'Ah, Morton-Sims,' said the captain deferentially, 'would you care to bat at number three?'

One of the many stories told about him referred to his teenage years on the ground staff at Lord's. Occasionally these youngsters would be included in MCC out-matches against schools and clubs. In his first match, smartly dressed in blazer and tie, he was asked his name by the captain. 'Sims,' he said; 'Jim Sims.' 'OK Sims,' said the captain, 'you can bat at number ten.' Next match, he again turned up early, impeccably dressed. The captain asked him his name. 'Morton-Sims, sir; James Morton-Sims.' 'Ah, Morton-Sims,' said the captain deferentially, 'would you care to bat at number three?'

M. Brearley, On cricket (2018), 13

It made me feel older than grandchildren would to see my daughter touch a man - a boy - this way

Judith moved ahead and touched Don's arm. I knew that touch - an apology, an anxious reassurance. You touch a man that way to remind him that you are grateful, that you realize he is doing for your sake something that bores him or slightly endangers his dignity. It made me feel older than grandchildren would to see my daughter touch a man - a boy - this way.

A. Munro, 'The moons of Jupiter', The moons of Jupiter (1984), 223

She's very noticeably a Christian don't you think? I'm amazed how mean she makes me feel

"Life would be grand if it weren't for the people," said Vera moodily. "That sounds like a quotation, but I think I just made it up. The problem is that Kimberley is a Christian. Well, that's fine. We could use a Christian or two. For that matter, I am not un-Christian. But she's very noticeably a Christian don't you think? I'm amazed how mean she makes me feel."

A. Munro, 'Labor day dinner', The moons of Jupiter (1984), 144

I like this because it's so deliciously double-edged from a woman about her prospective daughter in law. Is it Kimberley's behaviour that shames the narrator. Or is Kimberley irritatingly religious? I think it's also pretty much on point for dating, capturing that still ambiguous point about the moral position of religion a generation ago.

Cricket is also ideally suited to boarding-school life because it goes on for hours and soaks up whole afternoons

St Leonads, Wycombe Abbey, Rodean, Cheltenham, Sherborne School for Girls and Malvern Girls' College modelled themselves on boys' public schools: hence the cricket. Cricket is also ideally suited to boarding-school life because it goes on for hours and soaks up whole afternoons.

Y. Maxtone Graham, Terms and conditions: life in girls' boarding schools 1939 - 1979 (2016), 188

The acceptable home address was: name of large house; village it was quite near; county.

The acceptable home address was: name of large house; village it was quite near; county. It was not done to live at any kind of obscure urban address, such as 24 Whitfield road, Haslemere. Only one girl on the whole list did live at that kind of address and I pity her, because its stands out. If you did have an urban address it had to be a London one, and ideally Cadogan, Belgrave or Eaton something

Y. Maxtone Graham, Terms and conditions: life in girls' boarding schools 1939 - 1979 (2016), 125

No fewer than fifteen had lost one or both parents when they were children

All told, of the twenty-four individuals who became Prime Minister between 1809 and 1937, no fewer than fifteen had lost one or both parents when they were children. ... [the 1921 census] suggested that about 1 per cent of children under the age of fifteen had suffered the death of one or both parents. Yet the figure among Prime Ministers was 62 per cent. 

J. Paxman, The political animal (2002), 34-35

You are expecting the nectar of the gods, and what you get is cough mixture

I have tried meads that taste of urine, and meads that taste of petroleum waste . What I have not tasted are any that are particularly nice. Bad mead is worse than the most mediocre wine, because of the expectations it raises. You are expecting the nectar of the gods, and what you get is cough mixture, if you are lucky.

B. Wilson, The Hive (2004), 159

This has really put me off mead, which instinctively, I feel I would like very much.

Fleming threatened to rename the character 'Goldprick', and the case never came to court.

[Brutalism's] most notorious exponent was the patrician Hungarian-born architect Erno Goldfinger, who lived in an uncompromising concrete framed cottage in Hampstead that he had designed himself, infuriating his wealthy neighbours. The novelist Ian Fleming took such exception to Goldfinger's home that he used his surname for one of James Bond's most evil adversaries. When Goldfinger consulted his lawyers, Fleming threatened to rename the character 'Goldprick', and the case never came to court.

D. Sandbrook, White Heat (2006), 622-3

The soundtrack of the American musical South Pacific spent forty-six weeks at number one

The most popular Beatles' album, Please Please Me, spent forty-three weeks in the Top Ten. By comparison, the soundtrack of the American musical South Pacific spent forty-six weeks at number one, and more than three years in the Top Ten. Yet even this was dwarfed by the outstanding musical product of the sixties, Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. The two versions of this phenomenally successful musical - a Broadway recording from 1960 and the film soundtrack of 1965 - remained in the Top Ten of the album chart for more than five years, and the film soundtrack held the number one spot for a staggering 69 weeks.

D. Sandbrook, White Heat (2006), 412-3

There was nothing quite like the condescension of the public schoolboy for his grammar school equivalent.

Wilson himself had sent his children to private schools, as did most of his ministers. C.P. Snow explained that 'if you are living in a prosperous home it is a mistake to educate your child differently from most of the people he knows socially'.

...

The destruction of the grammar schools was a project close to Crosland's heart. He had been educated at Highgate, a minor public school. If he had attended a grammar school, like Wilson or Heath, or his friends and rivals Jenkins or Healey, then he might have been less keen to abolish an institution that had manifestly succeeded in propelling bright pupils from modest backgrounds to the highest places in the land. Unfortunately, as Wilson and Health were well aware, there was nothing quite like the condescension of the public schoolboy for his grammar school equivalent.

D. Sandbrook, White Heat (2006), 334

The generation gap, meanwhile, appeared to be a myth

[In 1969] All social groups, rich and poor, young and old, agreed that there was 'too much publicity given to sex', that 'murderers ought to be hanged' and, by an enormous margin, there were 'too many coloured immigrants in the country now'. The generation gap, meanwhile, appeared to be a myth. In a stunning refutation of the simplistic identification of young people with political progressivism, two-thirds of young people between sixteen and twenty-four agreed that hanging should be brought back, while hostility to coloured immigrants was even stronger among the young than among pensioners.

D. Sandbrook, White Heat (2006), 199

Later (p. 681), Sandbrook observes 74% of the country later agreed with Powell's Rivers of blood speech.

Does not everybody have a head like a skull?

Home was notoriously ill suited for television, and when he arrived in the studio for one early appearance as Prime Minister he had a depressing exchange with the make-up assistant.

HOME: Can you not make me look better than I do on television? I look rather scraggy like a ghost.
MAKE-UP LADY: No.
HOME: Why not?
MAKE-UP LADY: Because you have a head like a skull.
HOME: Does not everybody have a head like a skull?
MAKE-UP LADY: No.

D. Sandbrook, White Heat (2006), 9

Few flashes of lust at parties; perhaps we could not afford to drink enough

There was no infidelity in The Huts, or none that I knew of. We lived so close together, we were poor and too busy. Few flashes of lust at parties; perhaps we could not afford to drink enough.

A. Munro, 'Tell me yes or no', Something I've been meaning to tell you (1974), 108

There were only forty of us, and you could take your own pony

If you look at old photographs of such schools, the girls are smiling genuine giggly smiles of joy. Alexandra Etherington showed me photographs of her and her friends in kilts and blouses at Butterstone, near Dunkeld, in 1969, and I don't think I've ever seen such happy children.  'I can still name every girl in those photos,' said Alexandra, 'there were only forty of us, and you could take your own pony.'

Y. Maxtone Graham, Terms and conditions: like in girls' boarding schools 1939-1979 (2016), 93

(Winsome doesn’t think Hazel should be in their reading group)

She and the reading group had a big argument, no, it wasn’t no argument, it was a debate, the other day, about whether a poem was good because they related to it, or whether it was good in and of itself

Bernadette said it was up to the literature specialists to decide what was good, they only knew whether they liked something or not

Winsome agreed, she wasn’t no expert

Celestine said poetry was made deliberately difficult so that only a few clever people could understand it as a way to keep everyone else in the dark

Hazel said novels was better value than poetry books because they had more words in them, poetry books was a rip-off
(Winsome doesn’t think Hazel should be in their reading group)

Dora said there was no such thing as objective truth and if you think something’s good because it speaks to you
it is
why should Wordsworth or Whitman, T. S. Eliot or Ted Hughes mean anything special to we people of the Caribbean?

Winsome made a note to go to the library to look those names up

B. Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2019), 253-4

It is from the house of a coward that we point to the ruins of the house of a brave man

If an arrow is pointed at the chest of a defenceless man, that man must do as he is told. To do any different in the face of indefensible danger is folly. The valiant fathers say that it is from the house of a coward that we point to the ruins of the house of a brave man.

C. Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), 136

Time is divine – an entity to whose will man must submit

One of the most striking differences between the way of the great fathers and their children is that the latter have adopted the White Man’s idea about time. The White Man reckoned long ago that time is divine – an entity to whose will man must submit. Following a prescribed tick, one will arrive at a particular place, certain that an event will begin at that set time. They seem to say, ‘Brethren, an arm of divinity is amongst us, and it has set its purpose at twelve forty, so we must submit to its dictates.’ If something happens, the White Man obliges himself to ascribe it to time – ‘On this day, July twentieth, 1985, such-and-such happened.’

C. Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), 40

Having a fast food restaurant within 0.1 miles of a school would result in 5.2 per cent increase in child obesity rates

The nearer you live to fast food restaurants, whether as an adult or a child, the more likely you are to have obesity. One study from 2010 looked at the weight outcomes of living near a fast food restaurant for three million children, and three million pregnant women in the US, The researchers, led by Janet Currie of Columbia University, found that having a fast food restaurant within 0.1 miles of a school would result in 5.2 per cent increase in child obesity rates.

B. Wilson, The way we eat now (2019), 223

A dense overworked phosphorescent ring of disappointment

But now, food colourings are back with a vengeance with the 'rainbow' food of Instagram, notably rainbow bagels. What's a rainbow bagel? It is, as one online critic puts it, 'a dense overworked phosphorescent ring of disappointment'. A rainbow bagel is made from dough dyed from seven different food colourings and baked into a ring-shaped brad roll that would look too garish even at a five-year-old's birthday party. Only on Instagram could such a thing seem better than normal bread. It is an idea of joy, rather than actual joy. 

B. Wilson, The way we eat now (2019), 193-4

Bread used to be central to our lives

Bread used to be central to our lives, largely because it gobbled up so much of our incomes. In the nineteenth century, an average British farm worker in the county of Somerset spent more than twice as much on bread as on rent (£11 14s per annum as against £5 4s).... Bread's lowly status [now] can be seen from the fact that so much of it is discarded. Our ancestors used up every scrap of a loaf, and put any stale bits to good use: think of the thick, oily bread soups of Italy and Portugal or the bread stuffings of America

B. Wilson, The way we eat now (2019), 116

It makes no sense to presume that there has been a sudden collapse of willpower across all ages and ethnic groups and each sex since the 1960s

A survey of more than three hundred international policymakers found that 90 per cent of them believed the personal motivation - aka willpower - was a very strong cause of obesity. This is absurd.

It makes no sense to presume that there has been a sudden collapse of willpower across all ages and ethnic groups and each sex since the 1960s. What has changed most since the sixties is not our collective willpower but the marketing and availability of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods 

B. Wilson, The way we eat now (2019), 6-7

Man hardened clay into a bowl before he spun flax and made a garment

Probably no one in the Five Towns takes a conscious pride in the antiquity of the potter's craft, nor in its unique and intimate relation to human life, alike civilized and uncivilized. Man hardened clay into a bowl before he spun flax and made a garment, and the last lone man will want an earthern vessel after he has abandoned his ruined house for a cave, and his woven rags for an animal's skin

Arnold Bennett, Anna of the five towns (1902; Penguin 2016), 113

Modern composers, if spoken of at all, were referred to as 'freaks', an opinion with which, in some cases, I am still inclined to agree.

These two splendidly lively and intelligent ladies were a real eye-opener for me, for the ordinary and comfortable middle-class Berkshire circles in which I was then living contained no intellectual ladies of any sort. Nobody narrowed their eyes at one and talked about Proust. Tea-table chat did not include a mention of the Russian Ballet designs of Bakst. Modern composers, if spoken of at all, were referred to as 'freaks', an opinion with which, in some cases, I am still inclined to agree.

A. Marshall, Life's rich pageant (1984), 84

There is nothing like a morning funeral for sharpening the appetite for lunch

There is nothing like a morning funeral for sharpening the appetite for lunch ... We had been burying, I am sad to say, my father and I mean no disrespect to the dead when I suggest how greatly preferable the aftermath of a funeral is to that of a wedding.

A. Marshall, Life's rich pageant (1984), 1

Forced by a disobliging new world to shift on to the shoulders of an alien organization

[Lord Sackville] did not see himself in the role of a willing benefactor of the National Trust to be accorded grateful thanks on a public stage. He saw himself as the inheritor of a glorious palace the burden of which he had been forced by a disobliging new world to shift on to the shoulders of an alien organization while retaining, as far as it were possible, the status granted him by the old world.

J. Lees-Milne, People and Places: Country house donors and the national trust (1992), 181-2

For others the problem is the weather - for us it is war

He [Michael Rayment] went and looked at the ancient vineyards Gaston Hochar had revived in 1932 when he sent his son Serge to be trained in Bordeaux as a wine maker. He remarked later: 'You cannot have a vintage every year: for others the problem is the weather - for us it is war.'

J. Arlott, 'Battlefield vintage [March 1984]', ed. D.R. Allen, Arlott on wine (1986), 187

If you are an Alsatian winemaker you change your nationality and lose your market every 25 years

Halfway up the picturesque cobbled main street of Riquewihr are the shop, offices, and cellar of the family Hugel who have made and sold wine there for twelve generations, since 1636. In their main cellar they have the oldest wine cask still in use in world; made of oak in 1719 and elaborately carved, it contains 8800 litres - a thousand dozen bottles - and was acquired by one of the family after the French Revolution. They are realists - 'if you are an Alsatian winemaker you change your nationality and lose your market every 25 years' - as well as idealists about their wine. 

J. Arlott, 'Wines of Alsace [April 1973]', ed. D.R. Allen, Arlott on wine (1986), 137 

The English, he said, were so spoilt and awed and besotted with writing that they saw the plastic arts as secondary

I once interviewed a very short-tempered Howard Hodgkin, and he erupted with a paean to the inability of the English to see, or make, good artists. The fault, the insurmountable fault, was apparently Shakespeare's ... him and the Book of Common Prayer ... and the dictionary. It was the English language itself, so voluminous, logorrheic, sinewy, subtle, pugnacious and duplicitous (my words, not his). Only English could describe the gallimaufry and the cornucopia of itself. The English, he said, were so spoilt and awed and besotted with writing that they saw the plastic arts as secondary, a charming craft or self-expression. the best those not blessed by the word could hope for would by to become licensed illustrators of poetic insight. 

A.A. Gill, Pour me (2015), 73

Why would you drink like a prissy prancing mellifluous child of Dionysus in the vineyards of antiquity

We [the British] drink like this because we can, because it's our birthright, it's our heritage, our history, our myth and legend. Why would you drink like a prissy prancing mellifluous child of Dionysus in the vineyards of antiquity when you could bellow obscene songs in the mead halls of Asgard? We are the chilly, sweaty drunks of the north, of the long nights. We drink in the dark of the flickering shadows, not in the sunny, blue-hued shade of the south. We drink like this because we fucking can.

A.A. Gill, Pour me (2015), 16-17

Like a lot of A.A. Gill's memoir, this doesn't really stand analysis, but it's a great passage.

The worst was in the ruins of Warsaw, or the fields of Treblinka, or in the marshes of Belarus, or the pits of Babi Yar

The American and British soldiers who liberated the dying inmates from camps in Germany believed that they had discovered the horrors of Nazism. The images their photographers and cameramen captured of the corpses and living skeletons at Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald seemed to convey the worst crimes of Hitler. As the Jews and Poles of Warsaw knew, and as Vasily Grossman and the Red Army soldiers knew, this was far from the truth. The worst was in the ruins of Warsaw, or the fields of Treblinka, or in the marshes of Belarus, or the pits of Babi Yar.

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 311-2

There's more on this around 382f. He is very good on uncovering our historiographical bias on this.

This cannot be said of any other European country

A rough estimate of two million total mortal losses on the territory of present-day Belarus during the Second World War seems reasonable and conservative. More than a million other people fled the Germans, and another two million were deported as forced labour or removed from their original residence for another reason. Beginning in 1944, the Soviets deported a quarter million more people to Poland and tens of thousands more to the Gulag. By the end of the war, half the population of Belarus had either been killed or moved. This cannot be said of any other European country. 

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 251

Traditional empires had never done anything like this to Jews

Traditional empires had never done anything like this to Jews. On any given day in the second half of 1941, the Germans shot more Jews than had been killed in the entire history of the Russian Empire

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 227

Hitler, on the other hand, planned in advance to starve unwanted Soviet populations to death

As German planners saw matters, the collective farm should be used again to starve millions of people: in fact, this time, the intention was to kill tens of millions. Collectivization had brought starvation to Soviet Ukraine, first as an unintended consequence of inefficiencies and unrealistic grain targets, and then as an intended consequence of the vengeful extractions of late 1932 and early 1933. Hitler, on the other hand, planned in advance  to starve unwanted Soviet populations to death.... This was the Hunger Plan, as formulated by 23 May 1941: during and after the war on the USSR, the Germans intended to feed German soldiers and German (and west European) civilians by starving the Soviet citizens they would conquer, especially in the big cities. 

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 162

There came a moment in Ukraine when there was little or no grain, and the only meat was human

Cannibalism is a taboo of literature as well as life, as communities seek to protect their dignity by suppressing the record of this desperate mode of survival . Ukrainians outside the Soviet Union, then and since, have treated cannibalism as a source of great shame, Yet while cannibalism in soviet Ukraine in 1933 says much about the Soviet system, it says nothing about Ukrainians as a people. With starvation will come cannibalism. There came a moment in Ukraine when there was little or no grain, and the only meat was human. ... In the villages smoke coming from a cottage chimney was a suspicious sign, since it tended to mean that cannibals were eating a kill or that families were roasting one of their members.

T. Snyder, Bloodlands (2010), 51

People were trying to find anything they could that they could fix, and you couldn't fix Elvis

But unfortunately, country music was starting to suffer because of rock and roll, and some people thought it had something to do with the old timey instruments like the mandolin, It wasn't, it was Elvis, but people were trying to find anything they could that they could fix, and you couldn't fix Elvis.

C. Louvin, Satan is real: the ballad of the Louvin brothers (2012), 220-1

Waylon said it would help

George Jones was probably the worst. I worked a show with him once and we were standing in the wings waiting to go on. He was acting a little peculiar, so I asked, "You been drinking, George?"

"Naw," he said. "I been working on my drinking problem."

"How's that?"

By way of an answer, he reached in his coat pocket, pulled out a handful of cocaine, and buried his nose in it, snorting. Then, when he'd fixed up that side of his nose, he went after the other.

"How's that working for you?" I asked

"Pretty good," he said. "Waylon said it would help."

C. Louvin, Satan is real: the ballad of the Louvin brothers (2012), 194-5

He wasn't worth the gunpowder it would've taken to blow him away

Some of Papa's brothers did go bad from their raising. He had one called Hummer, and he wasn't worth the gunpowder it would've taken to blow him away. 

C. Louvin, Satan is real: the ballad of the Louvin brothers (2012), 17-18

Soccer, a game which in my opinion, might, with profit, have been reserved for girls

'There are three sports played in this area at this time of year,' Platt said. 'One is soccer, a game which in my opinion, might, with profit, have been reserved for girls; one is rugby league, which is played very largely by people for money; and the third is rugby union, a fair and equitable game, played at our oldest universities as well as by all our major public schools. It is a game conceived by and therefore, quite naturally, played by gentlemen[.]

D. Storey, Saville (1976), 148

That was a real treat - squirrel meat with gravy and biscuits

Possum meat has a real god taste. Squirrels, too. That was a real treat - squirrel meat with gravy and biscuits. Nowadays you don't hardly see a squirrel in the Appalachian Mountains. I think we ate 'em all during the Depression.

L. Lynn, Coal miner's daughter (1976), 23

Try asking a major star to play a real Mafia head, a man who makes a living off whores and child pornography, heroin and blood

Here is one of the basic lessons a screenwriter must learn and live with: Stars will not play weak and they will not play blemished, and you better know that now.

Sure, Brando and Pacino will play mafia chieftans in The Godfather. But those are cute Mafia chieftains. They're only warring on bad Mafia guys and crooked cops; they're only trying to hold the family business together. Try asking a major star to play a real Mafia head, a man who makes a living off whores and child pornography, heroin and blood; sorry folks, those parts go to the character actors or the has-beens. Or actors on the come who haven't achieved star status.

W. Goldman, Adventures in the screen trade (1983), 37

A medley of allusions, which add up now to a place which no longer exists in any sense at all

The Alexandria of the 1930s and 1940s survives now only in my mind, and in the minds of others. Most of whom knew it a great deal better than I did. For I did not know it at all, I realize, any more than I knew Cairo in any real sense. Much of it I never even saw — the densely populated slum quarters to the west of the city, the labyrinthine streets of downtown Alexandria, tucked behind the boulevards and shops. It was not one city but half a dozen, in which people moved on different planes, segregated by class and culture. And for me there was the further segregation of childhood. My Alexandria was a sybaritic dream. Peanuts in a paper cone, eaten on the Corniche. The suck and whoosh of the sea at the Spouting Rock. The milky-green curve of a surfing wave. The cool grip of a chameleon. Pistachio ice-cream. Macaroons. A medley of allusions, which add up now to a place which no longer exists in any sense at all.

P. Lively, Oleander, Jacaranda (1994), 129

The central concern of the nation's under-eight-year-olds is hamsters

Most young children take a pretty animistic line where domestic pets are concerned. For a number of years I was one of the judging panel for the largest children's creative-writing competition in this country and came to realize that the central concern of the nation's under-eight-year-olds is hamsters. Cats and dogs came next, with budgies doing quite well also.

P. Lively, Oleander, Jacaranda (1994), 47

Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch the basket

As for the proverb 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket', that, in Carnegie's opinion, was nonsense. His advice was to 'put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch the basket.'

Carnegie, of course, was preaching what he had practiced, for those were the methods he had used to get to the top (although, to give a rounded picture, he should also have mentioned the benefits of insider trading, crony capitalism and screwing down wages).

D. Reynolds, America: Empire of Liberty (2009), 245

Like a badger

[Andrew Johnson] was of an obstinate, suspicious temper. Like a badger, one had to dig him out of hole; and he was ever in one except on the hustings, addressing the crowd.

Richard Taylor, cited in D. Reynolds, America: Empire of Liberty (2009), 220

They really wanted freedom from error

Although the Puritans are often depicted as seeking freedom of conscience, that is misleading. They really wanted freedom from error - in other words liberty from false religion imposed by Charles and his advisers in order to foster true religion according to their Calvinist standards. Not only Catholics but also Anglicans were excluded from the colony: two of the first settlers, the Browne brothers, were shipped back home because they wanted to worship according to the Book of Common Prayer.

D. Reynolds, America: Empire of Liberty (2009), 34

These billions have done more to chart the universe than did Galileo Galilei, Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin

During the last 500 years modern science has achieved wonders thanks largely to the willingness of governments, businesses, foundations and private donors to channel billions of dollars into scientific research. These billions have done more to chart the universe than did Galileo Galilei, Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin. If these particular geniuses had never been born their insights would probably have occurred to others. But if proper funding were unavailable, no intellectual brilliance could he compensated for that.

Y.N. Hariri, Sapiens (2011), 303

The only steak you could obtain in Argentina in 1492 was from a llama

One of the most interesting examples of this globalisation is 'ethnic' cuisine. In an Italian restaurant we expect to find spaghetti in tomato sauce; in Polish and Irish restaurants lots of potatoes; in an Argentinian restaurant we can choose between dozens of kinds of beefsteaks; in an Indian restaurant hot chillis are incorporated into just about everything; and the highlight at any Swiss cafe is thick ho chocolate under an alp of whipped cream. But none of those foods is native to those nations. Tomatoes, chilli peppers and cocoa are all Mexican in origin. They reached Europe and Asia only after the Spanish conquered Mexico. Julius Caesar and Dante Alighieri never twirled tomato-drenched spaghetti on their forks (even forks hadn't been invented), William Tell never tasted chocolate, and Buddha never spiced up his food with chilli. Potatoes reached Poland and Ireland no more than 400 years ago. The only steak you could obtain in Argentina in 1492 was from a llama.

Y.N. Hariri, Sapiens (2011), 188-9

History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets

Until the late modern era, more than 90 per cent of humans were peasants who rose each morning to till the land by the sweat of their brows. They extra they produced fed the tiny minority of elites - kings, government officials, soldiers, priests, artists and thinkers - who fill the history books. History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets.

Y.N. Hariri, Sapiens (2011), 114


'kings, government officials, soldiers, priests' is how I got my degree.

I was so relieved when the Cultural Revolution began. I just threw the exam results down the toilet and wrote the editorial

Like all my classmates, Future had been a Red Guard. In 1966, he formed a faction of two at his high school in Beijing and mimeographed his own newspaper. "Exams are a reactionary, bourgeois tool," he thundered in his maiden editorial. His instincts were purely pragmatic. "I had failed math and was afraid to show my marks to my father," he explained to me. "I was so relieved when the Cultural Revolution began. I just threw the exam results down the toilet and wrote the editorial."

J. Wong, Red China Blues (1996), 143

Since the Gnostics already knew what the text meant, they were no longer constrained by what the text "said"

This refusal to subscribe to a literal understanding of the text was a source of perennial frustration for the proto-orthodox church fathers. ... Since the Gnostics already knew what the text meant (Christ had told them!) they were no longer constrained by what the text "said" (or at least what the orthodox said it said)

B. D. Ehrman, The orthodox corruption of scripture (1993), 123

But the final phrase, "The Son of God," is lacking in several important witnesses

The vast majority of manuscripts introduce the Gospel of Mark with the words; "the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." But the final phrase, "The Son of God," is lacking in several important witnesses... In terms of numbers, the support for the shorter text is slight. But in terms of antiquity and character, this not a confluence to be trifled with. It frequently has been trifled with, however, and here is where one finds no little confusion in earlier discussions of the problem

B. D. Ehrman, The orthodox corruption of scripture (1993), 72

As you can probably guess, we have been reading the opening lines of Mark's gospel wrong. There's no Son of God in the original.

It is religious belongingness that matters for neighbourliness, not religious believing

Common sense would tell you that the more time and money people give to their religious groups, the less they have left over for everything else. But common sense turns out to be wrong. Putnam and Campbell found that the more frequently people attend religious services, the more generous and charitable they become across the board. 

...

beliefs and practices turned out to matter very little. Whether you believe in hell, whether you pray daily, whether you are a Catholic, Protestant, Jew, or  Mormon .... none of these things correlated with generosity.The only thing that was reliably and powerfully associated with the moral benefits of religion was [author's italics] how enmeshed people were in relationships with their co-religionists.

It is religious belongingness that matters for neighbourliness, not religious believing.

J, Haidt, The righteous mind (2012), 310-311

Theories are cheap. Anyone can invent one.

In psychology, theories are cheap. Anyone can invent one .Progress happens when theories are tested, supported, and corrected by empirical evidence, especially when a theory proves to be useful - for example, if it helps people to understand why half the people in their country seem to live in a different moral universe.

J, Haidt, The righteous mind (2012), 149

She cried like a hosepipe that had been slashed

When Thandiwe had to leave the house she cried like a hosepipe that had been slashed. Tears spurted from her eyes on to the towel wrapped around her belly. She cried while her mother held her in her lap and dressed her in the brand new school shoes she had bought from her wages. Her little girl arms that smelt of Lux were wrapped round her mother's neck.

D. Levy, Things I don't want to know (2013), 47-8

It doesn't have wars, it does have beaches, and it's very poor.

Tanzania is one of the most studied countries in Africa. It doesn't have wars, it does have beaches, and it's very poor. This makes it an NGO and academic honey-pot.

R. George, The big necessity (2008), 237

Its dispute with Jerusalem over the canonical jurisdiction of Qatar

The different churches had different reasons for boycotting the Council. Antioch's official position was that it reserved the right to decide not to go to the Council if its dispute with Jerusalem over the canonical jurisdiction of Qatar was not resolved before the Council.

B. Gallaher, 'The Orthodox moment: The Holy and Great Council in Crete and Orthodoxy's encounter with the West', Sobornost 39:2 (2017), 59

The Council in question was in 2016

Before compulsory education, there seems to have been very little difference in the speech of the Scottish and English borderers.

The answers, of course, might turn out to be trivial and obvious. The accent divide [across the Anglo-Scottish border], for instance, is probably quite recent. Local children have the accent of their primary school: pupils at Bewcastle School sound English while pupils at Newcastleton School, six miles away in Scotland, sound Scottish. Before compulsory education to the age of fourteen, there seems to have been very little difference in the speech of the Scottish and English borderers.

G. Robb, The debatable land (2018), 21

It's some c**t in a clown suit

The filming [Of the Ashes to Ashes video] was interrupted by an old man walking his dog in a very leisurely way. When the director gestured to Bowie - sitting patiently to one side - and asked the old man, 'Do you know who this is?' the fellow replied, 'Of course I do. It's some c**t in a clown suit.'

S. Reynolds, Shock and Awe: Glam rock and its legacy (2016), 647

The ungodly godfathers of glam, pioneers of aggressive androgyny and elegantly wasted decadence

Bowie was obsessed with Mick Jagger. Just as Alice Cooper in his early days had decided that the Stones were the group to beat in terms of scaring parents, Bowie yearned to knock them off their pedestal. Yet he knew that the Stones were unassailable. They were, in fact, the ungodly godfathers of glam, pioneers of aggressive androgyny and elegantly wasted decadence. The Velvet Underground may have been the first group to write songs about hard drugs with studied dispassion, but hardly anyone noticed because hardly anyone bought their records. on Let it bleed and even more so with 1971's Sticky Fingers, the Stones referenced heroin and cocaine in songs that got onto the radio and into millions of households.

S. Reynolds, Shock and Awe: Glam rock and its legacy (2016), 308

She has never wanted her own children to be brave

She does not want her to make trouble for her daughters and tell them to get some real problems when they complain about not having the right brand of trainers for school. She has never wanted her own children to be brave. Brave like the children on leaking boats fleeing wars. How many medals does a child need pinned on to her pyjamas? Nothing had taught her that having to summon an abundance of courage, far more than anyone should have to bear is healthy for a child.

D. Levy, The cost of living (2018), 165

It seemed to me that satnav had switched off the way that drivers inhabited a city.

It seemed to me that satnav had switched off the way that drivers inhabited a city. It made them rootless, ahistorical, unable to trust their memory or senses, to measure the distance between one place and another. The river Thames, referred to by Londoners as the river, was of no geographical significance to the driver. .... There were no landmarks. The driver did not look at the Albert Halll when we passed on the northern edge of South Kensington, he was absent to its physical presence, and instead was existentially alone but together with his satnav.

D. Levy, The cost of living (2018), 138-9

Glam principles become ascendant in pop culture during periods when politics moves to the right

Musically, too, glam often seems to hark backward and step forward at the same time. It can't be coincidental that glam principles become ascendant in pop culture during periods when politics moves to the right - the early seventies of Nixon and Heath, the eighties of Reagan and Thatcher, and, most recently, during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

S. Reynolds, Shock and awe: Glam rock and its legacy (2016), 10-11

This is a problematic book, and this a problematic statement (I do not believe we can call the early 21st century glam-influenced in any meaningful degree), but I do like it.

This is not recommended unless you are confident wielding a hammer

Before they are cooked, quinces are rock hard. They are perfectly easy to peel, but coring can be difficult and even dangerous. Recipes which blithely say 'peel and remove the cores' seem to ignore how difficult coring can be, One method is to put the quince on a workbench, place a piece of 18mm internal diameter copper pipe over the top of the core and bash the pipe through with a hammer (This is not recommended unless you are confident wielding a hammer, you cannot put the fruit in a vice as it will bruise) 

J. McMoreland Hunter and S. Dunster, Quinces: growing and cooking (2014)

Elsewhere in the book, I am joyfully reminded that the judgement of Paris awarded a quince, not an apple.

Revolutions are for China. The Chinese have dynasties. Japan has one royal family, going back the beginning

Japan had a revolution in 1867-68. The Shogunate was overthrown - really it collapsed - and control of the state returned to the emperor in Kyoto. So ended a quarter millennium of Tokugawa rule. But the Japanese do not call this overturn a revolution; a restoration rather, because they prefer to see it as a return to normalcy. Also revolutions are for China. The Chinese have dynasties. Japan has one royal family, going back the beginning.

D. Landes, The wealth and poverty of nations (1998), 371

Kids were given two choices over which form of heavy rock they liked

Metal had been born at the start of the seventies, when kids were given two choices over which form of heavy rock they liked. In Britain, this was roughly dependent on the number of O-levels they got. Grammar-school kids tended to go for the clever end, the progressive end, which got progressively cleverer until it imploded in a fog of maths in the mid-seventies. Metal was much simpler. It was formulated, which didn't mean musicians lacked technical ability (check Deep Purple's 'Fireball' for early, dextrous metal) but it did mean it was easier to follow.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 566

I think this chapter on metal is wrong, but it's very quotable and an interesting take. Later in this chapter, he also gets Queen spectacularly wrong (simultaneously a 'singles hit machine' and 'entirely detached from pop', p.569).

The elephant in the discotheque is the Bee Gees.

The elephant in the discotheque is the Bee Gees.

Their dominance of the charts in the disco era was above and beyond Chic, Giorgio Morodor, even Donna Summer. Their soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever sold thirty million copies. They were responsible for writing and producing eight of 1978's American number ones, something only Lennon and McCartney in 1963/64 could rival - and John and Paul hadn't been the producers, only the writers.

....

Total pop domination can have fierce consequences. Elvis had been packed off to the army; the Beatles had received Ku Klux Klan death threat - the Bee Gees received the mother of all backlashes, taking the full brunt of the anti-disco movement. ... Almost overnight, nobody played Bee Gees records on the radio, and pretty much nobody bought them

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 472-3

Had a voice like John Lennon screaming down the chimney of the QE2

They became the most beloved group in the country. Dickensian singer Noddy Holder had a voice like John Lennon screaming down the chimney of the QE2; rosy-cheeked bassist Jim Lea looked as if he lived with his mum and bred homing pigeons; Dave Hill on guitar had the most rabbity face in the world; while Don Powell chewed gum and stared into space - even after he'd been in a horrific car crash and lost most of his memory, he looked exactly the same. ... [they] thought, sod this, let's get pissed and have a really, really good time.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 342

Short on custard pies, high on Genet references

The Bowie/Roxy glam axis - short on custard pies, high on Genet references - fitted the seventies rock critic's post-Sgt Pepper world more comfortably than Sweet or Mud, whose It's better than working album title didn't suggest much familiarity with Lorca.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 341

Looked just like a coke fiend from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novella

[Bryan Ferry] looked just like a coke fiend from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novella, which was entirely the idea.
Eno's full name was Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno*

*This it should be noted, is a name he gave himself, not the one he was given at birth. His dad worked for the Post Office.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 337 and footnote

Rewrote them with an abundance of exclamation marks

The hippie counterculture was politically committed to the present tense and largely mistrusted theatrics. ... Glam - garish, ultra-commercial and colourful as a Dulux paint chart - was its worst nightmare ... the likes of Mud, Wizzard, Suzi Quatro, Gary Glitter, Slade and Sweet picked up on certain lines of Bowie and Bolan's glam manifesto - the Bo Diddley riffs, the glittering artifice, the outrageous make-up, the tremendous sense of fun - and rewrote them with an abundance of exclamation marks.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 335

Decided to cloak their lyrics with Hobbitry, their artwork with pagan symbols, and dress up like sex gods.

For modern pop, Altamont was a decisive break  - the end of innocence, There was a darker side, we knew it to be true. One group picked up on this and, rather than look as ugly as possible to show their commitment to the devil's music, they decided to cloak their lyrics with Hobbitry, their artwork with pagan symbols, and dress up like sex gods. ... With bombast, Celtic mythology and blouses undone to the waist, Led Zep cleaned up while the Stones were still white-faced with post-traumatic stress.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 267

More likely to be on the terraces at 3 p.m. on a Saturday than quoting Ginsberg to first-year students in a smoky bedsit

[Fleetwood Mac]: What's more, B-sides like 'Someone's Gonna get their head kicked in tonight' showed they had a sense of humour, and were more likely to be on the terraces at 3 p.m. on a Saturday than quoting Ginsberg to first-year students in a smoky bedsit.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 263

There was room for primitivism amidst the rococo, and no beat group was more primitive than the Troggs

'Wild Thing' (UK no. 2, US no. 1) showed there was room for primitivism amidst the rococo, and no beat group was more primitive than the Troggs. Their manager Larry Page considered them so lacking in charisma and grace that he renamed the singer and drummer after the two most stylish people he could think of - Elvis Presley and James Bond.

...
Reg Presley also turned out to be a literal poster boy for Michelle Pfeiffer - his was the only poster she had on her teenage wall.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 203

Right here, friends, we have the pinnacle of sixties pop

A quick dissection of 'Good Vibrations': the opening keyboard sound always feels to me like sunlight through a kitchen window first thing in the morning, the death-ray theremin of the chorus sounds like Star Trek  (first screened in 1966), and when I hear the harpsichord section there's a girl in a white dress sat on my lap in the back of an old jalopy. 'Good Vibrations' can make synaesthetes out of all of us. On top of that, it's a pretty faultless love song. Right here, friends, we have the pinnacle of sixties pop.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 197

I don't think Good Vibrations is the pinnacle of sixties pop, but the point is valid, and the pages from which this is taken are brilliant on the extraordinary and rapid evolution of pop from 64-68.

Used to buy spare copies of any rare record he owned just to smash them and make his copy rarer

Doo-wop collectors are a fierce breed. Bob Hite, of blues-rockers Canned Heat, used to buy spare copies of any rare record he owned just to smash them and make his copy rarer.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 85 footnote.

For second-class money you get a second-class song

Yet no matter how accurate, original, sharp and funny his songs, the man [Chuck Berry] was hard to love: 'The dollar dictates what music is written' was his mantra. He would duck-walk across the stage in a strange, crouched shuffle, and seemed disdainful of his audience. He was the least charming of the original rockers, rude and incredibly tight-fisted. Publicising his biography on British TV in the eighties, he was asked if he could play his signature tune, 'Johnny B. Goode'. 'No,' he said. 'For second-class money you get a second-class song,' and he played 'Memphis, Tennessee' instead.

B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 56-7

Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death

Most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death. The worse of the punk rock groups, I suppose, currently are the Sex Pistols. They are unbelievably nauseating. They are the antithesis of humankind. I would like somebody to dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the the whole bloody lot down it.

Bernard Brook-Partridge, cited in S. Maconie, The people's songs (2013), 195-6

Also on video though the miracle of YouTube

Being in ... prog acts was great because you could play in 15/8 time and still stay in good hotels.

Almost half a century on, 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' still resonates with echoes of that golden summer [1967]. In 2009, it was still Britain's most played record on the radio. The runner up was Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. The two songs both contain the unusual word 'fandango' in the lyrics.

It cannot be overstated that despite its difficult time signatures, fantastical sleeves and outlandish concepts and costumes, prog was enormously, insanely popular all over the world. Stadiums full of fans lapped up the difficulty of it all, relished the uncommerciality and thus paradoxically made it far more commercial than much pop of the day. Released in 1973, Rick Wakeman's purely instrumental solo album comprising quasi-classical pieces about long-dead English Tudor queens, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, sold 15 million albums. Bill Bruford captured this nice contradiction brilliantly, when we said that, as a creative musician, being in Yes, King Crimson and other prog acts was great because you could play in 15/8 time and still stay in good hotels.

S. Maconie, The People's songs (2013), 83 and 97-98

People say that a book you can't find doesn't exist

I recall that for a while, even though the situation was so desperate, Brauer spent all his time bringing his card index up to date. He was finding it increasingly hard to find the books he was looking for. People say that a book you can't find doesn't exist. ... Classifying twenty thousand volumes is no easy matter. Not only do you have to have a strict respect for order - an almost superhuman respect, I would say - but you need a method and time to devote to the thankless task of cataloging works whose meaning is very different from the numbers you use to identify them.

C.M. Dominguez, tr. P. Sis, The house of paper (2004), 48-9

It is often much harder to get rid of books than it is to acquire them

It is often much harder to get rid of books than it is to acquire them. They stick to us in that pact of need and oblivion we make with them, witness to a moment in our lives we will never see again. While they are still there it is part of us, I have notices that many people make a note of the day, month,, and year that they read a book; they build up a secret calendar. Others, before lending one, write their name on the flyleaf, note whom they lent it to in an address book, and add the date. I have known book owners who stamp them or slip a card between their pages the way they do in public libraries. Nobody wants to mislay a book. We prefer to lose a ring, a watch, an umbrella, rather than a book whose pages we will never read again, but which retains, just in the sound of its title, a remote and perhaps long-lost emotion.

C.M. Dominguez, tr. P. Sis, The house of paper (2004), 14

he had known more policemen by their first names than any other man in the metropolis

There were men in London - bookmakers, skittle sharps, jellied eel sellers on race courses, and men like that - who would not have known whom you were referring to if you had mentioned Einstein, butt they all knew Gally. He had been, till that institution passed beyond the veil, a man at whom the old Pelican Club pointed with pride, and he had known more policemen by their first names than any other man in the metropolis.

P.G. Wodehouse, Sunset at Blandings (1977), 22