BAD GIRL - COOKING - JOKE?

BAD GIRL 

... a clergyman once told me: 'The trouble with most of my flock is that they think SIN is something-pleasant-you-can-do-with-your-body, and that if they have no fun they are sure to be righteous!'

The most wretched, tortured neurotic I ever met had learned in childhood that 'God' meant a kind of gigantic headmaster, vindictive and alert, who was perpetually watching her to see if she 'sinned' and to punish her, far more unreasonably than any human authority, for the most trivial mistake in life. 

[Cf. "FALLEN [FEMALE] ANGEL ["Naina"] TALKS OF HELL'S TORMENT" (18:20) / Prophets Among Us (YouTube). - G] 

Anna, we are told, is a BAD GIRL. On investigation, this may prove to mean that she sometimes [sometimes?!!] stays out at night after ten and likes the company of boys [likes - or gets f.?!!].

COOKING 

'I think we have a few things to be proud of,' I was saying to the foreign visitors. 'You won't often see ragged people [beggars] in England today. Of course, I know our cooking is a joke; it is better, generally, in homes than in restaurants, but I must admit we cannot generally cook as well as you do. Please don't look afraid of that policeman; our policemen are always polite and helpful to strangers.'

Someone took me aside and hissed furiously in my ear: 'I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself, running your country down in front of those damned foreigners!'

It took me some time to realize it must be the bit about the cooking that he meant.

JOKE ?

I was once rather sorry to hear that a girl I liked was PROMISCUOUS [euphemism for real or virtual pr.]. This [word] is nowadays applied mostly to people's sexual behaviour. In this sphere real PROMISCUITY (having any number [!!] of lovers with no genuine affection) is relatively very rare [REALLY?!!]. I thought the girl could hardly be as promiscuous as that. Eventually I found out that my informant meant merely that the girl was in the habit, when opportunity offered, of kissing her fiancé and had sometimes been seen doing this! [How sweet and innocent...] So far from being PROMISCUOUS, she was the opposite - FAITHFUL ! [like Sita?] My informant could probably have been sued for slander. [Is that a joke?]

(Excerpts from Marjorie Boulton: THE ANATOMY OF LANGUAGE, Kalyani Publishers, New Delhi / Ludhiana.)

By the same author [male author using a female name?] - 

THE ANATOMY OF POETRY 

THE ANATOMY OF PROSE 

THE ANATOMY OF DRAMA 

THE ANATOMY OF THE NOVEL 

I have copies of the first three.

Kishalay Sinha [G]