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Comment Threads

• El commented on The Curse of Laundry
  I'd agree that certainly the first two (Crystal Gayle and Emma Peel) of The Avengers women were very much the equals of any of the men they came across, and of Steed. In Steed's case in every respect I think I'd say, in the villains' case not necessarily - the villains have to be able to get one up on the heroes for some of the story after all, to put them in peril, but they get one up on Steed too. It's interesting to read how deliberate that was. And, for me at least, it's one of the reasons...
• Mark Schaffer commented on The Curse of Laundry
  Hmm hmm ... I don't think so. The original comment by hetermeles at #253 is about the origins of "modern economics", I think: The idea that politics is divorced from money goes back to the roots of economics ... it's very hard to look back and figure out where the great divorce between economics and politics started in the first place. And my point is that if you take Smith as the starting point for "modern economics", there's no divorce between economics and politics. They're quite happily married at that point. I don't entirely agree with hetermeles about the current...
• Martin commented on The Curse of Laundry
  And my point is that if you take Smith as the starting point for "modern economics", there's no divorce between economics and politics. They're quite happily married at that point. I was listening to Radio 4, and they asserted that the original title of the subject was "Political Economy", i.e. the spreading your available resources efficiently within a greater number of political demands. This was then shortened to "Economy", hence "Economics"....
• Antonia T Tiger commented on The Curse of Laundry
  If you go by the actor's ages, which can be a starting point, Diana Rigg was born in 1938 and Patrick Macnee in 1922. It is possible that Steed is a few years older than the actor, but he might not have made Major during the war. The Wikipedia article is slightly silly on the dates, suggesting he might have been born in 1925 and reaching Major by 1945. Promotion in the Army of Occupation would fit too. It's a little hard to think of people of Steed's age being swingers, and homosexual activity would have been all sorts of...
• Martin commented on The Curse of Laundry
  Patrick Macnee's wartime service is impressive enough - apparently he served in the Royal Navy on Motor Torpedo Boats, and ended up commanding one (he was also lucky to survive; he was taken ill, and while ill his MTB was destroyed). To put this in perspective, each side was trying to dominate the English Channel, and the MTB/MGB and German E-boats were too small for radars, too weak to stand and fight - they operated largely by night, and often at very close range. It was "knife-fight in a phone box" stuff - raiding, recce, landing and recovering SOE agents...