After writing about Commonplace Books at the end of last month I decided to jot down items that caught my eye this month.
Apart from Country Life, the Pekingese Gazette is almost the only periodical in the house and, as I am always desperate for something to read, I develop a modest expertise in the malformations of Pekes’ testicles. (Kiss Myself Goodbye, Ferdinand Mount)
‘You’re cutting it a bit fine,’ said Oofy Prosser, as I edged in beside him. ‘Travails with my aunt,’ I explained. (Jeeves and the Leap of Faith, Ben Schott)
‘It just shows, what any Member of Parliament will tell you, that if you want real oratory, the preliminary noggin is essential. Unless pie-eyed, you cannot hope to grip.’ (Bertie Wooster in Right Ho, Jeeves)
Attention turned to our philanthropist. What were his gifts? “Oh”, he said, languidly but not without melancholy, “I was very good at something once, but I can’t remember exactly what. And anyway it doesn’t matter any more”. (Matthew Parris, My Week column in The Times)
Viagra won’t turn you into Daniel Craig but it will make you Roger Moore.
One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England. (George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier)
And perhaps it is because of all this, and the fact that we are deep in the sun-starved English winter, that I find myself longing to get out, to go somewhere, anywhere. Suddenly those travel sections of the newspaper I long ago eschewed, preferring roots to wings, fill me with longing. A few days of somewhere warm, somewhere different, somewhere where people can be people again instead of shrinking from human contact. If only. (Venetia Rao, svarga on earth)
No winter shall abate the spring’s increase. (Love’s Growth, John Donne)
Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (Tom Lehrer)
You will see the numbers (Covid cases) sky rocket downwards. (Former US President, Donald Trump, choosing his words eccentrically)
Bitcoin is viewed by some as an alternative inflation hedge to gold.
Both the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the European Central Bank argued last week that more stringent regulations should be adopted towards crypto currencies. (Both from FTWeekend, 23/24 January 2021)
September 11th, 1919. A wonderfully hot day. I met Felix Elston at lunch with Diana. I hadn’t seen him for years. He seemed in no way altered by having murdered Rasputin – but rather sillier. (The Duff Cooper Diaries. Felix Elston was known in Russia as Prince Felix Yousoupoff)