291 Quiz Answer

The play is “The Taming of the Shrew.”  In the Italian city of Padua, a wealthy old man named Baptista has declared that no one may court his beautiful daughter Bianca until first her older sister, the ill-tempered Katherine, is married. 

(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday; "P" is for "Pam")

The following should remind you of a well-known play.  Which play?

Hi, welcome to the weekly quiz.  Who am I?  I’m Pam, a girl – young woman, to be accurate – who has a problem.

I’m about average height, a bit above average intelligence and a placid nature.  People tell me so often I’m beautiful that I’m beginning to believe them.  So I’ll say no more about that.

To top things off, my father – Popsy, I call him – has money.  Quite a lot of it.

Now, you’d think that a mademoiselle with a resume’ like that wouldn’t have too much trouble finding some cool dude to marry.  Well, dudes have come and dudes have gone, and I’m still sitting here, un – as the saying goes - attached.

This nondescript problem can be summed up very simply: my old man.

My father is the quirky old-fashioned type who believes that everything - manners, customs, even civilization - all stopped short a century or so ago.  In those days if you had a number of daughters your job was to marry them off, and to the right type of person.

But there’s more.  The eldest daughter had to have first crack at whatever suitor walked through the door.  The eldest, who happens to be my sister, had to get married first; then the youngest, me, would have her chance.

This may seem to you to be a reasonable plan, well thought out, so what was the problem?

Well, if my first problem was my progenitor, as I humorously refer to my dad, the second, the bigger problem, was my sister herself.

Oh, she was attractive enough.  And once the blokes in this town were aware that she had a huge dowry, they all came calling.  They’d come to visit, get to know her, and then they’d take off, like huge birds heading off into the sunset.

And we’d never see them again.

You see, my sis is a special sort of person.  My theory is that she’d love to meet a nice chap and get hitched, but basically she’s insecure.  She hates to appear vulnerable and weak, so she’s very sharp with her suitors.  She’ll casually toss off quasi-nasty remarks to some poor guy who’s just doing his best to please, and soon he’s looking around for the exit.

And as for me, I remain un – as I’ve mentioned – attached.

(The answer will be posted Saturday.)