Varia V.

Another collection of random bits that wouldn’t make very substantial posts on their own (the “V” is ‘five,’ not ‘vee’ — there have been four previous such posts): 1) My wife and I were watching a Morse episode last night — I think it was “Deadly Slumber” — and outside one of the pubs Morse and Lewis visited was a sign that said FREE HOUSE. I’m sure every Brit knows what this is, but I had to look it up: free house in British English noun British a public house not bound to sell only one brewer’s products 2) I was watching the 1945 movie Dead of Night (quite effective, apart from a ludicrous segment about a pair of golfers) and learned a word new to me when a woman gives her husband a fancy mirror for his birthday and says “It’s an improvement on that barbola thing your aunt gave you.” OED (entry from 1933): In full barbola work, decorative work composed chiefly of flowers and fruit modelled in a plastic paste and coloured, used to embellish small articles of wood, glass, pulp, etc.…

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