Madazine
Copyright© 2017 by Scriptorius
Chapter 64: Educating Jane
John: Hello, Jane. Come in and make yourself comfortable.
Jane: Thank you. That’s a nice piece of music you’re listening to.
John: It’s one of Marlowe’s best.
Jane: Don’t you mean Mahler?
John: No.
Jane: I could have sworn it was by the Austrian, Gustav Mahler.
John: Wrong. It’s by the American, Philip Marlowe.
Jane: Really? The only American I ever heard of by that name was fictional. You know, Raymond Chandler’s famous detective.
John: I assure you that piece is Marlowe’s fifth symphony.
Jane: Well, I stand corrected. I believe that bit’s the adagietto.
John: Wrong again. It’s the slow movement.
Jane: But I thought ... well, never mind.
John: By the way, Philip Marlowe was a direct descendant of Christopher Marlowe.
Jane: Oh, yes. The Restoration playwright. I seem to recall that he wrote ‘The Rivals’, among other things.
John: Well, actually, some of those other things you dismiss so glibly emerged as far better known than the one you mention.
Jane: What other things do you have in mind?
John: Oh, trifles like ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘King Lear’, to mention a fraction of his output.
Jane: Fancy that. I thought Shakespeare was responsible for them.
John: Dear me, Jane. I can see that you need to brush up on your literature as well as your music. I shall have to take you in hand.
Jane: Possibly. Anyway, I called to let you know I’m off on holiday tomorrow.
John: Where to?
Jane: Benidorm. I should be all right there because I speak a little Spanish.
John: Spanish? Whatever makes you think you’ll need that in Benidorm?
Jane: Well, it’s in Spain, right?
John: No. It’s in Italy. I imagine you’re thinking of Benelux. That’s in Spain.
Jane: But I thought that word meant Belg –
John: Thinking can be dangerous, Jane. I assure you that when you touch down in Benidorm, Spanish will be no use to you. Better brush up your Italian, pretty quickly.
Jane: Oh well, at least I’ll be okay for currency. I’ve got my euros.
John: Have you indeed? What kind of euros, may I ask?
Jane: I’ve always thought they were all the same and interchangeable.
John: Not at all. They’re issued by the different countries using the currency. It’s easy to identify the source of euro coins and notes and you can spend them only in the country of issue. You need to check that you have Italian ones, or you’ll be in trouble.
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