Oxonmoot Discussions - What is an Arwen warmer?

[Mithalwen]

While I was at Oxonmoot, although I didn't meet the other downers I did attend some interesting lectures (happily fuller descriptions in this year's programme meant I avoided the fate of sitting through an hour long talk based entirely on the section of the film "ROTK" about 3 hours in (inc trailers) which I missed because, well cinema drink cups have a greater capacity than me... )

While I may do a serious write up of Oxonmoot elsewhere I wanted to share a couple of issues that cropped up and see what opinions you have. I will hold off on the conclusions I got to see if you agree.

1, What is an Arwen warmer? (There is "The Arwen Warmer Room" at Lady Margaret Hall).

2, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins v. Gollum's grandmother. Which is the scarier / more powerful matriarch?

And it is never too early to start thinking about next year so maybe others have other topics that might be worthy of discussion. Suggestions?

[Lalwendë]

Arwen warmers are those big granny knickers that she had to wear when she moved back to the much more chilly climes of Rivendell from the balmy Lothlorien...

Lobelia is one of the middle classes so obviously Gollum's granny will be far more frightening. To illustrate my point, who would you rather take on? Anne Widdecombe or Ena Sharples? It would be a tough match but I suspect Ena would have more gumption in the end.

[Mithalwen]

that Lobelia is of a class that thinks itself born to lead (she might be intimidated by someone with a title but otherwise no). Think Margo Leadbetter,the Wildebeest woman form Fawlty Towers." and "Suburban Shootout" with pointy umbrellas.

I can't see Lobelia backing off, ever (or Anne Widdecombe come to that). Middle class women not frightening? That pukka memsahib stock breeds a lot of battle-axes with voices pitched to carry over several windswept acres *traumatic memories of tennis coaches, riding instructors and primary school heads (who made me stay in class even though I had broken my arm falling on ice on the way in..."it's only a sprain - stop making a fuss and get on with your maths")*

[Lalwendë]

You never met my grandmother, the woman who insisted on climbing up on the barn roof in her 70s to fix the felting. She fell off it, without dropping her hammer, and lay in a heap shouting for the brandy

The working class woman I think has more to lose and will fight to the death if necessary, not scared of 'making a scene' but if a 'scene' should arise then the middle class woman essentially thinks most things can be solved with a nice cup of tea and a sit down - this is drawn from real life evidence of one Ms Widdecombe's real off-screen personality. Maybe this is due to greater capacity for diplomacy (just watch Trisha to see what I mean)? But i shall give you Margo Leadbetter - now that was a scary woman.

However, I think the scariest of all is the nouveau middle class woman as she has more to lose in terms of hard-won status - witness in this case will be Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances. Now if we class dear Lobelia in that particular special class, which is where I personally think she belongs, then she may in fact be the more frightening.

Her scaring off the Ruffians with her umbrella reminds me of my friend's grandmother - when the officials came to take her beloved white painted iron railings in WWII to be melted down for scrap (which was incidentally never used for making guns as it was all useless, the exercise was more to do with morale) she threatened them with the bread knife and the railings remained - and do to this day.