7 or 8 years ago, I went on MySpace as John Elway and gave people advice. A lot of it was pretty bad.
Yahoo! Answers seems like it would be a great place to revive Dear John Elway, but most of the advice that’s there is already pretty awful. Instead, I think those people could use advice from Cousin Jasper in Brideshead Revisited.
“What are you reading?”
“History.”
“A perfectly respectable school. The very worst is English Literature. The next worst is Modern Greats. You want either a first or a fourth. There is no value in anything between. Time spent on a good second is time thrown away.
You should go to the very best lectures—Arkwright on Demosthenes for instance—irrespective of whether they are in your school or not.
Clothes. Dress as you do in a country house. Never wear a tweed coat and flannel trousers — always wear a suit. Go to a London tailor; you get better cut and longer credit.
Don’t treat dons like schoolmasters, treat them as you would the vicar at home.
Clubs. Join the Carlton now and the Grid at the beginning of your second year. If you want to run for the Union, and it’s not a bad idea, make your reputation outside first at the Chatham or the Canning. Oh, and keep clear of Boar’s Hill.
Beware of Anglo-Catholics—they’re all sodomites with unpleasant accents. In fact, steer clear of all religious groups; they do nothing but harm.”
