Inside the July Issue:
|
QuickLinks:
|
The Afternoon Tea Times welcomes correspondence. Contact Afternoon Tea online, or by mail to: Afternoon Tea Times, MPT, 11767 Owings Mills Blvd., Owings Mills, MD 21117-1499. You may also reach MPT Afternoon Tea by telephone at (443) 394-1634.
Tea Times is a co-production of Maryland Public Television and The Insider, a publication of the BBC Sales Company.
The Insider welcomes all correspondence, story ideas and requests for contributed articles. Send letters via e-mail to Editor N. Scott Jones at bbinsider@comcast.net or by snail mail to: The Insider, c/o Oliviu Savu, BBC Worldwide Americas, 747 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10017-2803. All letters are assumed to be for publication unless marked otherwise. The Insider reserves the right to edit letters for reason of space or clarity. Let us know what you think!
The Insider, copyright 1999-2007 by the BBC Sales Company. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission. All photos and graphics used are rights free or copyrighted by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Unless otherwise indicated, all material written by N. Scott Jones.
Editor's Note
We trust your summer is going well and you are full-swing into enjoying the outdoors, family and friends.
Do you love fireworks but don't like the crowds? MPT can take care of this problem for you on July 4 with A Capitol Fourth. Paving the Way: The National Park-To-Park Highway comes your way this month as well. Learn how the 5,000 mile road was the first to connect 12 of our nation's parks.
It's likely that most of us won't get invited to the Queen's Tea so we thought you would like to read about what is involved and how much food needs to be prepared.
Everyone loved Compo. Read further to learn more about one of our favorite actors - Bill Owen. He was actually voted the "scruffiest character in television."
It's hot outside so we thought we'd give you a recipe this month that suits the weather. Try Asian Chicken Slaw as a main meal and keep the heat out of your kitchen.
Have a safe and happy July 4th!
The Tea Times Newsletter Staff
1
They Say It's Your Birthday!
Do you share a birthday with any of these people?
July 5, 1853
Cecil Rhodes – millionaire financier and politician
July 11, 1958
Mark Lester – actor
July 20, 1938
Diana Rigg – actress
July 25, 1978
Louise Brown – first test-tube baby
2
The Wars of the Roses
 Queen Mary I
|
The war was disastrous for England's already declining influence in France, and by the end of the struggle few of the gains made over the course of the Hundred Year's War remained, apart from Calais which eventually fell during the reign of Queen Mary. Although later English rulers continued to campaign on the continent, England's territories were never reclaimed. Indeed, various duchies and kingdoms in Europe played a pivotal role in the outcome of the war; in particular the kings of France and the dukes of Burgundy played the two factions off each other, pledging military and financial aid and offering asylum to defeated nobles to prevent a strong and unified England making war on them.
The post-war period was also the death knell for the large standing baronial armies, which had helped fuel the conflict. Henry, wary of any further fighting, kept the barons on a very tight leash, removing their right to raise, arm, and supply armies of retainers so that they could not make war on each other or the king. England did not have another standing army until Cromwell's New Model Army. As a result, the military power of individual barons declined, and the Tudor court became a place where baronial squabbles were decided with the influence of the monarch.
This concludes the Wars of the Roses series.
www.wikipedia.org
3
Tea News Bits
July Programming
We can't think of even one person who doesn't enjoy Garrison Keillor so we are starting out July programming with the American Masters: Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes. Tune in on July 1 at 8 pm.
MPT brings you a night of fun summer programming on July 2 starting at 8:30 p.m. Beginning with Sandwiches That You Will Like, stay for The Hot Dog Program, then Shore Things, and finish up with Seaside Story.
July 4 means fireworks and that's what we have! Join us for A Capitol Fourth at 8 pm, repeating at 10 pm. Fireworks from our Nation's Capitol - it's the next best thing to being there!
Laugh along with us on Tuesday, July 6, 13, 20 and 27 at 10 p.m. Make 'Em Laugh returns and we know you'll enjoy this as much as you did the first time. After all, laughter is the best medicine!
We are going to whet your appetite for the upcoming Ken Burns' series The National Parks, slated for September. Join us on Tuesday, July 7 and 14 at 10 p.m. for Paving the Way: The National Park-To-Park Highway.
Paving The Way relates the little-known story of how most Americans first reached the national parks - via one of the longest motor routes of the day, the Park-to-Park Highway. The two-part series traces the key players and obstacles involved in creating the highway, the pioneering 5,000-mile drive to all 12 National Parks, before gas stations and paved roads.
Then stay tuned for the PBS preview of The National Parks at 11 p.m.
Be sure to watch the Rolling Stones rock Rio de Janeiro at Copacabana Beach on Wednesday, July 8 at 11 p.m. This was a stop on their A Bigger Bang tour.
Switch gears on Thursday July 9 at 8:30 p.m. and enjoy La Boheme on Great Performances at the Met.
Your Brit Coms are on each Saturday during July except for July 4. And they will be on each weekday as well.
My Source
People from all over the United States have been sharing in writing, pictures, sound and video, the way public television and radio fits into their lives. We thought we'd share selected submissions we've received about Afternoon Tea. If you'd like to share how Maryland Public Television fits into your life, please do so because we'd love to know. Tell us here at share.mysourcefor.org.
Maryland Public Television is my source for...Staying connected. This is a true story. My parents were living in Florida and my mother loved watching the British comedies, early 90s, and she would call and tell me about Keeping Up Appearances. Finally, I watched and of course loved it. So our conversations often described the antics of Hyacinth, et. al. Who can forget when the horse galloped away with her -- my husband literally fell off the bed laughing. We of course have seen every episode a million times, Anyway, my mother passed away Thanksgiving, 1994. My family and I went to my father at Christmas to help him sort things, etc. It was too sad for words. That Friday night the British comedies were on (this was Boca Raton, not Washington) and we sat down to watch, figuring it would be a repeat but nonetheless we would watch. Imagine our surprise when we realized that Keeping Up Appearances was not only NOT A REPEAT but the extended episode on the QE II. The first half of the episode of just getting to the QE II was hilarious and we all were heartily laughing including my very sad father. And how could he not be laughing when Hyacinth realizes she is in Denmark and starts to worry about marauding Danes and sings Rule Britannia. Frankly I'm laughing now and I've seen the episode dozens of times. Well, that's MPT in a nutshell. I feel as if the British Comedies, Masterpiece Theatre, Mystery and my cooking shows are old friends. And I always wonder if my mother was watching us watching Hyacinth and laughing too. I like to think so.
Submitted by Amy Shilo.
www.bbc.co.uk
MPT2: another way to enjoy the programs
For those of you that have multi-tier digital television capabilities either over the air or on cable, we also offer MPT2. MPT2 trends toward lifestyle programming during the day and most of your favorite weeknight programming shown a day later than you normally view it. You can find MPT2's program schedule in our Program Guide which you receive at home if you are a member of MPT. You can also find it at www.mpt.org/schedule.
Surviving the digital transition
We certainly hope you survived the digital transition and were able to find MPT without any trouble. Just in case you didn't, we thought we'd offer some assistance.
» Where to find us in your television service
What do you want to know more about?
If you have a topic that you would like to know more about, please drop us a line at tealady@mpt.org. We'll explore the opportunities to bring you the information you have interest in.
4
The Queen's Tea
Maintaining a tradition that began in 1860 with Queen Victoria, every year Queen Elizabeth II opens the private gardens at Buckingham Palace to host three afternoon tea parties, each attended by 8,000 guests respectively.
The invitations are sent to people of all walks of life, either directly or on the recommendation of a Palace approved sponsor. It is not possible for an individual to request an invitation as all names must be submitted by a pre-arranged quota list.
Customary attire for gentlemen is morning dress, suit, uniform or National dress. Ladies wear afternoon dress, usually with a hat and gloves or National dress. The gates open at 3 p.m. so that the guests may enjoy a walk in the Royal gardens, which are usually not open to the public.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by members of the Royal Family, enter the garden at 4 p.m. as one of two bands plays the National Anthem. Taking a different route, each Royal circulates amongst the guests. High ranking dignitaries and special guests proceed to the Royal tent to join the Royal Family for afternoon tea. The remaining guests are served tea from a 408-foot buffet table.
At 6 p.m. the Queen and Royal Family depart for the Palace, where once again the National Anthem is played to indicate that the party has ended.
Buckingham Palace Garden Party Statistics
(based on attendance of 8,000 people - list courtesy of Buckingham Palace)
Food:
- 20,000 various tea sandwiches
- 5,000 bridge rolls
- 9,000 butter drop scones
- 9,000 fruit tartlets
- 3,000 butter cake fingers
- 8,000 slices of chocolate/lemon cake
- 4,500 slices of Dundee cake
- 4,500 slices of Majorca cake
- 3,500 slices of chocolate/jam Swiss roll
Beverages:
(weather dependent)
- 27,000 cups of Maison Lyons tea *
- 10,000 glasses of iced coffee
- 20,000 glasses of fruit squash
* Maison Lyons tea is a special blend produced exclusively by Twinnings for the Buckingham Palace Garden Parties. It is a blend of Darjeeling and Assam leaves which gives the unique flavor of peaches or Muscat grapes.
Equipment:
- 12,000 tea cups and saucers
- 10,000 teaspoons
- 10,000 tea plates
- 6,000 glasses
- 408-foot buffet table
Staff and Management:
- 400 waiting staff and 30 management
whatscookingamerica.net
5
Bill Owen
A radical London actor who became a Yorkshire character
The career of Bill Owen, who died at age 85, was an extreme example of how vast television fame in one role - in his case the incorrigibly scruffy Compo, in Last Of The Summer Wine - can wipe out in the public mind a whole lifetime of quite different achievement.
As a Christmas show, Last Of The Summer Wine once enjoyed higher ratings than Gone With the Wind. Compo had to reply to old ladies who fancied him, and to open fetes. As a stunt, a tabloid newspaper took the disreputable character for lunch at the Savoy. The series ran for more than two decades, and the real Bill Owen virtually disappeared.
Yet as a stalwart player for the radical Unity theatre, he was at ease in Bernard Shaw and was cast by Lindsay Anderson in the first production of David Storey's In Celebration, The Contractor and The March On Russia, the latter being revived at the National in the 1990s.
He was George in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, finding inspiration for the necessary domestic venom just before opening night after a row with his wife. In the 1950s, and later, he directed a number of plays.
Though a contract film actor for Rank for several years, Owen failed to find a niche in that over-full stable, where height and looks were the tools of prefer-ment. He composed the lyrics for 75 songs, recorded by Cliff Richard and other popular singers, wrote one-act plays for boys clubs and was arts adviser to the National Association of Boys Clubs, for which he was made an MBE in 1976.
Once called by Gene Kelly a born dancer, he wrote musical plays and appeared in others, including The Threepenny Opera, as Mack the Knife.
Radical causes were always close to his heart: he had been born to working-class parents in Acton Green, west London, and fashioned by family history into a firm mistrust of fat cats - especially American fat cats - and any form of pretension.
This mind-set stood him in good stead in playing the foul-mouthed, dirty, smelly and nihilistic Compo - once, with his woolly hat, dirty wellies and holed trousers tied up with string, voted the scruffiest character on television.
Owen's was an intelligence and energy at odds with a working-class rut and he remained all his life a somewhat isolated figure, never fitting anywhere except in performance, and in causes. He made few childhood friends, and his view of actors - usually middle-class - was such that only two of them became friends.
He rose socially, once owning an old Rolls Royce, which he would leave outside the Unity theatre near King's Cross. But sentimentality did not spread easily outside the boundaries of people of his origins, a fact that ultimately helped end his marriage to a wife from a well-off family.
It was a copy of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, that classic story of capitalist chicanery and abuse of the working class, given him on his 14th birthday by his father, that first articulated Owen's radical leanings. With another boy as The It Kids: A Song In Harmony, he won a talent competition at a local cinema.
Falling in love with an actress in Acton Co-operative Players - amateurs, but specialists in Shaw and Galsworthy - involved him in serious theatre.
As a 20-year-old, Owen appeared in Cambridge repertory. It was going to a Warner holiday camp in Devon in 1936, when he was drawn into entertaining the campers, that led to Dovercourt Warner's offering him a job the following year. The fact that his parents' lodger was associated with Unity theatre, with a pipeline to all the progressive writers of the period, drew him there.
He got a part in Colony, a play dealing with the oppression of trade unionism on West Indian plantations, but the outbreak of war intervened, and he found himself an officer in the Pioneer Corps, forming concert parties.
His spell as an officer was predictably short. One of his NCOs lost a foot after a grenade exploded, which caused Owen a breakdown that led to his discharge. After going back to Unity, he took over from Alfie Bass as Gunner Cohen in Mr. Balfry.
When the war ended, his unhappy military experience came in useful when he appeared as Nobby Clarke in The Way To The Stars, his first feature film, which was to lead to a contract with Rank studios but no great parts: he complained that they didn't know what to do with him.
Owen was in the first Soviet play to be performed abroad after the war, The Russian Question, about the way British and American journalists had put hostile questions to the Russians after west and east forces invading Germany had met at the Elbe. He appeared as a cockney plumber in the Victorian social comedy Caste, later rewriting it as a musical premiered at the Theatre Royal, Windsor.
Often his line in scatological, devilish comedy offended the rose-tinted spectacles of the time. When he played Touchstone in As You Like It on a US tour, it was not without shouting at the director that he intended to do it his way - which included squeezing a female member of the cast on the inner thigh. The Boston Record commented that he played Touchstone "like the manly wiseacre he is, rather than the uppity-voiced daffodil you usually see".
In Britain, Owen did not have to fight so hard. He appeared in the grim play about the exploitation of boxers, The Square Ring, and then in the film version with Basil Dearden directing. Peter Rogers recruited him as a corporal in the first of the Carry On films, Carry On Sergeant.
In the early 1970s, Bill Owen received from the BBC a copy of the script of Last Of The Summer Wine - as a single slot for Comedy Playhouse. It had helped that he had played a Yorkshireman in Storey's In Celebration. Realising it was unique, he accepted at once.
The three out-of-work Yorkshiremen, now whiling away their retirement as best they could in a Yorkshire village, became more real than reality. The location village, Holmfirth, became a tourist shrine. More than 11 million people watched each episode. For Owen, it led to a gap of 21 years in other television work, but the public loved it.
His domestic life was not untroubled. The fact that his first wife, Edith Stevenson, offered him £1,000 so that for a year they could be seen in places where he might make fashionable professional contacts, and he indignantly refused, was a pointer to the difficulties that would end the marriage in 1964.
They had one son. His second marriage was to Kathleen O' Donoghue, who survives him, with his son and stepdaughter.
William John Owen Rowbotham (Bill Owen), actor, director and writer, born March 14, 1914; died July 12, 1999.
Dennis Parker | www.guardian.co.uk
6
Becoming Jane Austen
The True Love Story That Inspired
the Classic Novels
by John Spence
Part of a continuing series.
Jane soon discovered a new pleasure at home, a friendship with Anne Lefroy at neighbouring Ashe parsonage. Anne was not a playmate, a little girl of Jane's age. She was the thirty-four-year-old wife of the rector, George Lefroy. They had come to live at Ashe with their two young children in May while Jane and Cassandra were with Mrs. Cawley. The Lefroys' daughter was four years younger than Jane, and though Jane was fond of Lucy it was the mother who became her valued friend. Mrs. Lefroy was an ideal that can be discerned behind the faults and imperfections of all of Jane Austen's heroines. Jane expressed this ideal in a sketch of Mrs. Lefroys character in a poem she wrote after her friend's death many years later:
Jane Austen
|
I see her here with all her smiles benign
Her looks of eager love, her accents sweet,
That voice and countenance almost divine.
Expression, harmony, alike complete.
Listen! It is not sound alone, 'tis sense,
'Tis genius, taste and tenderness of soul.
'Tis genuine warmth of heart without pretense.
And purity of mind that crowns the whole.
In Jane's eyes, Anne Lefroy embodied a harmony and balance of sense and sensibility, intellect and heart, reason and feeling. This is too vague and generalized for us to form a clear picture of Mrs. Lefroy, but one thing is quite specific: she singled out the child Jane as an object of particular interest - "her partial favour from my earliest years", as Jane says in her poem. Mrs. Lefroy's "partiality" was not just flattering; it was an important affirmation to a child who still lacked confidence and self-assurance. And they shared a love of literature.
7
Tea Advisor
Aspects of Tea Production
Bruce and his men also sought to find patches of indigenous tea in the jungle. This was not an easy job. The wars fought across Assam had caused the richly cultivated valley to revert to nature - "six-eighths or seven-eighths of its extent covered with a jungle of gigantic reeds, traversed only by the wild elephant or the buffalo, where human footstep is unknown."
The Assam forests received between 100 inches and 200 inches of rain a year (London, considered wet by many, receives about twenty-five inches) making for numerous streams and swamps. Trees grew tall and close, often with heavy undergrowth. On foot, it was difficult to see any distance. In addition, the jungle was full of dangerous animals, especially tigers. (In those days, in India, tigers were killing as many as 2,000 people a year.) For these conditions the ideal vehicle was an elephant - slow, but safe, and giving an excellent view over the terrain. Bruce bought four elephants at £15 apiece. In Assam conditions, an elephant needed very little food, if any, but Bruce indulged his animals with a yearly allowance of £5 for rice.
Once a patch of "wild" tea had been spotted, negotiations had to be opened with the local chief. Sometimes these chiefs were cooperative, seeing possibilities for development and employment sometimes they resented any interference from outside and had to be bribed. Bruce was a very skillful negotiator. He would sit cross-legged with the chiefs, smoke their pipes, and beguile them with sweet words. Very small sums of money often smoothed the way, but more often the chiefs were bribed with opium.
Tea | By Roy Moxham
8
Mystery of the Month
What Is Your Guess?
Case One
Two men in White suits have worked in a large, dark room for over thirty years. They create small controlled explosions and experiment with animals. Though people have noticed some of the animals disappear, the men in white claim this is all done in the name of conservation.
The Mystery
What are the men's names and what do they do for a living?
-
Clues
- They are not scientists.
- They work with dangerous animals, which they also keep as pets.
- The live and work in Las Vegas, but are originally from Germany.
- The animals they work with also where white.
- The two men draw large paying crowds.
Case Two
Furious with her black cat, Angela attempts to shoot it. Instead, she hits and kills her elderly father, while the cat flees. To hide her crime, Angela drags her father's body into the cellar and walls up the corpse. Alerted by worried neighbors, the police investigate the cellar, and, by listening carefully, quickly discover the body, along with something else quite unexpected.
The Mystery
What did the police hear and what else did they find?
-
Clues
- Being dead, Angela's father was unable to make any sound.
- Angela's father was not wearing anything that could make noise.
- Angela was unable to see clearly in the cellar while walling up her father's body.
- A similar situation took place in one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories.
- Angela was shocked by what the police found.
Be sure to check the August 2009 edition of the Tea Times for the answers
Answers to June Mysteries:
Case One: The woman is a real estate agent and has entered the house to preview it.
Case Two: The woman is Wonder Woman. She is from Paradise Island.
9
England's Calendar of Events | July
Winchester Hat Fair
Winchester
July 2-5, 2009
Britain's longest-running festival of street theatre, in Winchester city centre, is outlandish, entertaining and free. Spectators are asked to delve into their pockets to fill the eponymous hats that are passed around by the performers. The festival offers a vibrant mix of oddball characters, stunts, specialist circus, clowning, new world music and workshops for kids. Every year approximately 50,000 people fill the streets of the town to join in the fun.
www.whatsonwhen.com
Scottish Traditional Boat Festival
Portsoy
July 2-5, 2009
Portsoy on the coast of the Moray Firth is the venue for the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival. The festival celebrates the historic and contemporary fishing industry alongside demonstrations, music and dance and a host of activities for all ages.
www.whatsonwhen.com
World Pea Shooting Championships
Village Green
July 11, 2009
Competition is fierce at the World Pea Shooting Championships on Witcham's village green, where contestants shoot a pea through a tube, 12 feet towards a 12-inch target. Laser-guided shooters are not unknown, taking the sport into the 21st century.
www.whatsonwhen.com
10
Are you looking for something different, light and satisfying for a warm summer evening meal? We think this fits the bill.
Asian Chicken Slaw
Since the garlic isn't cooked, the mushrooms, which work as an appetizer or side, have a strong garlic flavor. Grill the mushrooms stem sides down first, so that when they're turned they'll be in the right position to be filled. If you want to plan ahead, remove the gills and stems from the mushrooms and combine the filling, then cover and chill until ready to grill.
Ingredients
-
Slaw
- 2 ½ cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 1 pound)
- ¾ cup finely chopped celery
- ½ cup chopped sugar snap peas
- ½ cup chopped red bell pepper
- ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 (10-ounce) package angel hair slaw
- 1 (8-ounce) can sliced water chestnuts, drained
-
Dressing
- ¼ cup cider vinegar
- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
-
Remaining ingredients
- ¼ cup slivered almonds, toasted
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted
Preparation
To prepare slaw, combine the first 7 ingredients in a large bowl.
To prepare dressing, combine cider vinegar and next 6 ingredients (through black pepper) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Pour dressing over the slaw; toss to coat. Cover and chill 1 hour. Sprinkle with slivered almonds and sesame seeds before serving.
Yield
6 servings (serving size: about 1 ½ cups)
Cooking Light
11
Afternoon Teaisms
Rhymes and Wits
Concord Hymn
by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1837)
Sung at the completion of the Concord Battle Monument, April 19, 1837
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world,
The foe long since in silence slept,
Alike the Conqueror silent sleeps,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone,
That memory may their deed redeem,
When like our sires our sons are gone.
Spirit! who made those freemen dare
To die, or leave their children free,
Bid time and nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and Thee.
Funny Fourth of July Quotes
You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.
Erma Bombeck
I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.
Woodrow T. Wilson