I woke up thinking how much I'd like to read "Pla1n Jane and Pretty Betty" again. What a poisonous little ray of sunshine that one is.
It was about a spoiled little butterfly teenager of a girl, her unhappy whining overspending socialite mother, and her dyspeptic high-blood-pressure-having dad who was a zillionaire stockbroker. And Plain Jane who is exactly Betty's age or something, and lives in the same town, and their paths cross for some reason, and Jane is drab & etc. Of course her family's shabbby house is filled with Love. You can imagine it, right? And you know what happens next, right? Molly Ringwald learns to sew. Betty's dad loses all his money in the 1929 crash and they have to move into a tiny shack next door to Jane's or perhaps it was a white-painted 3 bedroom cottage with no servants. (same difference). The nouveau poor learn how to be happy and fulfilled. Of course Jane and Betty soon discover they are cousins, or maybe I'm remembering it slightly wrong, and the parents of them both were missing a parent so they can get married and become one big happy family in a shack without dental care, toilets, or washing machines. I believe Betty discovers her unique talent for Interior Decoration and they start a business.
Nevermind that the real story would be more like Jane cries tears of relief when she can finally afford to buy a piece of cheese after whoring herself out on the street with Betty's dad as her pimp.
Next time I go to NYC I'm going to go to the Tenement Museum for sure... Steph told me all about it.
Are you implying that poverty isn't fun? Suffering isn't ennobling? Deprivation isn't the surest path to True Happiness?
I'm crushed....
Posted by: garnet | November 30, 2005 at 12:58 PM
The Tenement Museum is the BEST. You can take a virtual tour on their website, too. http://www.tenement.org/Virtual_Tour/index_virtual.html
very slick.
Posted by: elswhere | November 30, 2005 at 02:11 PM
Please, please write the alternative version. What is Betty doing while Jane is out on the street .. Is Jane's mother a crack dealer or does she take in washing? Please ...?
Posted by: Iris | November 30, 2005 at 02:56 PM