Comments on: Keepa Kuriosities

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:25:50 +0000

Across the Campus has been reprinted in a modern paperback, but I’ve found and ordered what seems to be a decent copy of the original 1899 edition.

Justin is King!

By: Jami

Jami — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:06:19 +0000

I must confess to having contacted a boarding school story “expert” to see if she knew. I knew Justin was on the case too. I will never doubt again. Justin can find anything.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:11:07 +0000

I am almost at a loss of things to say about this post. You all have said it wonderfully well. I’m curious about the search for radioactive bottled water history. Tuna casserole search? Maybe in a couple of weeks Ardis will see a search for lab rats or for braized heart and dressing.

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:04:09 +0000

Justin, I have stood in awe of your mad skillz as long as I’ve participated in the Bloggernacle, but now . . .

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:47:53 +0000

That’s a real possibility, Justin. She said “boarding school” rather than “boarding house,” but since she didn’t remember anything else about the book, it’s possible that she didn’t remember that particular detail quite right. My mother probably read just about anything she could get her hands on — college, though, would have been more attractive to her, I think, than boarding school.

Hmm. Now I need to see if the Chapman Branch Library in SLC ever had a copy of Across the Campus.

Justin’s puzzle-solving reputation is secure. With oak leaf clusters, skyrockets, and triple crowns.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:28:42 +0000

Justin, you’re commissioned. I don’t know where to start, and it’s something I’ve wanted to know for 50 years. Comment by Ardis E. Parshall — March 7, 2009 @ 8:57 am No pressure, Justin, but your reputation (and the awe with which your ability to find links to anything is viewed) is hanging in the balance. Comment by Ray — March 7, 2009 @ 10:27 am Maybe I could recruit some potheads to help me with the quest. I did some searching and came across a book entitled Across the Campus (1899) by Caroline Fuller. One of the main characters is named Ardis. However, it's about college life (though the main characters stay at a boarding house) and seems to be directed toward readers in their teens, so it may be a miss (I don't know how old your mother was at the time).

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:07:01 +0000

D’ya know, Velikiye, while the query still makes my skin crawl (yes, Jami, that IS a valid form of exercise ), at least I figured out what Keepa post they landed on by Googling the phrase myself. It is Undercover for the Lord.

I announce this so everybody knows that I don’t have secret pages visible only to stalkers and peepers, and I’m not selling my own line of Ardis’s Really, Really Secret. Really.

By: Velikiye Kniaz

Velikiye Kniaz — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:39:35 +0000

Well, well, Ardis, I truly had to laugh about the “Ardis undergarments” query. But I wouldn’t worry too much about such curiosity. Now, when they start to ask about the cost of autographed photos of you modelling same, then I would definitely become concerned!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:20:19 +0000

Yeah, Justin, it’s YOUR reputation that’s at stake (not mine for not having solved this puzzle over the past decades).

All I can add by way of help is that it is something she likely read in the very late 1920s or early 1930s, but of course it could have been published any time before then.

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:27:27 +0000

No pressure, Justin, but your reputation (and the awe with which your ability to find links to anything is viewed) is hanging in the balance.