"Eaten his dinners"??
Elsa T. S. Vieira
I'm still translating this book set in the twenties. See if anyone can help
me here, with the meaning of the expression between "":
(quote)
He had intended to be a barrister, had "eaten his dinners", and taken on the
job of temporary master only to tide him over a lean period.
(unquote)
The expression is between quotation marks in the original, so I assume it's
some kind of phrase with a specific meaning, non-food related...
Thanks in advance!
--
Elsa T. S. Vieira
Simon R. Hughes
To pass law school, one of the requirements is that the students
eat dinner at their inn a certain number of times. If they don't
eat their dinners, they are not called to the bar.
--
Simon R. Hughes
John Dean
Weirdly, it *is* food related. Full explanation of that and all the other
fancy hoops the wannabe barristers jump through at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inn_of_court
I believe the requirement has now been considerably relaxed if not waived
all together / altogether.
The requirement didn't apply to the guy who spelt 'barrister' wrong on the
application form and ended up pouring cappuccinos at Starbucks.
--
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply
Elsa T. S. Vieira
news:19mimuebcimxa$.18533md5pwqtl.dlg@40tude.net...
>
> To pass law school, one of the requirements is that the students
> eat dinner at their inn a certain number of times. If they don't
> eat their dinners, they are not called to the bar.
> --
> Simon R. Hughes
Really? I had no idea. Does it still work like this nowadays?
Thank you very much! (it was food related, after all...)
Ross Howard
<els...@netvisao.pt> wrought:
>"Simon R. Hughes" <a57998.no...@yahoo.no> wrote in message
>news:19mimuebcimxa$.18533md5pwqtl.dlg@40tude.net...
>>
>> To pass law school, one of the requirements is that the students
>> eat dinner at their inn a certain number of times. If they don't
>> eat their dinners, they are not called to the bar.
>> --
>> Simon R. Hughes
>
>Really? I had no idea. Does it still work like this nowadays?
According to an interesting book I picked up second-hand the other
day, called *The Bar on Trial*, it was still a requirement at least up
until the 1980s. I think it's been relaxed now, though, largely so
that non-London-based students no longer have to travel hundreds or
thousands of miles several times a year just to eat a dinner, but most
of the rest of the system of the system of the Inns of Court
(barristers' guilds, more or less), with their "benchers", "pupillage"
in "chambers", "juniors" and "silks" (QCs), etc., remains intact.
>Thank you very much! (it was food related, after all...)
Really bad food, though, by all accounts.
--
Ross Howard
mUs1Ka
"Ross Howard" <ggu...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:cni1tv0lenvbd2t4e...@4ax.com...
>
> Really bad food, though, by all accounts.
>
"...cream of vegetable soup, roast loin of pork and roast potatoes with
broccoli followed by blackcurrant cheesecake. The cost, heavily subsidised,
was £7.50." - 1997
The requirement to attend was abolished in 1997, I believe.
m.
Simon R. Hughes
> "Ross Howard" <ggu...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:cni1tv0lenvbd2t4e...@4ax.com...
>> On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 17:24:10 -0000, "Elsa T. S. Vieira"
>> <els...@netvisao.pt> wrought:
>>
>>
>>>Thank you very much! (it was food related, after all...)
>>
>> Really bad food, though, by all accounts.
>>
> Not according to what I've read:
> "...cream of vegetable soup, roast loin of pork and roast potatoes with
> broccoli followed by blackcurrant cheesecake. The cost, heavily subsidised,
> was £7.50." - 1997
My Brother the Barrister said the food was crap. Cheap, yes, but
crap. He used to force members of the family to accompany him up
to London, and they said it was crap food, too. (He didn't ask
me. Funny that.)
> The requirement to attend was abolished in 1997, I believe.
Ah. Barrister Brother was called to the bar in 1995, IIRC.
--
Simon R. Hughes
Ross Howard
wrought:
>
>"Ross Howard" <ggu...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>news:cni1tv0lenvbd2t4e...@4ax.com...
>> On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 17:24:10 -0000, "Elsa T. S. Vieira"
>> <els...@netvisao.pt> wrought:
>>
>>
>> >Thank you very much! (it was food related, after all...)
>>
>> Really bad food, though, by all accounts.
>>
>Not according to what I've read:
>"...cream of vegetable soup, roast loin of pork and roast potatoes with
>broccoli followed by blackcurrant cheesecake. The cost, heavily subsidised,
>was £7.50." - 1997
That sounds like it could perfectly have been one of the vile school
dinners (AmE lunches) of which I ate thousands in the Seventies (and
most of which, miraculously, I managed to keep down). Don't let the
yummy-sounding menu description fool you, as it did our gullible
parents.
--
Ross Howard