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Thank you so much, Mashinka. You always come up with something interesting. :)

This interview is indeed a lot of fun:

Lots of other things annoy Previn. Travel: "That bloody airport. You get shunted around. Too awful." Technology: "I don't even have a cell phone. I don't know how they work." The marketing of classical music. He is particularly irritated by Lang Lang, the hugely successful Chinese pianist who throws himself about at the piano like Elton John. "It's a circus act, you know? Why doesn't he just come out and juggle? He's an amazing pianist, but I can't watch, not for one minute. And yet he is probably the biggest box-office success in the world, for a classical musician." Mind you, he says, there have always been people willing to muck around to get publicity. "And sometimes, in the case of Bernstein - well, even there, I wasn't all that crazy about it, but I thought the music-making was quite remarkable." He doesn't think Lang Lang will last. "People will get tired of all the shenanigans."
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A "portered block" is one where all the buildings have servants, or at least a doorman.
Thanks for the info, Major Mel. I'm relieved to know that I don't live on such a block.

Mm...interesting... :blushing: Acording to Wikipedia-(questionable...?...maybe, maybe not)-the term "Servant" applies to " one who works, and often also lives, within the employer's household-(domestic worker, domestic, servingman, servingwoman). They are distinguishable from serfs or slaves in that they are compensated, that is, they must receive payment (and, following labour reforms in the 20th century, benefits) for their work. They are also free to leave their employment at any time, although foreign workers may find these freedoms restricted by, for example, visa regulations..."

If so, i do live in such a block. Cleaning and Security employees are regularly seen around.

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That's a little different, though, although not really much. Cleaning and security people are specialized sorts of servants of the building management. The tenants may move in and out, but the building staff have terms of employment which do not depend on any one tenant's presence. The staff are sort of like (but not exactly) real estate, like the serfs, as opposed to slaves, who may be bought and sold as personal estate. Butlers, footmen, etc., are the responsibility of the tenants, each to their own households. Doormen, porters, etc. are usually the responsibility of the building management.

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Cleaning and security people are specialized sorts of servants...

...which at the end are being paid not by one household in particular but instead by all the households in it-(represented by the building association

and their ever increasing maintenance fees... :blushing: ). So yeah...I guess the servants are hence more specialized.

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