Comments on: Joanna: Chapter 4

By: lindberg

lindberg — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 00:07:13 +0000

Yikes. I don’t think I want to read the next installment. Fourteen year old girls can be nastier than just about any other creature on the planet. This does not bode well for poor Penny.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 20:19:25 +0000

Really. Zephyrette. Once we rode the train from Provo down to Price to visit a boyhood friend of my father’s. The train was the California Zephyr, and the young stewards (stewardesses?) were called Zephyrettes. And I actually remembered that from half a century ago. (It helped that the name Zephyrette became a family joke for several years afterward.)

But I did have to Google “Davenette.”

By: kevinf

kevinf — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:34:54 +0000

Mark, really, Zephyrette? Maybe Joanna will meet one when she takes the train to California. But only after the trauma of the birthday party FAIL is overcome. (Admission: I had to google Zephyrette) But I will give you an “E” for excellent googling skilz.

I haven’t heard davenport used in probably 40 years, when my folks got rid of the old one and got a new sofa, which seemed to serve the exact same function in just two syllables.

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:13:15 +0000

The author is good at sharing the section of story, and leaving you on tender hooks for the next installment.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:37:16 +0000

Since this was a Mormon publication, I’m voting for “supernal.”

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:31:22 +0000

I used to get ‘S’s’ on my report cards. It meant Satisfactory. ‘E’s’ were better because they were Excellent. I wonder what Penny’s meant.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:49:18 +0000

Check your email, Ardis. You’ll be sorry I did.

(I’m waiting for someone older than me to jump on “Zephyrette.” Sorry I misspelled it in #3.)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:41:25 +0000

Sure, Mark — anything that gives you nightmares is worth learning more about!

My dad used “davenport” instead of “couch” or “sofa” so I kinda sorta thought I knew what a davenette was and didn’t look it up. I’m glad you did.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:29:13 +0000

Something bad? You mean “davenette” wasn’t bad enough? I had visions of my Zepherette leading me down the aisle to my davenette and I almost lost my breakfast.

Actually, I couldn’t help Googling it. “Davenette” was a trade name for an “upholstered davenport bed” made by Kroehler Manufacturing Company of Naperville, Illinois, which applied to register the trademark in 1949 and renewed the registration in 1971. But, alas, the trademark has since been abandoned and has expired.

It turns out, though, that the Kroehler Manufacturing Company was the second largest furniture maker in the U.S. with about $20 million in annual sales (and those were real dollars). The company went out of business in the 1970s, but two unrelated companies manufacture furniture under the Kroehler name.

Weren’t you just dying to know all that??

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:37:23 +0000

“Tune in next Wednesday, same Keepa time, same Keepa channel …”