# Khadaji's Whatcha Readin' thread -- March 2017 Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 27, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974 "2017-02-27T19:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/101 "2017-03-27T00:18:16Z")
My book that I’m reading when I have time to sit down and read for at least an hour is _The Queen of Katwe_, the story of a young girl chess prodigy discovered in the slums of Uganda. She may turn out to be the best female chess player in history, and best even some of the greatest men. She was discovered through a series of coincidences-- it’s one of those books that, if it were fiction, no one would believe. My kindle book for reading in scattered moments and waiting rooms, etc., is, for about the 15th time, _The Daughter of Time_. Every time I read it, something different jumps out at me. This time, it was the fact that in spite of Henry marrying the sister of the missing princes, he makes no effort to locate the bodies. If they were really murdered and buried in secret by Richard _two years earlier_, he’d be looking for skeletons. He couldn’t very well do that if he was concealing two fresh bodies. You’ve got to wonder if his wife didn’t ask him, assuming he told her that her uncle murdered them, why he didn’t look for the bodies to give them a Christian burial. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/102 "2017-03-27T04:09:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …Still enjoying the novel… _Dominion_ by C.J. Sansom, about Britain under Nazi German domination [in 1952]… I’ve read _'way_ too much of the book this weekend, when I should have been doing other things. About a third of the way in, it shifted into a chase/hideout book and became quite a pageturner. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/103 "2017-03-27T04:18:47Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Even worse is when you’re sure they’re mocking the character for pronouncing something some way, but when you sound it out it sounds exactly like the way you and everyone you know pronounces it. So then you can’t tell if he’s mocking your speech or if he means you to pronounce the phonetic spelling some other way that you can’t figure out! > > I’m trying to remember the example is Charles Dickens’s _Martin Chuzzlewit_ that drove me crazy. One that I’ve seen is writing “noo” instead of “new” (which both sound the same in my dialect). ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/104 "2017-03-27T04:31:47Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > _Flash for Freedom!_, in which Flashman is himself sold into slavery and assisted by a young Congressman Abe Lincoln. I recall a tear of pride running down his cheek at being told the esteem Britain was held in certain quarters because they had abolished slavery. I believe Sir Harry poses the argument to an older more Presidential Lincoln that America could have avoided the Civil War by remaining part of the Empire until slavery had been abolished, then making a graceful separation (in fact avoiding three wars in this scenario). ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/105 "2017-03-27T08:20:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > As I recall, he did not get involved with that slave ship on his own initiative but was forced to as a result of losing a game of cards. And being accused – falsely, as it happens – of cheating in that game; and losing his temper and almost beating the accuser to death. His father-in-law sends him off slaving to get him out of the way for a spell, so as to let the scandal die down – also implied, that with a bit of luck, he’ll never return. **Siam Sam** writes: " _Flash for Freedom !_, in which Flashman is himself sold into slavery and assisted by a young Congressman Abe Lincoln. I recall a tear of pride running down his cheek at being told the esteem Britain was held in certain quarters because they had abolished slavery." > [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > I believe Sir Harry poses the argument to an older more Presidential Lincoln that America could have avoided the Civil War by remaining part of the Empire until slavery had been abolished, then making a graceful separation (in fact avoiding three wars in this scenario). “Nitpickery department” – ah ! It’s not in _Flash for Freedom !_, but in – I think – _Flashman and the Angel of the Lord_: the one about John Brown. In a brief random bit of reminiscence, Flashman is quoting a conversation of his with Lincoln in 1865, a couple of days before Lincoln’s assassination. (Admittedly, in the _“Angel of the Lord”_ book, the ageing author does a lot of recycling of material from _FFF !_ .) ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/106 "2017-03-27T11:36:14Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I picked up an old favorite, Josephine Tey’s _Daughter of Time_, which is, of course, a classic, and it was still very enjoyable on this current re-read, although as I have gotten older, I find myself less amused by Inspector Grant’s crankiness, and more like “can’t you just DEAL?” > [@RivkahChaya](#): > > My kindle book for reading in scattered moments and waiting rooms, etc., is, for about the 15th time, _The Daughter of Time_. Every time I read it, something different jumps out at me. This time, it was the fact that in spite of Henry marrying the sister of the missing princes, he makes no effort to locate the bodies. If they were really murdered and buried in secret by Richard _two years earlier_, he’d be looking for skeletons. He couldn’t very well do that if he was concealing two fresh bodies. You’ve got to wonder if his wife didn’t ask him, assuming he told her that her uncle murdered them, why he didn’t look for the bodies to give them a Christian burial. Hoping not to be accused of threadshitting: I’m not meaning to “rubbish” anybody for liking and enjoying _The Daughter of Time_ – just wishing to mention something about the book which I find off-putting (nothing to do with “Richard versus Henry”). I’ve read it several times – all such, now long ago – and feel that I couldn’t face reading it again; because of my having come to find the conversation of the twentieth-century characters with each other, nauseatingly and gooey-ly arch and twee. (I’ve read other novels by Tey, which did not at all give me this problem.) Would be interested to know if any other readers of _TDoT_ have experienced this – or am I just being weird? I found the historical element of _TDoT_ interesting and quite persuasive – though feeling that Tey suffers from a certain amount of confirmation bias: she’s so sure that Richard was the next thing to a saint, that there’s obviously no way he could have done any of the evil stuff he’s been charged with… ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/107 "2017-03-27T12:41:43Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I picked up an old favorite, Josephine Tey’s _Daughter of Time_, which is, of course, a classic, and it was still very enjoyable on this current re-read, although as I have gotten older, I find myself less amused by Inspector Grant’s crankiness, and more like “can’t you just DEAL?” It just makes me glad I was never in the hospital before cable TV, VCRs, DVDs, etc. How awful just to have to lie there. He wasn’t even really in a good position to read a book unless he was REALLY motivated to read it. > [@Sangahyando](#): > > Hoping not to be accused of threadshitting: I’m not meaning to “rubbish” anybody for liking and enjoying _The Daughter of Time_ – just wishing to mention something about the book which I find off-putting (nothing to do with “Richard versus Henry”). I’ve read it several times – all such, now long ago – and feel that I couldn’t face reading it again; because of my having come to find the conversation of the twentieth-century characters with each other, nauseatingly and gooey-ly arch and twee. (I’ve read other novels by Tey, which did not at all give me this problem.) Would be interested to know if any other readers of _TDoT_ have experienced this – or am I just being weird? Oh, no, I dson’t think it’s threadshitting to discuss a legitimate aspect of a book in a respectful way. Personally, what I think you are picking up on, aside from the mannered way people really did talk back then-- I was born in 1967, and when I was a teen, I still called ALL adults by an honorific and a last name, unless they were in their very young 20s-- is the bad American dialogue of the “Brent Carradine” character. It’s even an awful name, truly the name of an American character that someone British without much experience with Americans has come up with. Agatha Christie had the same problem. In her later novels, she clearly had people who could check her American dialogue for her, but in many of the earlier ones, people from the upper echelons of New England society will sometimes talk like gangsters in a Hollywood B film. Anyway, Carradine goes along, talking just like what the getting-up-in-years Tey thinks a young person talks like-- but it will be a British young person-- then he will spout lots of random Andy Hardy type phrases, and also some Americanisms that are wrong for his generation, and a few other odd things, like making references to landmarks all over the US, that make it clear Tey has not considered how big the country is. Grant does not talk like a streetwise policeman the way we are used to hearing is US novels, but I think on this point she is probably closer to correct. Did you ever see the UK _Law and Order_? much less hard-boiled than the US version. Remember, what we call “line-ups” in the US, they call “identity parades.” How twee is that? > [@](#): > > I found the historical element of _TDoT_ interesting and quite persuasive – though feeling that Tey suffers from a certain amount of confirmation bias: she’s so sure that Richard was the next thing to a saint, that there’s obviously no way he could have done any of the evil stuff he’s been charged with… She had read all the books she references, and borrows heavily from Markham. I would say rather than confirmation bias, which is really a way of referring to interpreting experimental results, not events of the past, she is quite knowingly writing polemics. In other words, some books try to present a neutral, or balanced picture. Others are clearly one-sided, and not abashed about it. _The Daughter of Time_ is a polemic work. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/108 "2017-03-27T14:32:16Z")
**RivkahChaya** : Thanks – glad that “liker” and “non-liker” can converse amicably ! My “beef” isn’t with the ceremonious-addressing thing – “Mr. Grant”, Miss Rivers”, etc. (after so many years, I’ve forgotten most of the characters’ names). And I didn’t particularly object in the main, to the American Carradine guy’s conversation – one particular thing (see below), but that’s for a personal reason which isn’t about “John Bull versus Brother Jonathan”. Nor any problem with Grant’s not sounding like a modern hard-boiled cop. The modern characters’ conversation seemed to me, just so full of annoying catch-phrases and to my mind “tricksy” and feeble word-play. At the risk of getting into sex-war territory here: I’m male, the author was female – in my perception, many women enjoy using cutesy catch-phrases (whether self-invented, or otherwise) and cutesy private slang – which stuff many men find repellent. A few examples: the use of “Tonypandy” to mean propagandist bullshit, irritates me because (a) I’m a lover of Wales and things Welsh – in English transliteration, the name sounds silly, but it’s a perfectly legitimate Welsh place-name – and (b) in the book, this joke is IMO flogged to death. A medieval financial transaction, involving “marks”, then a part of English currency – the modern-day commentating characters speak of this as having to do with “perks” (perquisites) and also, to-match, “merks” – adaptation of “marks” – to me, word-play of the weakest, inciting throwing-up. A move on Richard’s part, to strengthen his case: getting together London’s magnates to address them about his honourable behaviour and intentions – the speaker tells of his thus addressing the city’s “high heid yins” – oh, please ! This is a book about a historical disputed matter – why not write it in standard English, instead of gratuitously bringing in our Scottish friends’ adaptation of same? What’s the point? And, catch-phrases – our modern characters having taken to the line that Richard was the good guy: quite early on, they decide that Sir Thomas More’s writings on the matter, were deliberately-falsely written by him to traduce Richard; whence their satirically naming him thence, in all references, “the sainted More”. (Maybe Protestant-versus-Catholic animosity showing up here – don’t know what were Tey’s feelings re same.) Just – tabloidish catch-phrases: I can do without them. And at one time toward the end of the book – Grant is quoting More and “catching him out” in something written by him, and Carradine chimes in, “the mean, burbling, sanctimonious old bastard”. All right – we get it-- Jo, you don’t like Tom – no need to beat us over the head with it ! Trivial stuff for me to get pissed-off with, maybe (the above are only examples – for me, the book is full of such off-pissment-material) – but whether making sense or not, it’s enough to have made me resolve never again in my life, to open the book concerned. (As regards the actual historical matter – have seen so much to support either side; and general feeling is that so much that happened then is obscure, and will likely never now be clarified: I really don’t know. I’d like Richard to be the good guy, if only because Henry strikes me as a very unattractive character; but maybe they were, in their different ways, pretty much equals.) ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/109 "2017-03-27T15:20:15Z")
Mon, I call him “the sainted More” with an eye roll too. Not that Tudor was my area of study, I’m a Plantagenet scholar … ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/110 "2017-03-27T15:28:51Z")
All saints are not saintly in every respect – but from what I can see, he was true to his beliefs where it mattered the most. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/111 "2017-03-28T01:41:20Z")
I finished **The Bilbao Looking Glass** by Charlotte MacLeod today. Ah the Kelling clan…almost makes me appreciate my family…almost 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/112 "2017-03-28T14:01:45Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > I finished **The Bilbao Looking Glass** by Charlotte MacLeod today. Ah the Kelling clan…almost makes me appreciate my family…almost 😃 **The Bilbao Looking Glass** is a good one. My favorite Kelling book is still **The Withdrawing Room.** ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/113 "2017-03-28T16:10:32Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > **The Bilbao Looking Glass** is a good one. My favorite Kelling book is still **The Withdrawing Room.** Mine is probably **The Silver Ghost** classic luxury cars, murder and Aunt Appie! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/114 "2017-03-28T16:16:39Z")
Finished C.J. Sansom’s \*Dominion \*last night. A very good alternative history and an engrossing spy thriller, although the ending is not quite up to the rest of the book, and there’s a strange tangential postscript about the author’s vehement opposition to Scottish independence! Next up: Dan Chaon’s latest thriller,\* Ill Will\*. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/115 "2017-03-29T04:50:31Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > **Siam Sam** writes: " _Flash for Freedom !_, in which Flashman is himself sold into slavery and assisted by a young Congressman Abe Lincoln. I recall a tear of pride running down his cheek at being told the esteem Britain was held in certain quarters because they had abolished slavery." > > “Nitpickery department” – ah ! It’s not in _Flash for Freedom !_, but in – I think – _Flashman and the Angel of the Lord_: the one about John Brown. In a brief random bit of reminiscence, Flashman is quoting a conversation of his with Lincoln in 1865, a couple of days before Lincoln’s assassination. (Admittedly, in the _“Angel of the Lord”_ book, the ageing author does a lot of recycling of material from _FFF !_ .) I’m pretty certain it’s in _Flash for Freedom!_, but Alas! I jettisoned all my books before I left Thailand. Maybe I should reread the series, but nothing can equal the pleasure of reading each one for the very first time. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/116 "2017-03-29T08:42:02Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’m pretty certain it’s in _Flash for Freedom!_, but Alas! I jettisoned all my books before I left Thailand. Maybe I should reread the series, but nothing can equal the pleasure of reading each one for the very first time. I’ve got some in my possession – but not _Freedom !_ or _Angel of Lord_. We not being hot-tempered Flashy or his associates, I reckon we can refrain from fighting a duel over the question 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/117 "2017-03-29T20:27:48Z")
I was traveling last week so didn’t do much reading, but I did fit in a couple of children’s books, [Time at the Top & All In Good Time](https://www.amazon.com/Time-Top-All-Good-Novels/dp/1930900554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490818444&sr=8-1&keywords=edward+ormondroyd) by Edward Ormondroyd. _Time at the Top_ was a sweet, cozy time travel adventure; \*All In Good Time \*was a messy, unnecessary sequel. Also read a kick-ass Lansdale story, [Hell’s Bounty](https://www.amazon.com/Hells-Bounty-Joe-R-Lansdale/dp/1596067454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490818709&sr=8-1&keywords=hells+bounty). Cowboys and demons and Lovecraft, oh my! Some Stephen King re-reads filled the rest of the time. Now I’m on to a quick non-fiction read about cognitive dissonance: [Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)](https://www.amazon.com/Mistakes-Were-Made-But-Not/dp/0151010986/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/118 "2017-03-30T10:28:05Z")
I finished reading **Erewhon** by Samuel Butler. It’s a satire based around the conceit of a trip to a country where the people have absurd beliefs that are thinly veiled analogs of beliefs in normal society. For example, the Erewhonians believe that criminality can be cured and that disease should be punished, they believe in the theory of evolution (as applied to machines), they believe that the purpose of education is to teach you to avoid committing to a position, etc. I thought it was moderately amusing. My favourite part was the description of the “musical banks”, institutions full of somber music that everyone claims are very beneficial to society but that most people don’t really seem to believe in. My least favourite was a satire on people who believe in animal rights and vegetarianism/veganism because it seemed dated and based on the premise that vegetarians would inevitably get enfeebled by the lack of meat in their diet, although it did have an amusing side note about people having no problem eating animals that committed suicide or that were killed in self-defense (wink, wink). ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/119 "2017-03-30T16:12:40Z")
I finished **Two Necromancers, a Dragon and a Vampire** by L.G. Estrella. The author took on a much longer story than the previous two books so the pacing was a little uneven, but overall it was a fun book to read. I really enjoy this series and the world Estrella is creating. I think Necropolis by our own **Arr Matey** is next up on my tablet. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974/120 "2017-03-30T22:43:22Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Would be interested to know if any other readers of _TDoT_ have experienced this – or am I just being weird? Yes, I do find it a bit twittering. The hammering into the ground of Tonypandy is particularly grating. Then again, it’s my impression that the whole notion of unreliable witness testimony, of people being _absolutely sure_ they saw something when in fact they were only repeating things they heard from others, would have been a new idea to most of her readers, so perhaps she can be forgiven for coming back to this over and over again. I certainly don’t think it’s because she’s a woman. You don’t see that business in Sayers, for example. I’ve seen academic criticisms of Tey that chalk it up to a “middle class” sensibility, which doesn’t seem like a nice phrase either, nor exactly a term a critic would likely use now. I’d guess what they’re going for is a certain smugness where it isn’t warranted; bourgeois might be closer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadajis-whatcha-readin-thread-march-2017-edition/780974.md?page=7)