Alter Kacker

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Alter Kacker has posted 28 annotations/comments since 29 January 2023.

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Third Reading

About Monday 15 July 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

The Samuel Pepys Club leased the Brampton House from the Earls of Sandwich in 1927, and transferred the leasehold to a charitable trust in 1971. In 2017, the trust acquired freehold ownership. Their web page indicates that the house may be visited by appointment. http://pepys-club.org.uk/pepys-ho…

About Sunday 7 July 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

Under the common law, the widow was entitled to receive one-third of the income from the deceased husband’s real estate for the rest of her life. This was referred to as “dower” — hence the term “dowager.”

About Monday 24 June 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

In Tucson, Arizona, where I live, St. John’s Day — Día de San Juan — is traditionally considered the beginning of the summer monsoon. This year it got off to a premature start, with a heavy storm on the 22nd.

About Thursday 20 June 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

I’m no sailor, but I’m just back from a trip that included Malaga, Cadiz, Tarifa, Gibraltar and a ferry crossing to Tangier. When the Levante wind is blowing, as it was two weeks ago, the Venturi effect as it passes between the Pillars of Hercules is really nasty.

About Wednesday 19 June 1661

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I had the same thoughts as Sarah. Remembering the spring of 2020, when we were wondering if a new Black Death was upon us, It will be interesting to see how Samuel’s account of the 1666 plague resonates since the arrival of Covid.

About Wednesday 5 June 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

I will be in Lisbon tomorrow, Porto the next day, last stops on an Iberian tour -- I will keep an eye open for botargo on the menu.

About Tuesday 4 June 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

Harry IV — prithee, Samuel, WHO PLAYED FALSTAFF?

Best I’ve ever seen is Roger Allam (best known in US as Inspector Thursday on “Endeavour”). He played “sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff” a few years back at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. It’s available on DVD, and probably streaming somewhere.

About Friday 31 May 1661

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My initial reaction on this reading was the same as GrannieAnnie's from the second go-round -- clinical depression. It would be aggravated by the indignities and annoyances of an aging 17th century body: chronic tooth and jaw pain, loss of hair, hemorrhoids, arthritis. You'd be cranky too.

About Friday 17 May 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

At the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, it appears that there are local variants of bagpipes in pretty much every country and region from Portugal to Pakistan.

——-

A Scottish friend once told me, “The sweetest sound in rhe world is a bagpipe … fading in the distance.”

And

“The definition of a true gentleman is someone who can play the bagpipe … and doesn’t.”

About Tuesday 23 April 1661

Alter Kacker  •  Link

I didn’t watch the coronation of the third Charles, but perhaps some of you who did can compare-and-contrast with Samuel’s account. I know the music would have been different — Handel’s Coronation Anthems were written for George II in 1727. I don’t imagine they have revived the horseback Champion, but I sure wish they would.

(Maybe next time ….)

About Saturday 6 April 1661

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LKvM — In my experience, whatever amount of time the contractor says it will take, double it. And be assured, it will still take longer than that.

About Tuesday 12 March 1660/61

Alter Kacker  •  Link

Reading Susan’s post from the First Reading, to be a midshipman — an officer-in-training — one surely had to be a gentleman. That surely appealed to Samuel’s status anxiety.

About Saturday 19 January 1660/61

Alter Kacker  •  Link

Eric, I sympathize with your complaint, but it will fall on deaf (or in some cases dead) ears — most of those spoilers were written during the first reading, 20 years ago!

About Saturday 12 January 1660/61

Alter Kacker  •  Link

Nate Lockwood’s comment from the Second Reading struck a chord with me —

“Sam has no title but does have power and is Sandwich's creature, so this bleeds into his social position and makes status a bit ambiguous both to others and to him.”

When I was Samuel’s age I worked on Capitol Hill* for a committee chairman and presidential aspirant. Nate’s comment captures precisely that experience.

Alter Kacker (fka Nix)
__________

* — Washington, not Rome. I’m old, but not THAT old.

About Monday 22 October 1660

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I dunno about that, Martin — it’s easy to tell yourself you’ll raise the issue with the patrón, but a bit harder when you’re face-to-face.

About Thursday 2 August 1660

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Samuel lives next door to the Navy Office, but he seems to go to Westminster or Whitehall most days. Anyone have a sense how long those trips would have taken him, on foot or via hired waterman?

About Monday 21 May 1660

Alter Kacker  •  Link

Some regicides rode out the storm on the other side of the Atlantic.

From the current issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine —

Escape to New Haven
With a third King Charles taking the throne, we recall New Haven's troubles over the first two.
By Mark Alden Branch ’86 | May/Jun 2023

https://yalealumnimagazine.org/ar…