Word: melba
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...which it was named than the Twentieth Century Limited. A 1902 passenger once declared that it made New York and Chicago practically suburbs of each other. It did so with an all-Pullman splendor that offered both fresh-and saltwater baths, barbers and a library. Soprano Nellie Melba, the Armours, the Swifts and Teddy Roosevelt rode the train, and oldtime waiters recall that early-rising Herbert Hoover was invariably first up for breakfast. But in recent years, ordinary coaches had to be added to match the fare ($43) at which jets now fly, in two hours, as against the train...
...carrying on a bit much, aren't you mate?" At that, Joan and husband stormed out, followed by the frantic restaurant manager. He had spent most of the day whipping up a special fish sauce for Joan that he said was "comparable to the peach Melba, the tribute to that other Australian soprano, Dame Nellie Melba." The manager fell to his knees on the sidewalk, kissed Joan's hand and begged her to return. She went back after some hesitation, then tried to laugh away the incident by mimicking orangutans shelling peanuts at the zoo. Richard was still...
...distinguished men in white tie and tails as they passed through the chilly Australian winter night into Her Majesty's Theater. The glittering audience that had paid an Australian record top of $23.50 for a seat were treated to the city's finest opera performance since Nellie Melba returned to her native shores...
...heroine of the title story is Melba Toast, "the skinniest stripper in America." Blonde and randy, Melba wears the longest fake eyelashes in New York and the tightest clothes. Aging millionaires delight in lending her their Cadillacs and shower her with $100 bills. Melba is a direct descendant of Lorelei Lee in Anita Loos's 1925 bestseller, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and, like Lorelei, has a mousy girl friend to come along on double dates...
...long as the action is confined to Madcap Melba charming a cop out of giving her a parking ticket, or a gangster into surrendering a restaurant phone, the story is readable enough and lively. But Rona Jaffe intends more. The mousy girl friend is in analysis and given to morose dissections of her emotions, ranging from jealousy of Melba to frustration about the men who get away. She has a strange preoccupation with necrophilia. When one romance collapses, the mousy girl laments that "social graces are dead, shyness is dead, chivalry is dead, game playing is dead, necking is dead...