Yay, research!
Right, so I know I'm going to sound like a total nerd here, but I found a great article on Victorian schoolboys today that will make a great reference if I ever go back and write about Basil and his friends at Eton. The article is here if you're interested, although it's quite long. I was given access to it because I'm a college student, though, so if you're not on a college network you may not be able to read it. It's on Project MUSE, which is an online scholarly journal. (I was never able to access anything on Project MUSE prior to college, so it's more of a reference for students and college personnel than anything else, I suppose.)
It told me something important, though: apparently the kids at Eton were inclined towards sarcasm in the writing they submitted to their school journals. They were a bit reluctant to make fun of their headmasters, though, so I now understand Basil's hesitance to publish the Letters From An Old Etonian, which he wrote when he was still a student there and had yet to become an 'old boy' himself. He may have written and published other pieces, though, which William Conrad surely would have illustrated for him (Will illustrated pretty much anything he could, so whenever his friends wrote anything you can be sure he drew the pictures).
And as a closing note, I found this little parody series on YouTube. This guy imitates several players on the Red Sox roster, although he alters their names slightly and other such things. (He makes out Pedroia to be about twelve years old and has changed his first name from 'Dustin' to 'Beaver,' for example. I found this ironic because my Dustin [Thatcher] has the same problem and is usually thought to be somewhere between fifteen and eighteen years old - he's twenty-four.) I've got some business to take care of, but as soon as it's done I'll be right back to keep an eye on the first game of the Sox-on-Sox doubleheader tonight...
EDIT: There's a good article on Marco on the IndyCar website today.
It told me something important, though: apparently the kids at Eton were inclined towards sarcasm in the writing they submitted to their school journals. They were a bit reluctant to make fun of their headmasters, though, so I now understand Basil's hesitance to publish the Letters From An Old Etonian, which he wrote when he was still a student there and had yet to become an 'old boy' himself. He may have written and published other pieces, though, which William Conrad surely would have illustrated for him (Will illustrated pretty much anything he could, so whenever his friends wrote anything you can be sure he drew the pictures).
And as a closing note, I found this little parody series on YouTube. This guy imitates several players on the Red Sox roster, although he alters their names slightly and other such things. (He makes out Pedroia to be about twelve years old and has changed his first name from 'Dustin' to 'Beaver,' for example. I found this ironic because my Dustin [Thatcher] has the same problem and is usually thought to be somewhere between fifteen and eighteen years old - he's twenty-four.) I've got some business to take care of, but as soon as it's done I'll be right back to keep an eye on the first game of the Sox-on-Sox doubleheader tonight...
EDIT: There's a good article on Marco on the IndyCar website today.