First Impressions
In 1668, Charles II’s court was dominated by five high councillors rather than a single favorite, raising concerns of a threat to the throne’s authority.
It didn’t help that their names literally spelled CABAL: (left to right) the Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, the Earl of Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham, the Lord Ashley, and the Duke of Lauderdale.
In fact the five were fractious and mistrustful, and the group broke up within a few years. But Lord Macaulay called them “the first germ of the present system of government by a Cabinet.”
Black and White
With this problem D.W.A. Brotherton won second prize in a 1955 competition for British composers under 21. White to mate in two moves.
Great Expectations
Some years ago, when she was very young, Elizabeth was asked what she would like to be when she grew up. Without a moment’s hesitation she answered, ‘I should like to be a horse.’
— William W. White, “Princess Elizabeth,” Life, Aug. 20, 1945
Personae
In a 1920 letter, George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The stock joke of the London stage is a fabulous stage direction ‘Sir Henry turns his back to the audience and conveys that he has a son at Harrow.'”
This is perhaps beaten by J.M. Barrie, who allegedly told a young actor in one of his plays, “I should like you to convey when you are acting it that the man you portray has a brother in Shropshire who drinks port.”
Unquote
“I find much the best way of getting on in society is never to be able to understand why anybody is to be disapproved of.” — Augustus J.C. Hare, quoting “a son of Canon Blakesly”
“The New Regime”
[The poem can take either of two opposite meanings according as one reads across the lines or down the columns.]
— Charles Carroll Bombaugh, Gleanings from the Harvest-fields of Literature, 1869
Glorious Summer
Sign, spotted by Ellen Feld. It was in the window of a Cincinnati sporting goods store and this is what it said:
NOW IS THE DISCOUNT
OF OUR WINTER TENTS
— Ron Alexander, “Metropolitan Diary,” New York Times, March 15, 1989
Character Study
A puzzle by Paul Hoffman, from Science Digest. Could this game ever have resulted from a strict adherence to the rules of tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses)?
Trompe-l’œil
At the far end of the room was an easel on which lay a painting, not quite finished, depicting the Empire of Flora, the original of which was by Poussin. The painter’s palette and brushes were left beside the painting. Above it, on a piece of paper, was a red chalk drawing of the painting. … I examined all of this, both from afar and up close, without finding anything worth dwelling on; but my surprise was unparalleled when, upon trying to take the drawing, I discovered that it was all a fabrication, and that the whole thing was a single painting entirely in oil. … If I were in a position to possess this painting, I would gladly give ten thousand francs for it.
From Charles de Brosses, L’Italie il y a cent ans., 1836. The painting was Antoine Fort-Bras’ 1686 Le Chevalet du peintre, now at the Calvet Museum in Avignon. Flemish painter Cornelius Gijsbrechts had pulled the same trick a decade earlier.