Cutie thing

This is a wonderful piece i found yesterday:

Two Beggars Disputing their Right to an Oyster they had found

a Lawyer thus decides the Cause

Blind plaintiff, lame defendant, share
The friendly Law's impartial care.
A shell for him, a shell for thee,
The middle is the lawyer's fee.
So judge's word decrees the people's right,
And Magna Carta is a paper kite.

By Mathew Prior (1664-1721)

Age-old theme in the poem...yet what i loved about the poem was "and magna carta is a paper kite." The opening of a can of corrupt worms. More of that later.

Today, I was at the American Diner at the IHC, and noticed one of the framed old advertisements they've put up to give the place the sixties feel:

Marilyn Monroe says,
"Yes
I use Lustre-Creme Shampoo." [on the right is her pic with a bottle of "Lustre-Creme Shampoo."]

Marilyn Monroe,
starring in
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

A Twentieth Century Fox Production
Color by Technicolor

One of the imp. things I noticed was the way the synonym (though of course there really are no synonyms) of hue was spelt: color. I used to think that the american version was a fairly recent attempt at linguistic and etymological autonomy.

But what was more serendipitious about this display, the reason why I'm posting about something as stupid as a picture hanging on the walls of american diner is the movie: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Only yesterday, I read about the book on which the movie is based, in an article in Newsweek. The article was about Edith Wharton, her contempt for Joyce's Ullyeses, and liking for Anita Loos' 1925 novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds."

How strange to have turned upon the same name in the most unlikiest of places.

Here's the wikipedia entry about the whole affair, a rather funny story spanning books, their sequels, silent movies, musicals, and talkies. I know the english is rather childish, but it adds to the fun!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentlemen_Prefer_Blondes