Friday’s Piece

“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporsary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

(Ernest Hemingway, 1899 – 1961)

John Lentell

11th August, 1969

Thursday’s Piece

“Oscar Wilde arrived at his club one evening, after witnessing a first production of a play that was a complete failure.

‘Oscar, how did your play go tonight?’ said a friend.

‘Oh,’ was the lofty response, ‘the play was a great success, but the audience was a failure.’ ”

(Daniel Frohman, 1851 – 1940)

John Lentell

9th August, 1969

Wednesday’s Piece

“Youth is past when the sensation of adventure is ended, when instead of the boundless expectation and curiosity that penetrates all the corners of existence, a man is content to take things as they are, when eagerness gives way to complacency and questioning to the cynicism of experience. The man devoid of curiosity is the man who in the end attains to nothing.”

(The Living Age, an American weekly journal published between 1844 – 1900)

John Lentell

8th August, 1969

Friday’s Piece

“English is the only language in which names are ever pronounced differently from the way in which they are splet. The origin of the custom is unknown, but it probably arose in mediaeval times when everybody spelt as fancy or ignorance moved them – e.g.:

Spelt – Pronounced

ARUNDEL – Arrandel

BLOUNT – Blunt

GLAMIS – Glarms

GOWER – Gore

MAINWAIRING – Mannering

MARJORIBANKS – Marshbanks

MONTGOMERY – Mungum’ery

WEMYSS – Weems”

(From The Book of Etiquette by Lady Troubridge, 1887 – 1963)

John Lentell

3rd August, 1969