Poor Slow AC

Sue and I usually watch tv series and not movies on our various streaming sources, but we found ourselves both watching and enjoying To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters on Britbox this week.

I really enjoyed this biographical film of the sisters, their home life and struggles, and how they turned to writing and managed to get published in a male-centric medium. I found an old paining of the sisters online, and the movie characters suited very well indeed.

Maybe I should go and look for the image. Hang on ...

Here it is.

 From left to right: Ann, Emily, Charlotte.

Now look at the cast.

But I got on a tangent at the outset, for that really isn't what this post was supposed to be about.

What I wanted to post is how late in life I have come to learn some things.

You see ... there was a scene in the movie in which their deceased brother, Bramwell, had a scarf wrapped around his head. This reminded me of Marley's ghost in Scrooge (A Christmas Carol). This isn't the version that we watch, but it will do.

When he removes the wrap, his mouth falls open.

Sue, explained to me that this is what actually happens to corpses for a few hours after death — their mouths fall open. So even now, measures are taken to prevent the jaw from getting locked in like this. Marley's ghost now makes more sense to me.

Seventy-one years old, and I didn't know this.

Which reminded me of  poem/story Twas The Night Before Christmas:

And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

I guess I had always thought of the finger by the nose as part of Saint Nick's magic act (which reminds me of Samantha twitching her nose in Bewitched), but after watching much British tv, I eventually realized that the gesture is sometimes used in Britain to symbolize a secret. Santa and the boy shared a secret, which should be kept between them.

It also took me most of my life to figure that out: poor, slow soul that I am.

Who knows what further revelations await this old codger?