
Was there a theme to your reading and watching this week?
