Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickt
I was reading a novel this morning and encountered the term, "Lord Woolton's Pie." I was curious so I got on the internet and typed in the phrase for Google. Bingo. Then I considered what I would have done in 1955 to find out what the phrase meant and what my likelihood of success would have been. My answer didn't involve the library. I would have contacted my dear friend, Noreen, who went through the Blitz in London. She would have probably known. But, at the library, I don't know where I would have started.
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I must ask, how old is this novel? If it was written in the 1950's, it may have been a cultural reference that most readers would have been familiar with. I think it's an important point because you'll run into cultural references in modern literature, but you may choose to learn about it by means other than Google (e.g. family and friends).
Then there are reference librarians and old fashioned books, as others have pointed out.