'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.