Month: June 2020

Seventeen-year-old Billy Weaver is the polar opposite of the landlady of the Bed and Breakfast, who puts up a sweet front in order to lure Billy into her clutches. In “The Landlady,” Roald Dahl uses this juxtaposition of young and old to demonstrate the cruelty of the adult world.

Billy Weaver admires adults, in particularly the “big shots” at the business office he works at. He thinks that they are “amazing,” and tries to act like them. Billy is also very trustful, to the point of being gullible. He travels to Bath, where he is a stranger, because “Mr. Greenslade at the head office” tells him that it is “splendid.” In fact, it is his gullibility that leads to his demise later at the hands of the landlady. Billy never suspects her, though there were many signs that something wasn’t quite right. He believes that the landlady is a “kind and generous soul,” even after she made several suspicious comments, saying that Billy is “just right,” among other things.

The landlady, on the other hand, is cruel and dishonest. She uses her grandmotherly air to induce Billy to put his trust in her, only to betray it in the end by poisoning him. The landlady’s scheme also demonstrates how sly she is. Though Billy thought she was slightly dotty, the landlady is actually meticulous, agile, and organized. She has “quickly moving hands” and “red fingernails.” Hearing that Billy would like to go to bed directly instead of eating dinner with her, the landlady tells him to go downstairs to sign “the book.” She uses this opportunity to serve him poisoned tea.

Billy’s innocence causes him to only see the best in people, representing the kindness and trustfulness of youth. However, having not been in the cruel world for long, young people can be too trustful, becoming oblivious to red flags. Billy completely misses many discrepancies in the landlady’s behavior. This admittedly is his fault, for he was not cautious enough. This lack of caution might have been caused by his haste, imitated from the adults whom he had blind regard for. The landlady, wicked to the point of depravity, shows how growing up robs people of the innocence they had when they were younger.

As some of you guys know, Elon Musk is set to launch a new batch of 60 Starlink satellites on Wednesday night. A huge amount of people has debated it on whether Elon Musk’s project well affect the sky, and some astronomers say it will block some of the Beauties in the night sky. They are going to have 1,000 satellites in orbit by the end of the year and has also been approved by the FCC to launch over 12,000 in total. Collectively they want to form a constellation of thousands of satellites, designed to provide low-cost broadband internet service from low-Earth orbit. There are some things that the satellites will help with.

First of all, Collectively they will form a constellation of thousands of satellites, designed to provide low-cost broadband internet service from low-Earth orbit. Meaning that they will be really useful and it will not cost as much. So, in general, it will be more useful and a lot more people will be able to access it.

Next, They have something called VisorSat, the new addition is said to keep the antennae on the satellites in the shade and prevents sunlight from reflecting off them by forming a barrier over the devices, making them less visible from the ground. Which will not block people’s views.

In general, I just felt like satellites that SpaceX sending satellites into space well have a more positive effect on the world. Plus a lot more people are going to be able to access them without having them blocking anyone’s vision.

When reading The Landlady, I found it very peculiar, and took me a little bit to wrap myself around it. They made the story with next to no explanations, making the reader create their own to try and fit the story.

The book starts off with a travelling man on his way to find a motel. On his way to find the Bell and Dragon, which he was told to be not too far away, he encounters a place for bed and breakfast for an extraordinary cheap price. A woman with very blue eyes opens the door as soon as he rings the doorbell. The man notices some animals resting comfortably around the entrance, a dog by the fire and a parrot in a cage. The man finds the woman strangely familiar, and notices she looks like someone he knew.

The woman is very welcoming and sets everything up for him. She asks him to go downstairs and fill out the guestbook to check in. He notices that there are only two other people’s names in the book, Christopher Mulholland, and Gregory W. Temple. And all of a sudden, he notices these names are very familiar, and tells about how strange it is to the woman. She responds that they are all very handsome men, just like him, and they both are on the 4th floor.

She then shows how that all of the animals in the lobby are stuffed, and the man is shocked, looking at them again, and now realizing that he had missed that detail completely. The woman says that she personally stuffs all of her pets when they die. She then tells him that he is her first customer in two years.

I found this story very creepy and interesting, and i created many theories about the backstory of all this. I started to think that only people the woman thinks that are “handsome” can see this building, like the Leaky Cauldron in Harry Potter, because they have such little customers. i also think that the other men in the bed and breakfast are dead and stuffed, like her pets. The Landlady left me very curious to what had happened, but left me hanging on detail. This is the mark of a interesting story, and if the author had continued, I would be thrilled to read it.

“No, my dear,” she said. “Only you.”

Billy opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. He was getting dizzy and his vision was becoming sort of blurred.

“Are you not feeling well? Come, let’s hurry back to your room so you can rest for the night.” This time, her eyes gleamed as she gave Billy another of those gentle smiles.

Billy, grateful for her help, stumbled up the two flights of stairs and collapsed into bed with a troubled sigh. The lady said good night, left, and started knitting and humming gleefully down in the first floor.

Just as Billy was about to close his eyes, he heard something coming in the room. It lit a candle and peered at Billy curiously. To his surprise, it was Gregory. After quite a bit of whispering, Billy learned that he had been poisoned and Gregory, who had been a very famous doctor, had brought the antidote. While gulping it down, Gregory told him exactly why the lady was poisoning him and that she was going to stuff him just like her parrot and her dog, as he had figured out her plan from years of sneaking around her home and listening to her mumble to herself while Gregory stole whatever food he could to stay alive, waiting for a chance to escape.

A few minutes later, Billy heard the lady’s shuffling footsteps on the stairs, and he hurriedly shoved Gregory under the bed. He pretended to be asleep but left one eye partially open. He was horrified to see that the lady had two knives in her hands. And she was coming in his direction.

Before the lady could reach him, Billy jumped out of bed and scampered down the two flights of stairs, with Gregory close behind. The woman dropped her knives in surprise. Then understanding dawned on her and she chased the boys out into the room with the fireplace. Billy, looking back at the lady, tripped on her stuffed dog and landed face-first into the open teapot. Getting out of the pot as quick as possible and wiping his face frantically with the fur of the woman’s deceased pet, Billy turned to see that Gregory had pried a knife out of the lady’s hand while dodging the other and had flung the knife into a window. It instantly shattered and the two boys leapt through, landing on the sidewalk, one after another.

They sprinted off into the distance, leaving the old woman in her house, still screaming, “THAT WAS MY BASIL YOU DESTROYED! HOW DARE YOU TWO FOOLS THINK THAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS. HOW DARE YOU!”

She hurled her remaining knife into the other window, seething with rage, gathered the rest of her knives, and crept outside, noiselessly following the boys with a new plan in her mind.

After reading this short story, i thought what I would’ve done in Bill’s situation for meeting the landlady. She was creepy in some sort which would’ve made me feel cautious. If I were Bill to check the registration list and see only two names, I would’ve been wondering, “Why would there only be two names? If there were only two names, does that mean there were bad reviews?” I would’ve been a little bit more cautious.

The reason why i would be cautious by the moment i step inside is because the woman opened the way a little too fast. She opened the door as if she was waiting for Bill to arrive…like she knew he was coming. This wouldn’t be normal because normally it would take half a minute to open the door. Like I said, seeing only two visitors on the check in list would be a little bit suspicious. When there are only two visitors to the hotel and when they had sort of an analogy. If Bill came in the hotel, what if the same thing that the other two gentlemen experienced happen to him?

If such things happens to him, I think another person would come to the hotel, because in order to finish an analogy, there needs to be two words. but in this case, names. Maybe there wouldn’t have to be an analogy for this to happen. But, my theory for what would happen to him has to do with the analogy he said.

The Landlady, written by Ronald Dahl, is a chilling and dark story about Billy Weaver, a seventeen year old buisnessman. Billy is trying to find a good place to stay after a long train ride. He spots a cozy looking place, and deserts his original plan to find the Bell and Dragon hotel. When he arrives, he comes to the conclusion that the owner of the place, and old lady, is a nice and harmless person. He was wrong, and sadly meets his fate after being poisoned by the lady with a cup of “tea”. This story The Landlady, is a tale about judging things based on what is on the outside.

There are many accounts where the main character Billy Weaver, stereotypes groups, people, and places. In the beginning, Weaver was briskly walking through the city, because according to him, buisnessmen are always brisk, and that was the key to their success. This was one way he was being cliche. Another time when Billy “judged a book by its cover”, was when he found the Bed and Breakfast Inn. When he peered through the windows, he saw the cozy interior and exterior of the house, so he decided to abandon his other plans and decided to stay at the Bed and Breakfast. He even saw the animals and was very pleased, as it meant that it “was a good sign in a place like this”. Another time Billy was greatly mislead was when he met the owner of the Inn. Billy thought that the lady was “off her rocker”, and “dotty”, which should have been enough for Billy to leave the Inn, but he did not. He saw that the owner was an old lady, who seemed like a “kind and generous soul”, so he came to the conclusion that she was not harmful. This caused Billy to think that he was safe, which later, he ironically was proven wrong. Throughout the whole story, Billy was greatly mislead countless of times by how things looked on the outside.

Billy’s actions throughout the story taught a very important lesson, to never judge a book by its cover, or to never stereotype. Billy was constantly judging things by their outer appearance, and these small actions eventually led to his death. So, Ronald Dahl teaches to never stereotype, whether it is negative or positive, because in the end, it will be harmful.

The landlady is about main protagonist Billy, and how he gets trapped in the landlady’s house.

Billy is trying to find a new job, and once he gets off the train, a porter tells him that Dragon and Bell is a good place to stay for the night and he should stay there, but if Dragon and Bell is full, you could always stay at bed and breakfast.

It was cold and raining so Billy became weary and instead of going to Dragon and Bell, he went to Bed and Breakfast. He decided to stay there because the price was cheap and the lady was nice. Once he got his room all set up, he was asked to sign the guest book, and above him was 2 names, which he later found out to be the names of missing people.

After a while he started to become suspicious and when he was drinking tea, his tea had a weird almond taste to it. A drink with a bitter almond to it, especially in something that shouldn’t have a almond taste is probably rigged with cyanide which is a poison. He doesn’t find out, but later that night, he mysteriously died.

The moral of this story is to not be so trusting and not to be afraid to ask questions since Billy was speculating but he didn’t ask anything about it.

Being honest here, there were so many times where Billy should have realized that the Landlady was crazy, and even the most naive person should have realized the Landlady was a threat.

The most obvious instance where Billy should have left immediately was when he say that there were only two names on the guest book, and when he heard that even after 3 years, the two guests were still there, which if you add up the cost, is quite strange. If he had only asked to meet one of the guests, he probably would have known for sure the Landlady is a murderer and ran away easily, as he is 17 and the Landlady is probably in her sixties.

Something that I find strange is why the woman even asked Billy to sign the guest book, which was completely unnecessary, as Billy was obviously naive and new to staying at inns. I think that in no way it was because signing the guestbook is the law because this Landlady straight up murders and stuffs all of her customers.

Something else that I find funny is that that Billy told the Landlady that he was heading to the Bell and Dragon, which is kind of an insult to her. This is because Billy is basically announcing to the Landlady that his was more inclined to go to the Bell and Dragon, which was technically a direct business competitor with the Landlady, as they were on the same street.

The short story Landlady by Roald Dahl is about a man named Billy Weaver who made a big mistake by going in a hotel called Bed and Breakfast. This was his first time in the town named Bath and he was first advised to go to a hotel called The Bell and Dragon. However, on his way there, he saw the Bed and Breakfast sign and it lured him in. Inside was a lady who was very nice to him so Billy failed to notice the danger. There are many signs that foreshadowed what she was planning to do with him. When he was first peering into the hotel, he noticed a dachshund and a parrot. He thought it was a good sign but it turns out that they were stuffed and dead the whole time. When he rang the doorbell, the lady appeared immediately to open to door which is very strange. She also observed Billy a lot which seems a little creepy. ” … her blue eyes traveled slowly all the way down the length of Billy’s body, to his feet, and then up again.” (Dahl) While signing the guest book, he also noticed two names, Christopher and Gregory. He remembered these names vaguely as they were newsworthy at one point for disappearing. She also said some things that a “normal” person wouldn’t say which is suspicious. She said that 17 is the “perfect age” and also how Mr. Mulholland was a little shorter with less whiter teeth. In the end, Billy tasted a little bitter almond in the tea which hints of a poison. It ends in a slight cliffhanger but Billy will probably die from the poison and get stuffed, like what might’ve happened to her other two guests.

The short story, The Land Lady by Roald Dahl, tells a story of an innocent young man who ends up dead as a result of crossing paths with the landlady. I personally enjoyed reading this story as it kept me on the tip of my feet and ended with a dark plot twist. It also teaches a lesson on how you should never be quick to trust someone.

The story starts off with 17 year old Billy Weaver coming off a train from London to Bath, to look for a new job. As he was looking for an affordable resting place, he comes across Bed and Breakfast. Billy notices a cozy lit up fire place, a bird in a cage, and a dog sleeping. He is greeted by a sweet middle-aged women, and he finds the prices extremely cheap and affordable. The landlady tells Billy he must sign the guest book. As he signs the guest book, he discovers the two very familiar names of Christopher Mulholland and Gregory W. Temple. When Billy was served tea by the landlady, he remembered that Christopher Mulholland had suddenly disappeared two years ago. The landlady explains how she remembered Christopher as a handsome student, and that both of the men were staying upstairs. Billy then discovers the women had stuffed her pet dog and bird. As Billy drinks his tea he finds his tea tasting like bitter almonds. In the end of the story, Billy asks the landlady if she had any guests besides the two men and she replied, “No, only you”.

In conclusion, Roald Dahl was probably trying to tell the reader that the women had poisoned Billy’s tea, and was going to stuff Billy as she did to her pets and the two other men. Therefore, I think the theme of the story would be that things aren’t always what they seem, and you should always keep your guard up against strangers. This is the theme, because Billy first thought the housing was cozy and cheap, but later on he ended up on his deathbed.