Women's Institute / Percy's Insecurity /

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 34669

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "catlady_de_los_angeles" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> Joanne wrote:
> 
> > And don't forget the Salem Witches' Institute that had a banner at
> > the World Cup, though that name seems more like a research
> > institution than a high school.
> 
> I am CONVINCED that Salem Witches' Institute is a pun on Women's 
> Institute. . . . It is a club for housewives that 
> at one time was common in rural England (I don't know at all about 
> Scotland). I can't really think of a USA equivalent: Eastern Star and 
> the women's auxiliary of the Grange are different by their connection 
> to men's clubs, and the Women's Alliances of the various churches are 
> different by being denominational. John Walton's grandmother was 
> involved with Women's Institute, maybe he can explain it better. 

Thanks for that insight, I think you're on to something!  Now *That* is the sort 
of thing that makes the experience of Brits reading the books different from 
Americans'!  Even Scholastic's "Americanization" of the language could not achive 
editor Levine's goal of making the American reading experience comparable to a  
Brit's.