I agree. I hadn't thought about Railway Express in a good while and was reminded that Hemingway once shipped a treasured trunk of fishing gear from Key West to Montana, and it got lost along the way. I think this may have pained him more than Hadley's loss of that portfolio of manuscripts (including carbons). This is an interesting article of Railway Express, which I am sure VN was familiar with, especially during the temporary move to California. The signs used to be everywhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Express_Agency

As far as "midst" is concerned, it is a little recherche but squarely idiomatic for an American. I once got a paper from a hopeless freshman that said, "I felt I was in the mitts of dangur." It took me awhile to figure that one out, along with the student who once wrote that Petrarch put Laura on a "pedal stool."

RSG

In a message dated 7/30/2012 10:25:04 AM Central Daylight Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU writes:

Neither midst nor railway is all that unusual for American speakers. “I’m in the midst of something” is a perfectly normal expression. (BTW, the d in midst is often unpronounced, and, in student writing, is sometimes not spelled or typed, which leads to delightful double meanings: “I’m in the mist of problems.” Railroad might be preferred, but railway would not sound at all odd. One of America’s largest trucking companies is, or used to be, Railway Express (I don’t know its current status). Perhaps the preference for railroad is that railroad can be used as a verb, meaning “to hasten to a conclusion; or to devise false evidence against,” but railway can’t have this usage.

Eric Hyman

Professor of English

Interim Chair

Department of English

Butler 123

Fayetteville State University

1200 Murchison Road

Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252

(910) 672-1416

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.