The part when she says that he reminds her of Gerald French, who had a tragic past. At first I thought that it would turn out that >! Hailey Preston was actually Rod !< but nothing of the sort happened. What do you think is his past?
And if there aren't any, who are your favorite ones?
Mine has to be >! Ella Zielinsky !< from The Mirror Cracked
As I'm very interested in historical naming, especially in the UK, I was going through some records and found the list of the top 200 most popular names in 1900 England and Wales. And as I was going through it, one name, surrounded by the expected Barbara and Lena, caught my eye: Pretoria.
At first I was very confused, I have never even heard of the name Pretoria. It seemed so random. Pretoria was a city and not even an English one, it was in South Africa. There is not a single person I could find that was even remotely famous that was named Pretoria. So it had to be a mistake? I dismissed, wondering how was the name more popular in the 1900s then Anne, Stella or Louise.
It wasn't until months later, that I discovered BMD UK (actually just England and Wales) where you could search the records. And as I was trying to find if the list was accurate (it pretty much was except for a few mistakes), I really found it, 496 (probably with two or three duplicates, knowing birthing records) girls in 1900 (actually December 1899 to November 1900 as I later found out) were named Pretoria. What was interesting was that out of that, 214 were born in the March to May period and 190 in the June to August period. There were, on the other hand, 35 in the December 1899 to February 1900 period and 57 in the September to November period.
To make things even stranger, when I searched Pretoria for the entire records (from June 1837 to November 1999), there were 621 people in total named that. With one equation, you get that that would mean that 80% of all people in England and Wales named Pretoria were born in 1900 and 65% in the March to August period.
If you look through earlier records, you find only three people. One in the December 1889 to February 1890 period (just an oddity) and two in the September to November 1899 period. I checked if that was a duplicate, but the two women have different middle names and last names and places of birth. Definitely two separate women.
On the other hand, if you check the later records, you find the name Pretoria still very much present (though much less than at it's peak) in 1901, and then slowly fading in 1902. After that, it would resort to about 2 times per year. Which is about the same amount as most typos and oddities.
So what caused the explosion of Pretoria?
It's pretty simple. United Kingdom fought in the Second Boer War against the South African Republic from 11th October 1899 to 31st May 1902. There were around 450 000 British deaths. The Advance on Pretoria was a military operation lasting from 3rd May 1900 to 8th June 1900 and it was a great British victory. I am sure that most of the births during Pretoria's peak were during that time and slightly after.
So, I learned to not trust single birth records. And while this has an actual reason, I really wonder what namenerds a hundred years from now will think about the mysterious Ailany, exploding from unranked in 2022 to #14 in 2025.
Thank you all for reading my namenerding!
P.S. Not sure if I'm using the right flair.
Okay, so maybe they will just change the setting of one of the other novels, but as it's said that the first season of Hercule will take place in London, I've pinpointed the nine Poirot novels set in London.
The Big Four (partially, and the first murder is set there)
Lord Edgware Dies
Death in the Clouds (again, partially, while the other part is in France)
The A.B.C. Murders (now, while this one is set in several towns and none of the murders are in London, London is where the parts with all the suspects occur)
Cards on the Table
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Hickory Dickory Dock
Third Girl
So, now, which three are the most likely?
While I think the smartest decision would be to take Hickory Dickory Dock and/or Third Girl, as those are generally considered Mrs Christie's weaker novels (although I loved them) and can actually be changed to be better, I don't think that's very likely. First of all, this will be set in the interwar period and these two are set much later. And secondly, I think they will probably be dismissed because they are weaker, even though that's their biggest advantage.
I don't think Death in the Clouds will be one of the episodes either. It's murder is on a plane and not in London and it's one of the more forgotten novels. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is also often forgotten and I do not really think it will be it, either, even though I would quite love to see it adapted (it's my favorite book after Cat Among the Pigeons).
So that leaves us with four books. I actually think that the finale in which Poirot meets his nemesis will not be The Big Four, in which people found three options for the enemy, but The A.B.C. murders. Think about it, in that novel, the killer directly writes letters to Poirot, mocking him to solve the murder. On the other hand, I think the first two episodes will be Lord Edgware Dies and Cards on the Table (unless they change the location of The Mysterious Affair at Styles). When they adapt The Big Four, I'm sure it will be a season finale.
Let me know what you think. I hope I'm right, because Lord Edgware Dies, Cards on the Table and The A.B.C. Murders sound like great choices (even though I'm still very wary of the new show).
I'm a single guy with a close female friend, let's call her Patsy, and she is in a relationship for half a year with a guy who we'll call Mark. I know both Patsy and Mark for almost ten years, but while I got very close to Patsy, Mark and I had our ups and downs and for quite a time I wouldn't even consider him my friend. Now, Patsy and I go out weekly (never alone, usually with a small group of friends). And I have recently found out that she often finds time for us and not for Mark. Me and Patsy also chat a lot. But our relationship is completely platonic and me and Patsy never had feelings for each other. But recently, Patsy was annoyed with Mark and told me that he's very jealous of me and wanted to use that for her advantage. So she pretty much ignored him the next day, spent the whole day with me and a few days later, when a few of us went out, including me and Patsy, she told Mark it will just be the two of us. I actually told Patsy that I dislike all this and that it is pretty immature, and that I do not want to be in the middle of their relationship, but Patsy still sometimes tries to make him jealous with me. I don't know what to do, I think that Mark thinks that Patsy is cheating on him with me and I feel guilty about that. I feel the need to tell him the truth, that she is just doing it out of spite, but I'm worried that will change things between me and Patsy. So now I have to choose between a close friend who was shitty towards her boyfriend and her boyfriend, whom I dislike. What should I do?