Things you've read in books that have always confused you.

[Habbibu]

For me - in one of the Chalet school books, Joey (as an adult) is once seen with a huge sheaf of galley proofs, and I think I got the impression they were long and thin. What are galley proofs? Are they different from ordinary proofs? (and yes yes, I could just google it but it has bugged me for a long time so I feel the need to unburden myself).

Secondly, in The Dark is Rising, Will puts the sign of Iron onto his belt. Now how does he get his belt through the sign of the circle quartered by a cross in such a way that it later burns a pattern of a circle quartered by a cross onto his skin? Wouldn't the belt cover bits of it?

Years, this has bothered me. Years.

Well I can answer your galley proof question. When typesetting was still done with hot metal, after the type was set up they did an initial print on long rolls of paper for proofing. Sometimes they then did a second run on proper pages, which were page proofs as opposed to galley proofs, but mostly the galley proofs were where the corrections were made.

Oh, thank you! So she had long long sheets? Aha!

Anybody else got long-held confusions?

Only about whisking egg whites in immaculately clean bowl (recipe books). I mean, I never mix anything in a dirty bowl.

I mean, who thinks "Oh here is a bowl which didn't get quite clean in the dishwasher, but hey ho, I'll mix up a cake in it anyway."? No one does, obviously.

Oh, but it's the slightest bit of grease that mucks up egg white, so it's not so much "not a dirty bowl" as one without the slightest dot of grease, and they 're not always the same thing.

Haha! Good one Habbs.

The iron sign on the belt thing bugged me too! I could only assume that it was so cold that it burnt through the leather - but yes, it was daft. Unless it had a separate bar on the back... No, just daft.

Lynette - I guess they are considering the option that some people might not use their mixing bowls regularly, and that they might have acquired a thin film of dust or possibly grease, depending on where they are kept, and that some slatterns people wouldn't necessarily rinse their bowls before use - so it's a reminder to them, not frequent bakers.

yes, i've thought through all the separate bar options too...

In receipes when it says a scant amount - how much is this? A pinch or just a touch or what

scant is usually attached to a measure, so a scant teaspoon is just a level tsp, or a tiny bit less - meant to stop you putting heaped in.

thanks habibu

'Scrubbed deal tables' featured a lot in novels I read in my novel-reading days. Could never picture what these were - never heard of a deal table outside a novel.

deal is a type of hardwood, iirc. Never read of a scrubbed deal table though - what sort of novels were those?

Red deal here is very cheap unfinished pine - would that tie in?

ha, yes. Tis a softwood, not a hard wood. Had heard of it through antique furniture references, but having googled it (why now and not before? ) it is indeed another name for wood from various coniferous trees (including pine) and is a softwood.

Well plumbpudding I think they were mainly classic novels. The scrubbed deal table was always in the kitchen, might have been a sign of poverty? But always puzzled me as I never met a 'deal table' anywhere else (nor have I ever met it since - has deal gone out of use for tables?)