The supposed icon of the “Spanish reconquest” actually spent much of his career defending Muslim kingdoms against their Muslim and Christian enemies

And so it was that when the armies of the two taifa kingdoms clashed at the Battle of Cabra in 1079, each was led by a detachment of Castilian knights. The commander of those supporting al-Mu’tamid was a seasoned warrior named Rodrigo de Vivar. When he routed ‘Abd Allah’s forces and their leader, his bitter enemy Garcia Ordoñez, the Muslim troops of the Sevelle acclaimed Rodrigo as al-sayyid (“lord,” in Arabic), which his Castilian countrymen imitated, calling him El Cid. The supposed icon of the “Spanish reconquest” actually spent much of his career defending Muslim kingdoms against their Muslim and Christian enemies.

B. Catlos, Kingdoms of faith (2018) 220

He’ll pass then, whereas Kennedy could never have passed them

One Senator did not share those feelings [that the South could block civil rights]. “Smarter than they are” though Richard Russell may have been – smarter than his opponents in the Senate – it was not other senators who were Russell’s real opponents now, but the new President, and Russell felt that would change everything. The Kennedy bills would be passed now, Russell told a friend. “He’ll pass then, whereas Kennedy could never have passed them.” (465)

R. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4: the passage of power (2012), 465

Senatorial power had been a coefficient of Presidential weakness

Senatorial power had been a coefficient of Presidential weakness, and for thirty years, Presidents had either like Grant, or indecisive, or simply cowed by the mighty Senate. But with the crack of the assassin’s gunshot that struck down McKinley, and, to the rage of Senator Mark Hanna, put “that dammed cowboy” Theodore Roosevelt in the White House, the era of weak Presidents was over.

R. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: master of the senate (2002), 37

The people should have as little to do as may be about the government

Each state, the Framers decided, would be represented by only two senators; the first Senate of the United state consisted of just twenty-six men. Another was the most by which senators would be elected. When one of the Framers, James Wilson of Pennsylvanie, suggested that they be elected by the people, not a single member of the Convention rose to support him. “The people should have as little to do as may be about the government,” Roger Sherman declared. “They lack information and are constantly liable to be misled.” 

R. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: master of the senate (2002), 9

His actual work load for an entire year ... totals approximately 4.6 minutes

And to undo another myth, rodeo is not cruel to animals. Compared to the arduous life of any 'using horse' on a cattle or dude ranch, a bucking horse leads the life of Riley. His actual work load for an entire year, i.e., the the amount of time he spends in the arena, totals approximately 4.6 minutes, and nothing done to him in the arena or out could in any way be called cruel.

G. Ehrlich, The solace of open spaces (1985), 126

If he's 'strong and silent' it's because there's probably no one to talk to

In our hellbent earnestness to romaniticise the cowboy we've ironically disesteemed his true character. If he's 'strong and silent' it's because there's probably no one to talk to. If he 'rides away into the sunset' it's because he's been on horseback since four in the morning moving cattle and he's trying, fifteen hours later, to get home to his family. If he's a 'rugged individualist' he's also part of a team: ranch work is team work and even the glorified open range cowboys of the 1880s rode up and down the Chisholm Trail in the company of twenty or thirty other riders.

G. Ehrlich, The solace of open spaces (1985), 63-4

How can I get that hand out of his pocket – so I can cut his balls off

Johnson told an assistant: “You know the difference between Hubert and me? When Hubert sits across from [Labour leader] Reuther and Reuther’s got that limp hand stuck in his pocket and starts talking … Hubert will sit there smiling away and thinking all the time, ‘How can I get his hand out of his pocket so I can shake it?’ When Reuther sits across from me,” Lyndon Johnson said, “I’m smiling and thinking all the time, ‘How can I get that hand out of his pocket – so I can cut his balls off !”

R. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3: master of the senate (2002), 459

Bluegrass is not an old-time style at all

[Bluegrass] is not an old-time style at all; it did not begin to take shape as a distinct entity until the mid-1940s, and it was not named till a decade later… the music, of course, drew upon earlier string band and vocal styles and repertory (as most forms of country music did), but they inherited and borrowed styles were significantly modified [i.e., updated]

B. Malone, Country Music USA (5th Edition, 2018), 380

It's a first century job with nineteenth-century amenities

Part of the sheepherder's mystique is having opted to be an outsider. It's a first century job with nineteenth-century amenities - a traditional wagon with rounded top and a ship-tight interior, a saddle horse, and stock dog to get the work done. But to have chosen a life of solitude is seen as a sign of failure. In most cases they've abandoned the world for less saintly reasons than spiritual transformation. More often, it's a social defect that's kept these men at bay - women troubles, alcohol, low self-esteem. Others prefer the company of animals. But in the process of keeping their distance they may learn what makes the natural world tick and how to stay sane.

G. Ehrlich, The solace of open spaces (1985), 29

So fascinated by Rodgers’s tenor yodeling sound that they thought of him as a deity

The most bizarre manifestation of Rodgers’s worldwide appeal came right after World War II in Kenya, after a British missionary played some of Jimmie’s records for members of the Kipsigis tribe. Apparently, some of the tribesmen were so fascinated by Rodgers’s tenor yodeling sound that they thought of him as a deity and they made up a sing about him called “Chemirocha” that they sang at religious ceremonies for many years 

B. Malone, Country Music USA (5th Edition, 2018), 101

On no account would he be a party to the crowning of an upstart usurper of the legitimist Bourbon throne

But would every cardinal have shown the same courage as he when summoned as Dean of the Sacred College by the dreaded Napoleon in 1804 to accompany Pius VII to Paris for his coronation? The Cardinal King, as he then was, refused to go. It was a bold stance for an old man of eighty to take, and it brought about a physical collapse. But he would not budge. Not for nothing was he a believer in the divine right of kings. On no account would he be a party to the crowning of an upstart usurper of the legitimist Bourbon throne.

J. Lees-Milne, The last Stuarts (1983), 161

The Cardinal referred to George III as the Elector of Hanover.

Till his dying day, the Cardinal [Henry Benedict Stuart] referred, with a cold smile, to George III as the Elector of Hanover.

J. Lees-Milne, The last Stuarts (1983), 144

Had he boldly apostatized before he set out for Scotland he would probably have succeeded in this expedition

He [Charles Edward Stuart, the Young pretender] had never had strong religious convictions and only his father's undeviating faith and efforts to inculcate the necessity of his son's adherence to Catholicism prevented him from renouncing it before the Forty-Five. The irony of the story lies in the Prince's wavering. Had he boldly apostatized before he set out for Scotland he would probably have succeeded in this expedition and rallied that large body of secret Jacobite sympathizers who could not stomach the prospect of being ruled by another papist Stuart.

J. Lees-Milne, The last Stuarts (1983), 90

My dear, I hope you are a Jacobite

That pillar of Toryism Samuel Johnson, in a benign and paternal mood, apropos of nothing took his host's niece's hand and said to her, 'My dear, I hope you are a Jacobite.' The uncle with some warmth asked his guest what he meant by such a question. 'Why, sir,' said the doctor, 'I meant no offence to your niece; I meant her a great compliment. A Jacobite, sir, believes in the divine right of kings. He that believes in the divine right of kings believes in a divinity. A Jacobite believes in the divine right of bishops. He that believes in the divine right of bishops believes in the divine authority of the Christian religion.

J. Lees-Milne, The last Stuarts (1983), 3

It isn't about me not being able to see them, but them not being able to see me

The dean's always been doubtful; he says a confession box won't stop them going back to a passing thuggish friar; after all I know who most of my parish are, even with a screen between us, and they know I know, and I know they know. What privacy is this? I think this is where the dean most shows his lack of subtlety. It isn't about me not being able to see them, but them not being able to see me - does he understand that?

S. Harvey, The western wind (2018), 52

Life would be simpler if morally objectionable things like corruption also had unambiguously negative economic consequences

Life would be simpler if morally objectionable things like corruption also had unambiguously negative economic consequences. But the reality is a lot messier. Looking at just the last half a century, there are certainly countries, like Zaire under Mobutu or Haiti under Duvalier, whose economy was ruined by rampant corruption. At the other extreme, we have countries like Finland, Sweden and Singapore, which are known for their cleanliness and have also done very well economically. Then we have countries like Indonesia that were very corrupt but performed well economically. Some other countries - Italy, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China come to mind—have done even better than Indonesia during this period, despite ingrained corruption on a widespread and often massive scale (though not as serious as in Indonesia). 

H. Chang, Bad Samaritans (2007), 162

I see it matters to you what his motives are but it is of no importance for me

'You and I are very different in the way we look at things,  Ashton said, 'and it has taken the advent of Kemp to make this difference clearer - I think to both of us. I see it matters to you what his motives are but it is of no importance for me. Motives are a labyrinth we need not enter. All that matters is the use that can be made of his words....'

B. Unsworth, The quality of mercy (2011), 265

People have been dreaming about reviving American cricket ever since it died during the Civil War

People have been dreaming about reviving American cricket ever since it died during the Civil War, 160 years ago. It was killed by a shortage of pitches, kit and coaching, and by the rise of baseball, the great American pastime. Baseball had two advantages. It was easier to play - all you needed was a bat, a ball, four bases and a field - and if you were good at it, you could make a lot more money. Plenty of professional crickets made the switch.

A. Bull, 'Cricket in the USA: the American dream', in L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2025), 122

From the age of 30, he took 436 Test wickets at 24

Even accounting for that series [2023Ashes], Anderson had grown old with astonishing grace  From the age of 30, he took 436 Test wickets at 24 - a total surpassed by only nine others in their entire career. From 35, he took 224 at 22, the bowling equivalent of Jack Hobbs's 100 first class hundreds after the age of 40. And since turning 40 himself, Anderson took 47 at 27.

L. Booth, 'Notes from the Editor', L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2025), 18

He was born to be Emperor of Cochin-China, to smoke 36-fathom pipes, to have 6,000 wives and 1,400 catamites

At eighteen, he [Flaubert] decides that some freakish wind must have mistakenly transported him to France: he was born, he declares, to be Emperor of Cochin-China, to smoke 36-fathom pipes, to have 6,000 wives and 1,400 catamites; but instead, displaced by this meteorological hazard, he is left with immense, insatiable desires, fierce boredom, and an attack of the yawns.

J. Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot (1984), 142

There shall be a twenty-year ban on novels set in Oxford and Cambridge

4) There shall be a twenty-year ban on novels set in Oxford and Cambridge, and a ten year ban on other university fiction. No ban on fiction set in polytechnics (though no subsidy to encourage it). No ban on novels set in primary schools; a ten-year ban on secondary-school fiction. A partial ban on growing-up novels (one per author allowed). A partial ban on novels written in the historic present (again, one per author). A total ban on on novels where the main character is a journalist or a television presenter.

J. Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot (1984), 111-2

Actually, the whole list of proposed literary bans is great. In full, the narrator bans novels 

1. Where people revert to the 'natural condition' of man
2. About incest
3. Set in abbatoirs
4. Set in Oxford and Cambridge (as above)
5. Set in South America (quota system)
6. With scenes of bestiality
7. About small forgotten wars in distant parts of the British Empire
8. Where any major character is identified by a single letter
9. About other novels
10. With 'allegorical, metaphorical, allusive, offstage, imprecise and ambiguous uses of God' 

I didn't relish this: not least because it meant that I didn't break my silence till the cheese course

I don't even care for harmless, comic coincidences. I once went out to dinner and discovered that the seven other people present had all just finished reading A Dance to the Music of Time. I didn't relish this: not least because it meant that I didn't break my silence till the cheese course.

J. Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot (1984), 70-71

Mary still suggested popery to most English people.

Mary still suggested popery to most English people. Indeed, one explanation for the failure to develop a stronger Marian devotional tradition in Anglicanism may be that those who had the strongest feelings about Mary became Catholic, 

G. Woodman, 'The Blessed Virgin Mary in Seventeenth-Century Anglican Theology: a Study in Doctrine and Devotion' Sobornost 46.1 (2024), 20

If he got the chance he used to go to London for the day when he knew people were coming

When she [her mother] and Dada went away, I was left alone with Grandpapa [Lord Northwood]. He was very old, and queer and silent. He hated people, and never spoke to the people who came to the house [Knole]; in fact, if he got the chance he used to go to London for the day when he knew people were coming, and I used to be left alone to entertain them. It amused me later on, when sometimes I was had downstairs to make fourteen, to see him sitting quite mute between two wretched women who were trying to make conversation to him, or else crushing them into silence: 'You have lovely gardens here, Lord Northwood.' 'What do you know about gardens?', he would snap at them.

N. Nicolson and V. Sackville-West, Portrait of a marriage (1973), 11-12

It can be difficult to even find out who exactly was involved in a discovery, of what their precise roles were

Such massive expansion comes with its problems: in retrospect, it can be difficult to even find out who exactly was involved in a discovery, of what their precise roles were. Very few first-hand records of the scanning girls exist. Graduate students who have left the field don't get detailed biographies. The omega minus discovery paper has thirty-three authors and this didn't any of the accelerator designers, engineers, scanners or theorists - not even Gell-Mann. As a result, today we usually only hear the stories of the few theoretical physicists rather than the teams of experimentalists, engineers and others to actually make discoveries like resonance particles and the omega minus happen.

S. Sheehy, The matter of everything (2022), 175

We even have a different name when we teach the physics that emerged after the turn of the twentieth century

We even have a different name when we teach the physics that emerged after the turn of the twentieth century. We call it modern physics as opposed to classical physics, as if everything that came before the theories of this era was just a little ordinary.

S. Sheehy, The matter of everything (2022), 47

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Reverend Thomas Bayes

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Reverend Thomas Bayes,
He is stamping out the frequentists and their incoherent ways,
He has raised his mighty army at the Hotel Las Fuenties,
His troops are marching on.

Glory, Glory, Probability
Glory, Glory, Subjectivity
Glory, Glory, on to infinity!
His troops are marching on.

From the Bayesian Songbook, cited in T. Chivers, Everything is predictable (2024), 80

The Huxleys are remembered as a scientific dynasty, but they are at least as significant as a literary family.

The Huxleys are remembered as a scientific dynasty, but they are at least as significant as a literary family. They wrote in multiple genres and for different audiences, in private and public. That the Arnolds grafted onto the Huxleys in the middle generation, meant that this became a conjoined highly regarded literary figures – Matthew Arnold, Aldous Huxley, Mary Augusta Ward – and of essayists, memoirists and science writers - Thomas Henry, Leonard and Julian. More privately, though still intermittently in published form, all of the Huxleys were poets. This was a family of professional wordsmiths.

A. Bashford, An intimate history of evolution (2022), 30

Mary still suggested popery for most English people

Mary still suggested popery for most English people. Indeed, one explanation for the failure to develop a stronger Marian devotional tradition in Anglicanism may be that those who had the strongest feelings about Mary became Catholic.

G. Woodman, 'The blessed Virgin Mary in Seventeenth Century Anglican Theology: a study in doctrine and devotion', Sobornost 46:1 (2024), 20

'Homemade' begs one question. Whose home? Have you actually seen people's homes?

'Homemade' begs one question. Whose home? Have you actually seen people's homes? Why should biscuits made at home be better than those baked in a factory, a factory that specialises in biscuits? I'm thinking here of Nairn's Oatcakes, Rakusen's Matzo Crackers and Carr's Water Biscuits. We don't seek treatment from amateur surgeons and Sunday dentists.

J. Meades, The plagiarist in the kitchen (2017), 143

Unpeeled potatoes are an abomination

SAUTE POTATOES

Do peel the potatoes - unpeeled potatoes are an abomination

Do not blanch them let alone boil them

Cut them into pieces the size of a malnourished walnut

J. Meades, The plagiarist in the kitchen (2017), 121

He promised to remove these carrots in a re-issue of the book, but they are still wrongly and redly there.

It [Lancashire Hotpot] needs very slow cooking in an oven. Into a family-sized, brown, oval-shaped dish with a lid, you place the following ingredients: best end of neck of lamb, trimmed of all fat; potatoes and onions thickly sliced. These go in alternate layers. Season well, cover with good stock, top with oysters, or, if you wish, sliced beef kidneys. There is no need for officious timing: you will know when it is done. Serve with pickled red cabbage and a cheap claret. In his novel The human factor, Mr Graham Greene has the effrontery to add carrots to the dish. He promised to remove these carrots in a re-issue of the book, but they are still wrongly and redly there.

Anthony Burgess, cited in J. Meades, The plagiarist in the kitchen (2017), 83-4

Avoid. Stick to acid and opium

The best known recipe in the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook is for hashish fudge. She got the recipe from Brion Gibson who had got it in Tangier where it would have ben known as mahjoun. It is of Berber origin. The problem with it is the problem of cannabis in any form - it turns the most delightful people into dull obsessives or insensate, giggling bores or borderline psychotics. Protracted exposure to the wretched stuff causes brain damage. Avoid. Stick to acid and opium

J. Meades, The plagiarist in the kitchen (2017), 71 

They agree to license the song, then donated all the money - very publicly - to its striking workforce

IN the years since, there have been endless request to license the song [Tubthumping]. Almost always, the band say no. On specific occasions, they do make exceptions. One year, the US car company Chrysler offered them £100,000 to use the track on a TV ad. The band knew there'd been a long-running dispute at Chrysler's Detroit plant, it's workers striking for better wages, improved conditions. They agree to license the song, then donated all the money - very publicly - to its striking workforce. 'Chrysler were infuriated,' Whalley notes.

N. Duerden, Exit stage left: the curious afterlife of popstars (2022), 262-3

Doing funerals is better than doing an acoustic gig any day

In Liverpool, Brian Nash [from Frankie Goes to Hollywood] - Nasher - is a very good funeral celebrant.

'I tell you, doing funerals is better than doing an acoustic gig any day,' he says, 'because at least every cunt shuts up while you're talking, and there's no on standing at the bar with beer bottles chatting shit cos they're full of coke.'

 N. Duerden, Exit stage left: the curious afterlife of popstars (2022), 112

I know some artists struggle with the idea of being relevant, [but] I stopped buying that a long time ago

In 1993, Billy Joel released his last album, River of Dreams, and aside from one further album of classical piano pieces, has felt no compulsion to write anything else. He still enjoys playing his catalogue live, he's sold hundreds of millions of records, and he's proved his worth. What else is there to say?

'I know some artists struggle with the idea of being relevant, [but] I stopped buying that a long time ago,' Joel told Billboard magazine in 2019.

N. Duerden, Exit stage left: the curious afterlife of popstars (2022), 14

The utter inability to comprehend the questions of morality or ethics raised by his actions

When they [Johnson’s Lawyers] gave clients advice, the clients usually followed it. Lyndon did not follow it. During the next few days in that September 1948 – those days of crisis – he was to display vividly many of the most striking qualities of his nature. One was the fierceness and determination with which he grabbed for political advantage, grabbed it and, one he had it in his grasp, held onto it. … Another was the utter inability to comprehend the questions of morality or ethics raised by his actions, an utter inability to feel that there was even a possibility that he had violated accepted standards of conduct and might be punished for that violation. But, during this conference and during the following days, Lyndon Johnson was also to display many of the qualities that made him a leader of men. [These were responsibility, decisiveness and force of personality] 

R. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2: means of ascent (1990), 357

When the election is over, you have to sit on the ballot boxes

Lyndon, apparently you Texans haven’t learned one of the first things we learned up in New York State, and that is when the election is over, you have to sit on the ballot boxes.

FDR, cited in R. Caro, the years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 1: the path to power (1982), 742

His power base wasn’t his congressional district, it was Herman Brown’s bank account

The new power he possessed did not derive from Roosevelt’s friendship, or from Rayburn’s. It did not derive from seniority in the House, not even – despite the relationship that power in a democracy bears to the votes of the electorate – to his seat in it. His power was simply the power of money. To a considerable extent, the money was Herman Brown’s…. His power base wasn’t his congressional district, it was Herman Brown’s bank account

R. Caro, the years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 1: the path to power (1982), 659

And all over the Hill Country people began to name their kids for Lyndon Johnson

One evening in November, 1939, the Smiths were returning from Johnson City, where they had been attending a declamation contest, and as they neared their farmhouse, something was different.

 “Oh my God,” her mother said, “The house is on fire!”
But as they got closer, they saw the light wasn’t fire. 

“No, Mama,” Evelyn said, “The lights are on.”
They were on all over the Hill Country. “And all over the Hill Country,” Stella Gliddon says, “people began to name their kids for Lyndon Johnson.”

R. Caro, The years of Lyndon Johnson, volume 1: the path to power (1982), 528

This whole chapter on electrification and the impact it has on poor, rural communities, is outstanding. And these final lines are a superb end.

Embarrass his Holiness by associating with any Methodists in Rome

The Vatican advised that Pope Pius X would grant him an audience on the fifth of April, providing that he did not embarrass his Holiness by associating with any Methodists in Rome

E. Morris, Colonel Roosevelt (2010), 35

Preferably diamond trinkets

“Trinkets,” Alice said, when asked if she was still short of anything. “Preferably diamond trinkets.”

E. Morris, Theodore Rex (2001), 436

This is bullier!

[At Yosemite, in 1903] For the next forty-eight hours, the boy in Roosevelt, never quite supressed, reveled in his wild surroundings. “This is bully!” he yelled, when Muir burned a dead tree for him and the sparks hurtled skyward. After another night our, he awoke at Glacier Point, and was intrigued to find himself buried under four inches of snow. “This is bullier!” 

E. Morris, Theodore Rex (2001), 238

The president usually had an open book on his desk, and was quite capable of snatching it up when conversation flagged

Petitioners visiting the Executive Office learned to keep talking, because the president usually had an open book on his desk, and was quite capable of snatching it up when conversation flagged.

E. Morris, Theodore Rex (2001), 108

Few, if any Americans could match the breadth of his intellect and the strength of his character

Yet there was no doubt that Theodore Roosevelt was peculiarly qualified to be President of all the people. Few, if any Americans could match the breadth of his intellect and the strength of his character. A random survey of his achievements might show him mastering German, French and the contrasted dialects of Harvard and Dakota Territory; assembling fossil skeletons with paleontological skill; fighting for an amateur boxing championship; transcribing birdsong into a private system of phonetics; chasing boat thieves with a star on his breast and Tolstoy in his pocket; founding a finance club, a stockman’s association, and hunting-conservation society; reading some twenty thousand books and writing fifteen of his own; climbing the Matterhorn; promulgating a flying machine; and becoming a world authority on North American game mammals. Any Roosevelt watcher could make up a different but equally varied list.

E. Morris, Theodore Rex (2001), 11

If it had been I who had been shot, he wouldn’t have got away so easily … I’d have guzzled him first

Sincere, if slight, grief for McKinley – a cold-blooded politician he had never much cared for – struggled in Roosevelt’s breast with more violent emotions regarding the assassin, Leon Czolgosz. In his opinion, those bullets had been fired, not merely at a man, but at the very heart of the American Republic. They were an assault upon representative government and civilized order. Unable to contain his rage, he leaned forward and blurted a excoriation of Czolgosz in to the rain. “If it had been I who had been shot, he wouldn’t have got away so easily … I’d have guzzled him first.”

E. Morris, Theodore Rex (2001), 4

Unwilling to disturb his sleeping family, he had no choice but to break into his new home

On the icy midnight of Sunday, 1 January 1899, the silence brooding over Eagle Street, Albany, was disturbed by the sound of smashing glass. Theodore Roosevelt, Governor, had stayed out late after dinner (talking too much, as usual), with the result that forgetful servants had locked him out of the Executive Mansion. Unwilling to disturb his sleeping family, he had no choice but to break into his new home.

E. Morris, The rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), 723

Happiest when he conquers, but quite happy if he only fights

Teddy is consumed with energy as long as he is doing something and fighting somebody … he always finds something to do and somebody to fight. Poor Cabot must be successful; while Teddy is happiest when he conquers, but quite happy if he only fights.

Cecil Spring Rice, cited in E. Morris, The rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), 486 

The only personality whose lusty presence stamps every page is that of Theodore Roosevelt

Today the book [Roosevelt’s biography of Benton] is dismissed as historical hackwork. This reputation is not fair. Benton may be unread, but it is not unreadable. Certainly there are long stretches of of rather dogged narrative, such as the chapters devoted to the politics of nullification and the redistribution of federal surplus funds. One can read the book from cover to cover without finding our what its subject looked like. Secondary characters, such as Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster, are merely referred to, like names in an encyclopedia. The only personality whose lusty presence stamps every page is that of Theodore Roosevelt. Herein lies the book’s main appeal, but its scholarship is so dated to be spurious now. 

E. Morris, The rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), 329

Puzzled by a shopkeeper’s refusal to sell him, on sight, a full pound of arsenic

[at 14, Roosevelt was] puzzled by a shopkeeper’s refusal to sell him, on sight, a full pound of arsenic. “I was informed that I must bring a witness to prove that I was not going to commit murder, suicide or any such dreadful thing, before I could have it!”

E. Morris, The rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), 37

He no sooner thinks than he talks

I am told that he no sooner thinks than he talks, which is a miracle not wholly in accord with an educational theory of forming an opinion.

Woodrow Wilson, cited in E. Morris, Colonel Roosevelt (2010), 349

Mark Twain is not alone in thinking the President insane.

Mark Twain is not alone in thinking the President insane. Tales of Roosevelt’s unpredictable behavior are legion , though there is usually an explanation. Once, for instance, he hailed a hansom cab in Pennsylvania Avenue, seized the horse, and mimed a knife attack upon it. On another occasion he startled the occupants of a trolley-car by making hideous faces at them from the Presidential carriage. It transpires that in the former case he was demonstrating the correct way to stab a wolf; in the latter he was merely returning the grimaces of some small boys, one of whom was [his son] the ubiquitous Quentin

E. Morris, The rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), xxii

Tonight Lucullus dines with Lucullus

When dining alone, we should all be a bit more like Lucullus. Lucullus was an ancient Roman general known for his extravagant hospitality. One night, his chef presented Lucullus with a small and inexpensive dinner, because he was not expecting any guests. The general exploded with rage. ‘What? Does thou not know that tonight Lucullus dines with Lucullus?

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 325

Can I bear to wash it up?

Go through every item in your kitchen and ask yourself six question

1. Do I find it beautiful?
2. Is it useful?
3. Do I like the way it makes me feel when I use it?
4. Can I bear to wash it up?
5. Does it do anything I can’t do better with a knife and my bare hands?
6. Do I have room for it?

Anything that gets all or mostly ‘Nos’ needs to go. Yes. Even if it was given to you as a wedding present.

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 122

What does ‘from scratch’ really mean, anyway?

What does ‘from scratch’ really mean, anyway? It is all relative. We do not tell ourselves we are cheating when we buy packs of ready churned butter and bags of ready-ground sugar and flour, even though to cooks of earlier generation these would have seemed unimaginable luxuries. If a Victorian cooks wished to make a dish involving sugar, he or she would first have to chisel off a lump of hard sugar from a larger loaf and then grind this into a powder before finally pushing it through a series of sieves until it was fine enough to use

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 13

She would have enjoyed cooking, if only it weren’t for her children

I got chatting to a woman who said she would have enjoyed cooking, if only it weren’t for her children. They were picky about eating lots of things, including onions, and this put her off trying new recipes because ‘what recipe doesn’t start with an onion?’

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 4

Leave thy preaching, for it is not worth a fart

Dissent could come into church itself. Michael Maunford of St Botolph without Aldgate, London, in 1497 shouted ‘Leave thy preaching, for it is not worth a fart’, after which he was hauled before a Church court.

N. Orme, Going to church in medieval England (2021), 252

Thomas Lipton gave his potential customers a circus elephant parading a massive block of Cheddar through the streets

Modern British towns might start Christmas with a vaguely heard of ex-celebrity switching on the civic light display. Thomas Lipton gave his potential customers a circus elephant parading a massive block of Cheddar through the streets. The promotion of cheese as a Christmas food has continued ever since. Sadly cheese parades are no longer part of it

A. Gray, At Christmas we feast (2022), 93

Mince Pies were Reliques of the Whore of Babylon

Plumb-pottage was mere Popery, that a Collar of Brawn was an abomination, that Roast Beef was Antichristian, that Mince Pies were Reliques of the Whore of Babylon, and a Goose, a Turkey, or a Capon, were marks of the Beast

John Taylor (1652) on Puritans. Cited in A. Gray, At Christmas we feast (2022), 56