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Not a bookselling site - just a place where I can chat about what I've been reading lately.

Sunday, January 02, 2022

Snoggestions

I'm not usually critical of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books, but I've been thinking about Mr. Ray's "snoggestions" lately.
For those readers who aren't imtimately familiar with the series, Mr. Ray (Betsy's dad) sometimes has particularly good ideas, which he calls "snoggestions". I think that one might involve a visit to the Moorish Cafe - which, I agree, might need to be unpacked at some other time - and Betsy taking a trip somewhere. Point is, they're good ideas, but I can't remember one that doesn't include an expense.
I'm not taking away from Mr. Ray's good ideas, but I'd like to point out that Mrs. Ray never makes a snoggestion in the series. She also doesn't have control of the family's finances, though she usually has some small change to spend.*

* It's worth pointing out that the next generation does better: when Betsy gets married, she comes up with the budget and makes sure they keep it. Because they're younger and just starting out, neither Betsy nor her husband - no spoilers here! - makes snoggestions. Though when her husband earns extra money, he does seem to have more of a say in how that is spent, though I'd chalk that up to it being his windfall. Betsy's extra money that she earns pays for a cleaning woman so she can spend more time writing, by the way; she doesn't buy luxury items as her husband does. To be fair, he earns a lot more extra money than she does. Also, regardless, the budget seems more equitable than the Rays' is.

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