Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you last Friday was my birthday. In the past when Tucker was alive, we would break out the Aquadent and have quite the bash. This year, however, I decided to celebrate with decorum. Bernard D. Bunny, Belle D. Bunny and their new little cousin Brendan D. Bunny joined me for high tea this week where we dined on scones, pastries and of course cucumber sandwiches. They were scrumptious. I was licking my paws afterwards. Every year I dream of receiving a diamond studded collar which I most deserve. My novelist, however, presented me with a brand-new Mini Skinneeez leopard instead. Although I adored the dog toy, my dreams of elegance were once again dashed. Sometimes novelists simply don’t understand their poodles. We poodles think big and desire great things. Next year I plan to own a small country and rule it with a benevolent iron paw. Perhaps I’ll even invest in a tiara. If I can’t wear something sparkly around my neck at least I can wear something glittering on my head. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: HOBSON’S CHOICE (1954) HBO MAX

Every so often I like to pick a brilliant classic film every cinephile should be required to see. And so, this week I am featuring a small masterpiece by the great director David Lean who also cowrote this magnificent script with Harold Brighouse and Norman Spencer. One might consider it an early feminist film of sorts about an overbearing, sexist father and his much wilier future thinking daughter.

The story takes place in 1880s Salford, England where Henry Hobson (Sir Charles Laughton), a blowhard tyrannical widower, runs a moderately upscale shoe-making shop. He has three daughters and no sons. He endlessly needles his thirty-year-old eldest Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) who runs the financial part of the business, about being thirty and will always remain an old maid. He has selfishly decided that since his wife has died, Maggie will forever take her mother’s place as in his mind she is too useful to lose. His younger daughters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) each have boyfriends. Alice is seeing Albert Prosser (Richard Wattis), a young solicitor and Vicky is seeing Freddy Beenstock (Derek Blomfield) a corn merchant’s son. Both sisters want to marry their beaus but Henry, upon finding out he will have to pay a settlement for each marriage, refuses and decides they will remain in his shop as well.

One day, a wealthy older woman named Mrs. Hepworth (Helen Haye) comes in the shop and demands to know who crafted her boots. Up from under the floor comes shoemaker Jim Healer (Joseph Tomelty) who looks at her boots and says they were made by William Mossop (Sir John Mills), a gentle ignorant soul but also a highly gifted shoemaker. Mrs. Hepworth demands seeing Willam and when he comes up from below, she tells him she has been to every shoe shop around and he has made her the best pair of boots she’s ever worn. She then gives him a small sum of money as a thank you.

Shortly after, Maggie, who’s fed up with her father, his drinking, and his insults, calls William up at the end of the day when they are the only two still in the shop. She tells him he is a phenomenal shoemaker and deserves a better career. She says she plans to marry him, poach him, leave her father’s shop, and start a shop of their own.

From Meriam Webster Dictionary:

Hobson’s choice : noun
Hob·​son’s choice ˈhäb-sənz-
1 : an apparently free choice when there is no real alternative
2 : the necessity of accepting one of two or more equally objectionable alternatives

From Cambridge Dictionary: Meaning of Hobson’s choice in English

Hobson’s choice
noun [ U ]
uk /ˌhɒb.sənz ˈtʃɔɪs/ us /ˌhɑːb.sənz ˈtʃɔɪs/
a situation in which it seems that you can choose between different things or actions, but there is really only one thing that you can take or do:
a case of Hobson’s choice: It’s a case of Hobson’s choice, because if I don’t agree to their terms, I’ll lose my job.