Some sentence in
AN UNFINISHED CHRISTMAS STORY puzzled me. Would anyone do me a favor? Thank you very much!
1. The sentence in red beblow puzzled me. What does it mean?
Quote:Me, I am for the Scrooge and Marley Christmas story, and the Annie and Willie’s prayer poem, and the long lost son coming home on the stroke of twelve to the poorly thatched cottage with his arms full of talking dolls and popcorn balls and—Zip! you hear the second mortgage on the cottage go flying off it into the deep snow.
2. What does "butterick" mean? Is it a popular style or brand?
Quote:One hand held together at her throat a buttonless flannel dressing sacque whose lines had been cut by no tape or butterick known to mortal woman.
3. Does "a scrambled eggplant" mean "a fried eggplant"? And does "10 a. m. " stand for the dead line of printing? Does "the Night Final edition" mean "the final edition of the evening paper"?
Quote:and the 10 a. m. issue of the Night Final edition of the newspaper with the largest circulation in the city leaves a basket at their door full of an apple, a Lake Ronkonkoma squab, a scrambled eggplant and a bunch of Kalamazoo bleached parsley.
4. At last, it mentions "Bellevue got him". Is it a place where is famouse for Scotch whisky?
5. What does this story want to talk about? In the author's opinion, other writers always write fictional Christmas stories which have no Christmas essential. But I think this O. Henry's Christmas story is fictional and without any Christmas essential, too. I have read the whole story, but I think it is full of nonsense.
The URL below is the whole story.
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/132/
Thank you very much!