Another Jekyll And Hyde Story
Well, not quite. But since only ten, maybe fifteen percent of authors coin a phrase that makes its way into the language and is still spoken years, decades, and centuries after the book has never gone out of print, sometimes it helps to go back to the source. Robert Louis Stevenson's -- RLS to his fans; I'm afraid I'm not one -- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dover Publications edition, ISBN 0486266885) is his story about a mild-mannered doctor who's come up with a way to bring out the bad (Jekyll being the good) part of himself as a separate person (Hyde). Needless to say, the story that anecdotally took Stevenson four to six weeks to write and rewrite and make it, in 1884, into the work we have today. Although the characters seem dated today (to me), the situation isn't.
In fact, we conventionally use the term Jekyll and Hyde to refer to someone or even ourselves (ok, or even myself) who seems to do a full circle in terms of personality -- where we're good we become bad, where we're loving we become hateful, and so on. (Not quite what happens in the story; it seems that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person despite their changing forms -- that is, he's still acting like himself -- but with the transformations into Hyde he's losing his inhibitions. Something we all need to watch. AND you could argue "Long John Silver" has almost become a generic name for a pirate (he's a character in RLS' novel Treasure Island); certainly the seafood restaurant chain bearing that name takes full advantage of the association! Must. Go. There. Soon.
Last night I picked up the kids at my in-laws', but they (Robert and Sharon, Martha's parents, I mean) were not there. Their daughter Martha's sister Margaret was there watching my two, for Robert and Sharon had taken their granddaughter Josceline and Robert's sister Shirley visiting them out to eat, and Jeffrey had gotten some more of his birthday money (our son turned eight last Thursday) and wanted to go out to eat AND offered to pay for it with his money AND even treat his sister Sarah who didn't have any. Daddy didn't object, especially since I had cash to pay for myself. They're learning to do for others without my drilling it in ... granted, dinner at McDonald's is a small thing, but it sure beats the food I didn't have set out to cook at home!
Now to not go into my Hyde persona, David
In fact, we conventionally use the term Jekyll and Hyde to refer to someone or even ourselves (ok, or even myself) who seems to do a full circle in terms of personality -- where we're good we become bad, where we're loving we become hateful, and so on. (Not quite what happens in the story; it seems that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person despite their changing forms -- that is, he's still acting like himself -- but with the transformations into Hyde he's losing his inhibitions. Something we all need to watch. AND you could argue "Long John Silver" has almost become a generic name for a pirate (he's a character in RLS' novel Treasure Island); certainly the seafood restaurant chain bearing that name takes full advantage of the association! Must. Go. There. Soon.
Last night I picked up the kids at my in-laws', but they (Robert and Sharon, Martha's parents, I mean) were not there. Their daughter Martha's sister Margaret was there watching my two, for Robert and Sharon had taken their granddaughter Josceline and Robert's sister Shirley visiting them out to eat, and Jeffrey had gotten some more of his birthday money (our son turned eight last Thursday) and wanted to go out to eat AND offered to pay for it with his money AND even treat his sister Sarah who didn't have any. Daddy didn't object, especially since I had cash to pay for myself. They're learning to do for others without my drilling it in ... granted, dinner at McDonald's is a small thing, but it sure beats the food I didn't have set out to cook at home!
Now to not go into my Hyde persona, David
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