In a message dated 11/16/2000 12:17:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< And just for the record, heavy curtains began to fall out of fashion right
 around the time that improvements in heating technology enabled consumers to
 more effectively regulate interior tempreature through coal fed furnaces and
 steam/hot water radiators.

 Fashion is as fashion does, but functional plumbing has an appeal all its
own.
  >>

Heidi,

Nice epigram at the end, there, but central heat came in well before heavy
drapery went out.

The Little Ralphs insisted on seeing Mel Gibson in The Patriot, so we got to
see how Frontiersman Mel and family lived in a dark-paneled mansion with
stained and varnished venetian blinds at every window, before the Brits
burned it down.  They shoulda packed it up and sent it off to George III as
plunder.

Ralph