# "Plum" Perfect - for Wodehouse fans **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 4, 2001, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641 "2001-09-04T07:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/41 "2001-09-06T22:11:05Z")
The first love of Lord Emsworth is pumpkins, and the Duke of Dunstable is otherwise Alaric. ---
**Author:** ![g8rguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@g8rguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/g8rguy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/42 "2001-09-07T00:12:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by IzzyR \* > \*\*No, he’s right. It is Battling Bilson. \*\* Hmm… He CHEATED and used a character from a Ukridge story in a non-Ukridge story! I want my money back. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/43 "2001-09-21T22:02:17Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Northern Piper:_ > **9. What unexpected garb was Horace Davenport wearing at the Drones Club one day, leading Pongo Twistleton to lose a bet of 50 pounds, borrowed from Oofy Prosser?** I was looking for an answer to this one. Actually, I gave up on it more than a week ago, but am just coming back to the question now (sorry). I can’t find this in any of the Wodehouse books I have. Answer, please? Also, I will give the answer to my question re Oofy Prosser if you like. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/44 "2001-09-22T21:27:32Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Northern Piper:_ > **9. What unexpected garb was Horace Davenport wearing at the Drones Club one day, leading Pongo Twistleton to lose a bet of 50 pounds, borrowed from Oofy Prosser?** I just read that one last week (I think it’s Uncle Fred in the Springtime). He was dressed as a Masai warrior, IIRC. (Pongo thought he would be dressed as a Boy Scout). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/45 "2001-09-22T21:41:59Z")
**Enugent’s** got it (although technically Horace later said he was a Zulu warrior). > [@](#): > > A movement along the corridor attracted therir attention. Claude Pott, accompanied by a small committee, was proceeding to the telephone booth. He removed the wedge from beneath the door, and as he opened it there emerged a figure. > > Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time, but few stranger than the one that now whizzed out of the telephone booth, whizzed down the corridor, whizzed past the little group at the desk and, bursting through the door of the club, whizzed down the steps and into a passing cab. > > The face of this individual, as the hall porter had foreshadowed, was a rich black in colour. Its long body was draped in tights of the same sombre hue, surmounted by a leopard’s skin. Towering above his head was a head-dress of ostrich feathers, and in its right hand it grasped an assegai. It was wearing tortoise-shell spectacles. > > Pongo, sliding back against the desk, found his arm gripped by a kindly hand. > > ‘Shift ho, my boy, I think, eh?’ said Lord Ickenham. ‘There would appear to be nothing to keep you here, and a meeting with Oofy Prosser at this moment might be fraught with pain and embarrassment.’ So, **Miss Mapp,** I give - who swindled Oofy? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/46 "2001-09-23T15:44:13Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Northern Piper:_ > **So, Miss Mapp, I give - who swindled Oofy?** Oofy Prosser was swindled out of 2000 pounds by a theatrical agent named Jas Waterbury in “Jeeves and the Greasy Bird.” A remarkable feat, since “it is well known that it’s practically impossible to extract as much as five bob from [Oofy] without using chloroform and a forceps. Dozens have tried it and failed.” The money was extracted from Oofy via threat of a breach of promise suit involving an actress/niece of Waterbury’s. Waterbury also tries the same trick on Bertie, who is rescued by Jeeves, per usual. ---
**Author:** ![ellis555](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@ellis555](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ellis555)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/47 "2001-09-23T18:07:04Z")
1. (I think) How many other books titled _Summer Lightning_ did Wodehouse discover after already settling on that title himself? Unfortunately, all of the answers that I could get off the top of my head have been given already. And my collection is some thousands of miles away. -ellis ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/48 "2001-09-25T10:10:47Z")
**ellis555** - didn’t he say something like: "I hope my book is good enough to be included in the list, ‘The 100 Best Books named _Summer Lightning?_’ " **Miss Mapp** - of course! The Greasy Bird! How could I have forgotten! (Mind you, I still think that somewhere in the oeuvre Oofy runs into Soapy, but I’m not sure where it is. Perhaps it will come to me in the night and I will run around my bedroom crying out, “Summer Lightning!” (Except Soapy and Oofy aren’t in that one, but you get the idea.)) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/49 "2001-09-25T21:47:34Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Northern Piper:_ > **Miss Mapp** - of course! The Greasy Bird! How could I have forgotten! (Mind you, I still think that somewhere in the oeuvre Oofy runs into Soapy, but I’m not sure where it is. \*\* There may be. My collection is, unfortunately, incomplete. For example, I _know_ I’ve read that passage about Pongo’s costume before, but know just as surely that I don’t have that story here. So…are you up for another go-round? I’ve put my Wodehouse books back on the shelves, but they can be taken down again at a moment’s notice if more trivia calls. ---
**Author:** ![ellis555](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@ellis555](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ellis555)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641/50 "2001-09-26T20:42:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\ ***ellis555** - didn’t he say something like: "I hope my book is good enough to be included in the list, ‘The 100 Best Books named _Summer Lightning?_’ " > \*\* I’m pretty sure he locates three or four in his own library alone. But it had already been sent off the the printers, thus the comment which you have recalled. I’d attempt to revive the thread, but can’t come up with any stumpers with out the books at hand. -ellis [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plum-perfect-for-wodehouse-fans/79641.md?page=2)