On Nov 6, 2013, at 8:25 AM, cblists@xxxxxxxx wrote: >> > > I now question that understanding. This scepticism is based on a passage > occuring several pages after the one quoted above, viz.: > > "I would have served him as my mother did my father. Box his socks? I would > have knelt to wash his feet." > > It seems clear to me that 'boxed socks' in this case does NOT mean 'socks in > cardboard boxes' - as it does not make sense that the protagonist's proffered > service is to place his socks in cardboard boxes. (That 'he/him/his' is > Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, by the way). > > Looking up 'boxed socks' and 'boxing socks' on the Internet does not help. > Neither does consulting my dictionary. I surmise 'folding socks together in > a particular ('interlocking'?) manner' - but what exactly ARE those > particulars? Anyone? I think you should send this to the OED. I'm imagining a squarish kind of folding, but I can't find a reference. Maybe translated from the Russian? David Ritchie, not a sock boxer or even a sock boxer's mate in Portland, Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html