The housekeeper gives notice, because she is no good.
April 24:
Bad day. Could not eat anything,—that is, there was nothing fit to eat, everything being spoiled, standing too long.
May 16:
Cook has given notice, because she ruined the dinner again.
July 1:
Enter a new cook. I wonder if she is good for anything!
Such was the great master’s domestic life.
Indifference to Dress and Fashion
That Beethoven paid no heed whatever to the world, its fashions or its follies, during the time when he worked hardest, showed in his appearance. For instance, he had not noticed that it had become the fashion for men to wear lace frills on the front of their shirts. A friend ordered some for him, so that he should appear well dressed. When Beethoven saw the frills he wondered what they were for. “Oh,” he said, “I suppose they are meant to keep me warm,” and tucked the beautiful frills inside his vest.