Comments on: The Lotus Eater — Chapter 10

By: E. Wallace

E. Wallace — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:25:02 +0000

Ardis @ #2 for the win!! Although talk about burying the lede in the 10th installment.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:17:33 +0000

My dog Abby, nearing the end of her 11th year, is a bit worse for wear.

By: Mina

Mina — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:50:38 +0000

For a brief fleeting moment I thought Rowena might be a common law sister wife. Or the new tenant after the old one died in a tragic sheep shearing incident.

The dog Danny is bringing home is a toy one, right? I was a bit worried about a real puppy becoming “worse for wear.”

By: charlene

charlene — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:57:33 +0000

Lots of significant storylines got lost in this story, but I think the main points for a RS serial remained the same:
1) pretty girls get married
2) have all your adventures before you marry
3) after you marry, all outlets for self-expression are limited to painting your house and making curtains (maybe a small garden), and you’ll be completely happy about it.

I’m a little disappointed that the author spent so much time with the details of the musical year, then copped out on how to think through big decisions. I’m with you, Ardis, let’s write an alternate universe version. I’m going with this one:
a) the new school teacher had designs on Dan
b) Rowena and Orval tried hard to keep Dan on the straight and narrow, including following him to the valley dances to see how he behaved
c) Helen had to humble herself and fight for her man when she returned
d) the ranch prospered, the story was optioned by TV and Helen was played by Barbara Stanwyck.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:51:16 +0000

Of course, it ignores one minor detail–that you have to serve papers on the defendant to start the divorce proceeding. But that’s been ignored by sleazy attorneys and process servers for years–in New York they call it “sewer service,” since that’s where the papers were delivered, rather than to the defendant.

The other question is whether Dan would have had grounds for divorcing Helen under Wyoming law in the 1940s or 50s. But if he had lied about serving process, I suppose he could have lied about the affair she had with what’s his name.

I’ll bet there were a lot of women lawyers reading the Relief Society Magazine back in those days who had these same thoughts!

Speaking of “sewer service,” I had a client who discovered years after the fact that her husband had divorced her. They were living apart–she in New York and he in the Caribbean–but he came up here and she went down there to visit from time to time (conjugal visits? I didn’t ask). It was quite a shock to her to learn that he’d divorced her–but she decided it wasn’t worth going down to the islands and fighting to open the judgement. (Note I spelled it the British way–it was a former British colony!) After what he did, she wasn’t much interested in being married to him after all.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:49:33 +0000

Dan might have grown weary of her long absence and divorced her

This is the story I want to read in an alternate universe version.

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:20:48 +0000

I was just beginning to be a little bit worried

Dear old dad has an amazing tolerance level.