Fwd: AtD translation: Best Boy at Colney Hatch

[Joseph Tracy]

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Re: AtD translation: Best Boy at Colney Hatch
Date: 	Mon, 11 May 2026 08:15:07 -0400
From: 	Joseph Tracy <coypoet at mailfence.com>
Organization: 	www.brooksideglassworks.com
To: 	Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>



  * Best Boy before film industry
  * Master's Apprentice: It may have originally referred to a master's
    most able apprentice, indicating a position of trust and skill.
  *

    Ship's Crew: Another theory suggests it was transferred from earlier
    use for a member of a ship's crew, highlighting a role of
    responsibility.

  *

    Since C. Crouchmas contrasts his freedom with Colney Hatch, we can
    assume he refers to the insane asylum. How you would be a "best boy"
    there I can't imagine but he seems to be a kind of best boy in his
    role in managing taxes . I think he is just saying he feels on the
    edge of sanity, in over his head with the seances and international
    mind reading, seeing things that are not there, but really just
    interested in the profit potential and not getting why the claimed
    precognitive abilities aren't more lucrative.


On 5/10/26 1:33 PM, Mike Jing wrote:
> P238.35-239.10   “It’s too good to pass up,” he groaned aloud to Grand
> Cohen Nookshaft, his spiritual adviser. “Isn’t it?”
>         “I’m thinking,” said the Cohen, whose money had been in
> three-percent consols for longer than he could remember, or remember why,
> “I’m thinking.”
>         “I’ve never understood,” said Clive Crouchmas, “why, with all the
> precognitive talent around this place, no one has ever . . .” He paused, as
> if seeking a diplomatic way to go on.
>         “Some serious dissonance between psychical gifts and modern
> capitalism, I’d imagine,” said the Cohen, somewhat shortly. “Mutually
> antagonistic, you’d have to say. We also do try not to become too mental,
> like some in your own shop, over this railway Concession.”
>         “Were I not out here walking free amongst you all,” declared Clive
> Crouchmas, “I should be Best Boy at Colney Hatch. The other night, for just
> half a second, I saw . . . I thought I saw . . .”
>         “It’s all right, Crouchmas, one hears this sort of thing all the
> time.”
>
> What does "Best Boy" mean here?
> --
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