36、February 9,1952

                          14 East 95th St.
                          February 9,1952

Now listen, Maxine—
    I just talked to your mother,  she says
you don’t think  the show  will run another
month and she says you took two dozen pairs
of nylons over there, so do me a favor. 
As soon as the closing notice goes up take
four pairs of nylons around to the bookshop
for me,  give them to Frank Doel,  tell him
they’re for the three girls and Nora (his
wife).
    Your mother says I am NOT to enclose any
money for them, she got them last summer at
a close-out sale at Saks,  they  were  very
cheap  and  she’ll  donate them to the shop,
she’s feeling pro-British.
    Wait’ll you see what the shop sent me for
Christmas,  It’s  an Irish linen tablecloth,
the color of thick cream,  hand-embroidered
in  an  old-fashioned pattern of leaves and
flowers, every flower worked in a different
color and shaded from very pale to very deep,
you never saw anything like it. My junk-shop
dropleaf table CERTainly never saw anything
like  it,  i  get this urge to shake out my
flowing Victorian sleeve and lift a graceful
arm  to  pour tea from a imaginary Georgian
teapot,  we’re gonna play Stanislavski with
it the minute you get home.
    Ellery raised me to $250 a script, if it
keeps up till June I may get to England and
browse around my bookshop myself. If I have
the nerve. I write them the most outrageous
letters from a safe 3,000 miles away.  i’ll
probably walk in there one day and walk right
out again without telling them who i am.
    I fail to see why you did not understand
that groceryman, he did not call it “ground
ground  nuts,”   he   called   it   “ground
ground-nuts”  which  is  the  only  really
SENSible thing to call it.  Peanuts grow in
the GROUND  and  are therefore GROUND-nuts,
and after you take them out of the ground you
grind   them   up   and   you  have  ground
ground-nuts,  which is a much more accurate
name than peanut butter ,  you  just  don’t
understand English.
                    XXX

                          h. hanff
                          girl etymologist

P.S. Your mother is setting out bravely this
morning to look at an apartment for you on
8th Avenue in the 50’s because you told her
to look in the theatre district. Maxine  you
know  perfectly  well  your  mother  is not
equipped to look at ANYTHING on 8th Avenue.

注释：
the show 演出，节目
do me a favor 帮个忙好么；给我点面子
As soon as 一...就...；一旦
close-out 清仓大拍卖; 停止
Saks 萨克斯百货（大型美国零售商）
pro-British 亲英派
Wait’ll you see 怎么还有这种写法
the color of thick cream 厚奶油色；米黄色
hand-embroidered 手工刺绣的
old-fashioned 老式的
junk-shop 旧店
dropleaf table 茶几
Victorian 维多利亚时代的
Georgian 乔治亚的
Stanislavski 斯坦尼斯拉夫斯基
If I have the nerve. 如果我有勇气的话。
outrageous 粗暴的; 无法容忍的; 肆无忌惮的
fail to see why 不明白为什么
groceryman <美>食品杂货商
ground ground nuts、ground ground-nuts、peanut butter 花生酱