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Taste (short Story)
"Taste" is a short story by Roald Dahl that was first published in the December 8 1951 edition of ''The New Yorker'' and was included in the 1953 collection '' Someone Like You''. Plot summary There are six people eating a fine dinner at the house of Mike Schofield, a London stockbroker: Mike, his wife and daughter, an unnamed narrator and his wife, and a wine connoisseur, Richard Pratt. Pratt often makes small bets with Schofield to guess what wine is being served at the table, but during the night in the story he is uninterested, instead attempting to socialize with Schofield's eighteen-year-old daughter, Louise. When Schofield brings the second wine of the night he remarks that it will be impossible to guess where it is from, but Pratt takes that as a challenge. The tough talk on both sides leads the two to increase the bet until Pratt declares that he would like to bet for the hand of Schofield's daughter in marriage — if he loses, he will give Schofield both of his house ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. He has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegians, Norwegian immigrant parents, and lived for most of his life in England. He served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and the Specsavers National Book Awards, British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, Myth, mythic tales, Folklore genre, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables, and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella, novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story remains problematic. A classic definition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York Times''. Together with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann, they established the F-R Publishing Company and set up the magazine's first office in Manhattan. Ross remained the editor until his death in 1951, shaping the magazine's editorial tone and standards. ''The New Yorker''s fact-checking operation is widely recognized among journalists as one of its strengths. Although its reviews and events listings often focused on the Culture of New York City, cultural life of New York City, ''The New Yorker'' gained a reputation for publishing serious essays, long-form journalism, well-regarded fiction, and humor for a national and international audience, including work by writers such as Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, and Alice Munro. In the late ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Someone Like You (collection)
''Someone Like You'' is the second collection of short stories by Roald Dahl. It was published in 1953 by Alfred Knopf. Contents It contains eighteen short stories. The final four are grouped under a collective title. *"Taste" (''The New Yorker'', December 8, 1951): A wine snob wagers his host that he can correctly identify the claret that is being served with dinner. The host wagers his daughter's hand in marriage against two of the snob's houses. The snob makes a great show of correctly guessing the wine, but the maid reveals that he peeked at the wine before it was served. *" Lamb to the Slaughter" (''Harper's Magazine'', September 1953): Policeman Patrick Maloney stuns his wife Mary by announcing the end of their marriage while she is six months pregnant. In shock, she kills him with a frozen leg of lamb. She puts it in the oven and then goes to the grocer to create an alibi. Mary calls the police to report the murder and sits in a daze as her husband's colleagues investi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stockbroker
A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and may need to hold a relevant license and may be a member of a stock exchange. They generally act as a financial advisor and investment manager. In this case they may also be licensed as a financial adviser such as a registered investment adviser (in the United States). Examples of professional designations held by individuals in this field, which affects the types of investments they are permitted to sell and the services they provide include chartered financial consultants, certified financial planners or chartered financial analysts (in the United States and UK), chartered financial planners (in the UK). In the United States, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority provides an online tool designed to help understand professio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oenophilia
Oenophilia ( ; from Greek for 'love of wine', see '' oinos'' and ''-philia''), in the strictest sense, describes a disciplined devotion to wine, accompanying strict traditions of consumption and appreciation. In a general sense however, ''oenophilia'' simply refers to the enjoyment of wine, often by laymen. Oenophiles are also known as ''wine aficionados'' or ''connoisseurs''. They are people who appreciate or collect wine, particularly grape wines from certain regions, varietal types, or methods of manufacture. While most oenophiles are hobbyists, some may also be professionals like vintners, sommeliers, wine merchants, or one who tastes and grades wines for a living. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the earliest occurrence of the word ''oenophile'' was in 1865 in ''Culture of the Vine and Wine Making'', an English translation of a French book by Jules Guyot. The word ''oenophilia'' was initially primarily used in contexts of excessive drinking, and in its earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Schuman
William Howard Schuman (August 4, 1910February 15, 1992) was an American composer and arts administrator. Life Schuman was born into a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, son of Samuel and Rachel Schuman. He was named after the 27th U.S. president, William Howard Taft, though his family preferred to call him Bill. Schuman played the violin and banjo as a child, but his overwhelming passion was baseball. He attended Temple Shaaray Tefila as a child. While still in high school, he formed a dance band, "Billy Schuman and his Alamo Society Orchestra", that played local weddings and bar mitzvahs in which Schuman played string bass. In 1928 he entered New York University's School of Commerce to pursue a business degree, at the same time working for an advertising agency. He also wrote popular songs with E. B. Marks Jr, a friend he had met long before at summer camp. Around that time, Schuman met lyricist Frank Loesser and wrote some forty songs with him. Loesser's first publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tales Of The Unexpected (TV Series)
''Tales of the Unexpected'' (known as ''Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected'' for the first two series) is a British television series that aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Every episode of series one, 12 episodes of series two, two episodes of series three, two episodes of series four, and one episode of series nine were based on short stories by Roald Dahl collected in the books '' Tales of the Unexpected'', ''Kiss Kiss'', and '' Someone Like You''. The series was made by Anglia Television for ITV with interior scenes recorded at its Norwich studios, whilst location filming mainly occurred across East Anglia. The theme music for the series was written by composer Ron Grainer. The dancer in the opening titles was Karen Standley. The series has been repeated on Granada Plus, ITV3 and Sky Arts. Format The series originally adapted various stories from Roald Dahl's a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1951 Short Stories
Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. * January 11 – In the U.S., a top secret report is delivered to U.S. President Truman by his National Security Resources Board, urging Truman to expand the Korean War by launching "a global offensive against communism" with sustained bombing of Red China and diplomatic moves to establish "moral justification" for a U.S. nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The report will not not be declassified until 1978. * January 15 – In a criminal court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
