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By Patrice Apodaca. So it has been throughout history. News Viola Smith, Costa Mesa resident and pioneering musician of the swing era, dies at This is one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite series, Downton Abbey. The Grantham family is all sitting down for dinner where they meet for the first time, the new heir to Downton Abbey, Matthew Crawley.
By an act of force, Crawley, a practising lawyer, learns that he is to become the heir to the fortunes of Downton Abbey. During dinner, he talks of taking a job to which Lord Grantham admonishes him saying that he needs to involve himself in the affairs of the estate.
I will have plenty of time for that over the weekend. A reader wrote to me saying that my last blog post, Everything Is Going To Be Ok , reminded him of how he had spent the last few hours of the weekend bemoaning its loss. I smiled when I read that. Now, I have no weekends, although of late, my business partner and I have tried to carve out a semblance of a weekend the way most other people do.
But we usually work through the week. We take our breaks when we want to. Can you imagine the number of days you lose with that approach? We got that monster called work. To begin a project without them is a bold choice, indeed. The Dowager Countess would be sure to let you know.
The Crawley family suffered many tragedies during Downton Abbey's run. Notably, there was the loss of three heirs: Robert and Patrick Crawley, who were lost when the Titanic sank, and Matthew Crawley, who met an untimely end in a car crash. There were also times when Matthew's status as heir was in jeopardy, such as when Cora became pregnant. Downton's current heir is Mary and Matthew's son, George. Of course, with all the new additions to the family , we sometimes wonder if Violet ever entertained thoughts about changing that.
Violet had many friends, not all of whom she liked. This is a woman who once admitted that avoiding one's friends is more difficult than avoiding the people she doesn't care for, and aristocrats seem especially prone to grudges and vendettas. Violet wasn't one to burn bridges, though.
After all, if she withdrew her friendship from everyone who ever spoke ill of her, her address book would be empty. We can see Violet flashing this look in the direction of whichever aristocrat she is currently feuding with. Few characters on Downton Abbey could match Violet in a battle of wits.
One of the few people she feared was Cora's American mother, Martha Levinson. Violet likened her to a homing pigeon that can always find the soft underbelly. While the Dowager Countess was never one to pass up a match of wits with a worthy opponent, it's important to choose your battles. And sometimes, the circumstances call for you to leave the situation rather than face it.
Based on this meme, going on the internet is the 21st century equivalent of giving up and fabricating an excuse to leave the room. At least us modern folk have the luxury of escaping into our phones.
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