Rachel Coleman

I am working my way through library copies of the Bridgerton series. Book 3, An Offer From A Gentleman, is a blatant Cinderella retelling, but no-one in the book mentions the similarities. So I conclude that in the Book!Bridgerton AU*, there is no Cinderella fairy tale. I'm now trying to remember if there are any fairy tales references in the books so far. Maybe they just didn't get the literary salons that produced conte de fées, and/or the Brothers Grimm.

(*) In my head all Regency romances occupy alternate universes which merely bear some resemblance to this universe's Regency period in England. Netflix!Bridgerton is a separate AU again, and also hasn't reached this story yet.

This is a lightly-edited comment I left for minoanmiss, who was asking about family in-jokes.

There was a wildlife park in the part of England where I grew up, and where my husband coincidentally spent a year pre-university (long before we met), which had many local radio and TV ads with the tagline "Cricket St Thomas - near Chard". I can still hear the jaunty intonation. His household of Year In Industry 18-year-olds invented, and our household has adopted, using "Cricket St Thomas" for any food that's a bit overcooked and burned. So long as it's only near charred. "The bacon's a bit Cricket St Thomas but still tasty."

What are your family slang words, or the adverts you still remember perfectly? (On the latter, my brother came around last weekend with some Daim chocolate, to which my instant response is still "crunchy on the inside!")

My default birthday/Christmas gift from my brother J is shower gels[1], and he usually goes to some effort to find ones I won't find in my usual grocery shopping places, and/or ones that are especially silly, sexist or both. This year's birthday was a particulary good haul of silliness and I've finally got around to photographing them so I can share the joy.



On the left we have "Fruity Spearmint & Sea Salt FOR MEN". While we have (ok J has) found all sorts of ridiculous marketing of manly shower gels for men, the combination of Fruity, Sea Salt and MEN had us both in giggles.

In the middle we have "Tropic Like It's Hot" which is probably my favourite of the three by smell, and the name makes me grin.

On the right we have "Lynx Energised", and I was mildly disappointed in its lack of silliness, although "mango and dragon fruit scent" is a bit out of the norm. But no, the real delight is in the small print on the back:



"Get an energy shot to boost you in the morning with this 3-in-1 shower gel that contains 200% more energy than your smartphone." I feel this cannot be an accurate claim! However, it does smell nice.


[1] It started because it's something I use at least daily, and being given it is one less chore for me, making it a definite Kind and Useful Gift.