Topical Guide 251
Mark Dorset
Art: Sculpture, Erotic
Luther had two reasons for thinking that Lorna was likely to be, and to remain, circumspect about the new work he gave her to do. First, he recognized the pleasure she took in the work itself, and he knew that she wouldn’t want to lose the opportunity to work at this level of her craft, the most challenging. Second, he knew that the Lorna who sat at home of an evening, in front of the fire, playing anagrams with her sisters and her mother, would be embarrassed by the subject of, the content of, the purpose of the work she did in the small room behind an unmarked door, where she and two other carvers sat at a circular table at the center of which was one of Luther’s oversized papier-mâché models of a naked woman and a naked man, intriguingly entangled.
Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 2
The other evening, the question arose, as if from nowhere and apropos of nothing, “What do we mean when we say that someone is “in fine fettle”?
“Damned if I know,” I confessed, “but I’ll find out.”
Here’s the OED on the subject:
And here’s the Random House Unabridged:
So it would seem that someone in fine fettle is not just in good condition or well prepared, but ready to do battle—against whatever foe may come.
[more to come on Wednesday, May 4, 2022]
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