text:
Vatican monsignor arrested in 20M euro plot
An undated photo of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano in Salerno, Italy. A Vatican official already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank was arrested Friday, June 28, 2013, in a separate operation: Prosecutors allege he tried to bring 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into Italy from Switzerland aboard an Italian government plane, his lawyer said. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a recently suspended accountant in one of the Vatican's main financial departments, is accused of fraud, corruption and slander stemming from the plot, which never got off the ground, attorney Silverio Sica told The Associated Press. He said Scarano was a middleman in the operation: Friends had asked him to intervene with a broker, Giovanni Carenzio, to return 20 million euros they had given him to invest. Sica said Scarano persuaded Carenzio to return the money, and an Italian secret service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, went to Switzerland to bring the cash back aboard an Italian government aircraft. Such a move would presumably prevent any reporting of the money coming into Italy. The operation failed because Carenzio reneged on the deal, Sica said. (AP Photo/Francesco Pecoraro)
NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The plot involved an armed police escort, a wealthy shipping family and a plan to secretly transport $26 million (20 million euros) from a Swiss bank account into Italy aboard a private jet. At the heart of the story of greed: a silver-haired Vatican monsignor.
The latest corruption scandal to hit the Holy See unraveled in public on Friday as Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, a Vatican accountant, was arrested in the customs-dodging Swiss bank case. He is also under investigation in a separate case of alleged money-laundering involving his Vatican bank account.
The developments came two days after Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued it for decades and contributed to its reputation as an unregulated, offshore tax haven.
Francis has made it clear that he has no tolerance for corruption or for Vatican officials who use their jobs for personal ambition or gain. He has said he wants a "poor" church that ministers to those most in need. He has also noted, tongue in cheek, that "St. Peter didn't have a bank account."
With Francis' reform-minded hand now running the show, the Vatican said it was prepared to fully cooperate with Italian investigators, who described a remarkably detailed scheme allegedly spearheaded by Scarano to benefit some very wealthy friends. Prosecutor Nello Rossi identified them as the d'Amicos, one of Italy's most important shipping families from Scarano's hometown of Salerno in southern Italy.
Rossi declined to say if any of the d'Amicos were under investigation, but said developments were expected in the coming days.
Three people were arrested on Friday: Scarano, a onetime banker who was recently suspended from his job in the Vatican's main finance office, Italian financier Giovanni Carenzio and Giovanni Zito, who until recently was a member of the Italian military police's agency for security and information.
According to wiretapped conversations, the three allegedly plotted to smuggle in some 20 million euros in cash that Carenzio held in a Swiss bank account without declaring it to authorities at the airport.
Scarano's lawyer described him as something of a middleman: The 20 million euros belonged to the d'Amicos, who had given the money to Carenzio to invest but wanted it back. Scarano was tasked with persuading Carenzio to hand it over.
Rossi said the d'Amico money was presumably being held in Switzerland to avoid paying Italian taxes. An email seeking comment from the family's Rome-based company, the d'Amico Societa di Navigazione SpA, wasn't immediately returned.
According to prosecutors, Zito, the Carabinieri agent, called in sick to his job one day in July 2012, rented a private plane and flew with Carenzio to Locarno, Switzerland, to pick up the money. The plan was for Carenzio to withdraw the cash from his bank account and hand it over to Zito to bring back to Italy. The arrangements were so detailed there was even to be an armed police escort waiting at the airport to bring the money to Scarano's home in Rome, Rossi said.
"This operation was meticulously planned in all its details," the prosecutor said, noting that Zito was chosen to be the mule because his high-ranking position in the Italian police agency would have enabled him to pass through the airport customs area without being stopped.
The money could have been transported relatively easily because euros are issued in high denominations. If the cash had been withdrawn in the largest denomination — 500 euro notes — it would have weighed 97 pounds (44 kilos) and fit into a suitcase.
But at a certain point in Locarno, the deal fell through. Carenzio, who had been increasingly balking at handing the money over, made excuses that the Swiss bank couldn't come up with the money, Rossi said.
He declined to identify the bank and it's not clear where the money is. But this isn't the only investigation looking into Carenzio's financial dealings: Rossi noted news reports in the Canary Islands that authorities there are investigating Carenzio for alleged fraud, misappropriation of funds and concealment of assets. He is alleged to have operated a Ponzi scheme, the reports say.
After the aborted transport flight, Zito returned to Rome empty-handed. But he still demanded from Scarano his fee of 600,000 euros for the operation. Scarano cut him one check for 400,000 euros which he deposited. He gave him a second check for 200,000 euros, but in a bid to prevent the check from being deposited, reported it as missing, the prosecutor said.
That put a block on the check and resulted in Scarano being accused of slander for filing a false report knowing that the check was in Zito's hands, Rossi said.
Scarano, as well as the other two, are also accused of corruption. If they are indicted and convicted, they could face up to five to six years in prison, prosecutors said. Rossi said investigators were also looking into the source of Scarano's wealth and his real estate holdings.
Asked how his client responded to the accusations, Scarano's attorney, Silverio Sica, said the monsignor would respond to prosecutors' questions.
"As far as I know, Father Nunzio was only trying to help some friends and then entered a mechanism that later revealed to be dangerous for him too," he said in an interview. "I believe he did it with naivety".
The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, is cooperating with Italian authorities and its lay board has launched an internal investigation, spokesman Max Hohenberg said. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Scarano was suspended more than a month ago and that the Vatican was taking the appropriate measures to deal with his case.
He said the Vatican hadn't yet received any request for information from Italian authorities, but said it was prepared to offer its "full cooperation."
Rossi, the Italian prosecutor, described the operation as one branch in a "mosaic" of investigations targeting the Vatican bank, which has long been a source of scandal for the Holy See.
Rossi's team of prosecutors in 2010 placed the top two Vatican bank officials under investigation for allegedly violating anti-money laundering norms during a routine transaction involving an Institute for Religious Works account at an Italian bank. They ordered the 23 million euros in the transaction seized. The money was eventually unfrozen but the two men remain under investigation.
The Swiss investigation didn't immediately appear to directly involve the Vatican Bank, but both Rossi and Vatican officials said there could be further developments.
Rossi noted that the d'Amicos were frequent contributors to Scarano's charitable account at the Vatican Bank, known as the "Fondo Anziani," a fund purportedly aimed at helping out the elderly.
Rossi's team is also working with prosecutors in Salerno on a separate money-laundering investigation involving Scarano and his Vatican bank accounts.
According to Sica, Scarano took $729,000 (560,000 euros) in cash out of his Vatican bank account in 2009 and carried it out of the Vatican and into Italy to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home.
The money had come into Scarano's Vatican bank account from donors who gave it to the prelate thinking they were funding a home for the terminally ill in Salerno, Sica said.
To deposit the money into an Italian bank account — and to prevent family members from finding out he had such a large chunk of cash — he asked 56 close friends to accept 10,000 euros apiece in cash in exchange for a check or money transfer in the same amount. Scarano was then able to deposit the amounts in his Italian account.
The lawyer said Scarano had given the names of the donors to prosecutors and insisted the origin of the money was clean, that the transactions didn't constitute money-laundering, and that he only took the money "temporarily" for his personal use.
The home for the terminally ill was never built, though the property has been identified, Sica said.
On Wednesday, Francis named five people to head a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank's activities and legal status "to allow for a better harmonization with the universal mission of the Apostolic See."
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text:
Register of Debates in Congress: Comprising the Leading Debates and ...
By United States. Congress
Oct. 11, 1837.)
Sub-Treasury Bill.
[H. OF R.
The ar
right to do this none will question : they have a deep in- All agree, Mr. Chairman, that a national bank, at this terest in their respective banking institutions. The State time, is inexpedient and unattainable. Yet no one can be represented by myself and colleagues has invested in them so blind as not tu see that the friends of such an instilution her funds for education and internal improvement. Un- have it in full prospect. The whole course of the debate der these circumstances, it is not in our place to read during the present session, proves that they by no means homilies to the State governments on the impolicy of despair of its ultimate establishment. Elaborate arguments banks, nor to do any thing here in our representative charac- have been urged with a view to forestal public opinion. I ter, with the view of crippling or destroying them. On must, therefore, sir, ask the indulgence of the committee, the contrary, within our constitutional power, we should not to enter at length into the examination of a subject so rather endeavor to restore their credit and stability. thoroughly investigated by the ablest statesmen, that an
As for that part of the bill which directs in what cur- idea can scarcely be presented that has not been repeatedly rency the public dues shall be paid in all time to conne, it presented before ; but to glance at the grounds upon which seems to me unnecessary and premature. We need not it is urged, and the reasons which render it the object with legislate in this matter for posterity; nor even for the next me of apprehension and aversion. three or four years. The present state of the currency is The power to establish a national bank is deduced from such, that we should act more wisely to leave this ques- various clauses in the constitution. No one pretends that lion to those who will come after us, and content our. it is granted in express terms; and the variety of sources selves with providing for the present emergency. But, from whence it is inferred, is a strong argument against the sir, I waive ihe subject of currency, as one in regard to pretension. We are referred to the clause which autho. which the Government has already settled ils policy, and rizes Congress to regulate cominerce with foreign nations pass on to the other very interesting question presented by and among the several States. The term regulate, is exthe bill—that relating to the custody of the public money. pounded as synonymous with facilitate, and then the grant
The plan which I have had the honor of suggesting- of power is made out without difficulty; for banks, none by no means, however, of originating—that of specially will deny, facilitate commerce; and so, it may be asserted depositing the public funds in the local banks, is essentials with equal truth, do ships, and canals, and roails; and the ly different, not only from the bill, but also from the conclusion to which we arrive that Congress inay incoramendment of my colleague, (Mr. GARLAND.] It main-porate a bank, is equally strong in favor of the right to tains the principle of separating this Government, both in build ships or incorporate companies for constructing roads its pecuniary and political concerns, from banking corpora and canals ; and this conclusion, accordingly, Mr. Hamilton tions, which my colleague's amendment, providing for a and the federalists have always adopted. It leads us still general deposite, does not, and at the same time secures farther : for it would justify, as indeed Mr. Hainilton asthe public ireasure from the risk to which the bill subjects serts, the power to incorporate companies to carry on a it, by leaving it in the custody of individuals. We have foreign trade, and, as may upon the same principles be already experienced the ruinous consequences of leaving maintained, to incorporate companies to carry on agriculthe vast revenues of the Government in the banks as a tural pursuits—for commerce is essentially dependent upon basis for banking operations. The plan of special depos- agriculture, and, indeed, cannot exist without it. ites, if adopted, will prevent their recurrence for the future; gument that proves all this, proves too much ; and, prov. and prevent, too, the no less serious evils which may be ing too much, proves nothing. anticipated from suffering these immense treasures to re- But Congress may coin money and regulate its value, main in the hanıls of our revenue officers. There is every and, therefore, may establish a bank. Making bank notes reason to fear that those officers will themselves use the is not, in the sense of the constitution, or in any sense, money, as the deposite banks have done, by way of loan coining money." It would be a reflection upon the unand discount, or be tempted to employ it in private specu- derstanding of those who framed the constitution, to suplations. The instances of such abuses are, unfortunately, pose they did not know the meaning of the terms they used. but wo frequent. I must say, however, that those alluded if to issue paper be to coin money, then cvery State bank to by my colleague, (Mr. GARLAND, ) as having occurred has exercised this high prerogative of sovereignty, and in Virginia, do not justify the use he has made of them to usurped the power exclusively conferred upon Congress. show that his plan of general deposite in bank is exempt Printing or stamping paper is not coining, more than a bit froin danger; for they occurred under that very system, of worthless paper so printed or stamped, is really what the and not, as he seems to have supposed, under a system re- gentleman from Maryland terms it, gold and silver. I will sembling what is called the sub-Treasury. The same
nut admit, sir, that bank paper or Treasury paper is a inay be said of the almost innumerable defaults in the coinage ; but I fear that in establishing this manufactory of Post Office. Still, they prove the difficulty of resisting paper money the friends of State rights have done the very temptation, and the danger to which the public treasure act which they denounce. They have established a bankmust be always exposed under the most guarded regula. | the worst of all banks—a Government bank. Let gentletiun; and, it must be acknowledged, apply with increased men turn to the able argument of Mr. Hamilton--for alle force tu the scheme contained in the bill.
it unquestionably is--and they will find that one of his There are but three modes suggested of providing for strongest reasons in favor of the right to incorporate a nathe custody of the public money ; loy placing it in bank as tional bank is deduced from the power, which he contends a general deposite, or as a special deposite; or leaving it they possess, to establish just such a manufactory of Treasin the hands of individuals. I prefer the plan of special ury notes as that which we have recently created. Asdeposite ; but if compelled to select between the bill upon suming that power, which he considers in essence the your table, and the amendment, imperfect and exception- power to engage in banking operations, he readily and able as it is, I must say, unequivocally, I will take that plausibly at lease contends, that if to create a bank be lawwhich insures a separation rather than ihat which perpet-ful, it cannot be unlawful to incorporate it. Sir, I will uates the union between the Government and the banks- not say that; but I will say, if it be lawful to create a bank, between political power and inoneyed capital. I hope, sir, it is wholly immaterial whether the poiver to incorporate it the measure in its present shape will not be forced upon exist or not. It is the banking principle to which I am us. It is because I wish the principle to be successfully opposed, not the mode in which it shall be carried into carried into practice, that I object 10 a plan almost certain, practice; or rather, I would say, this power to engage in hy its failure, to give a triumph to its enemies, and pave banking operations, is more odious when exercised directly the way for a national bank.
ly the Government, than when exercised through the inH. or R.]
[Oct. 11, 1837.
strumentality of a corporate body. One man may be a relative prosperity of the North, and depress the South. banker, as well as a corporate body; a Government as well | But the result is most striking. Virginia, with one of the as an individual. Gentlemen war against the power of in- finest harbors in the Union-with three large rivers leading corporation; but the real danger is in the power of banking; to the interior; rich as she is in vegetable and mineral and of all the modes of which that power can be exercised, wealth-is tribu:ary to the North for most of the foreign the most odious, I repeat, and the most dangerous, is that goods she consumes. And is it not reasonable to suppose by its own direct agency ; in other words, a Government or that much of this may be attributable to the cause I have Treasury bank, ruch as we have just created.
mentioned? Would not the necessary effect of such an Gentlemen tell us again, that all duties must be uniform, | institution be to afford superior facilities to those among and that this provision presupposes the right to establish a whom its capital was principally divided, and render it imnational bank. No, sir, it requires nothing more than to possible that the Southern merchant could come in compeexert the power vested in Congress to coin money and re- tition with the Northern ? gulate its value.
When this is done, all duties are easily There is another and obvious injury which a national made uniform by requiring them to be paid in the same bank may inflict upon the South. The able man who precurrency, or in other equivalents. It requires no bank to sided over the last, has boasted, it is said, of his power, do that.
whenever he pleased, to crush the banking institutions of There is yet another ground: the plea which justifies the States. This power--the power inaterially to affect every usurpation-the plea of necessity. Congress may our prosperity, by sudden expansions or contractions of its make all laws necessary and proper to carry into effect its loans-may never be exerted. But it is one loo dangerous granted powers; and we are told that a bank is necessary to to be entrusted with those whose interests are not indenti. enable the Government to collect and disburse its reverue. fied with our own.
Money, sir, it has been often and well I deny the necessity or propriety of such an institution for said, is power. We should not be satisfied to look at the such a purpose. That institution cannot be regarded as mere expediency of the moment! We should look to the necessary or proper, in the contemplation of the constitution, future, as well as to the past. In all free States, collisions which did not exist for years after it was adopted; without may be expected to arise. An oppressive tariff' bas once, wisich we conducted our fiscal operations from 1811 to already, nearly shaken our confederacy to its centre, and 1816, and from 18:32 to the present moment. We have brought us to the very verge of civil war. A restless band the authority, too, of Mr. Madison, recently after its at the North are even now plotting the destruction of our adoption, uncontradicted, that the power to grant corpora- domestic institutions. We have heard of a Pennsylvania tions was applied for, and refused: It would be a reflection legion of ten thousand ready to draw the sword at the comupon the understanding of the sages who framed that in- mand of the Executive. Such threats should not disturb strument, to hold that the incorporation of a bank was ne- us; but for one, sir, I frankly declare that I should be uncessary and proper, and yet that all power of incorporating willing the South should contribute the means which may such an institution was denied.
be employed for her own destruction. A national bank Sir, to assert the necessity of such an institution is to was never a favorite measure in Virginia. Even in 1816, fly in the face of facts, and to endow Congress with a dis- though many yielded to the pressure of the times, a macretionary power to do whatever they may choose to de. jority of her delegation voted against it, and in 1791, clare necessary. It is to assume absolute and unlimited when the original sin was committed, it received the suppower.
port of but three members of the entire representation If the constitutional right of Congress, however, sir, from the south side of the Potomac. I trust the attempt were undisputed, I should still oppose a national bank as will never again succeed. inexpedient. I concur, sir, most fully, with my colleague, I say not this, sir, in an invidious spirit, or with any [Mr. HUNTER,] that the credit system needs no artificial unkind feeling to the orth. But the common treasstimulus; or, if it does, that it has no claim to derive its ure—the credit of the Government should not be made aliment from the public treasure. I am no enemy to the the means of aggrandizing one section of the Union exclucredit system within its legitimate bounds: that credit which sively, still less made the instrument of oppression to rests upon anticipated returns of capital or labor will de- another. It is for these reasons, Mr. Chairman, I have serve aid and encouragement; but a credit having no such no desire to see a national bank ever re-established. Sinsolid foundations leads to far diferent results. The facili- cerely approving the principle which the bill upon your tics afforded by an un-lue increase of banking capital, often table proposes to carry into practice, I would have it as te:npt those who rest solely on borrowed means to engage free as possible from all serious objection; that this Govin wild and reckless adventures; speculations in fancy ernment may be once again, and forever, separated from any stocks, in lands yielding no produce, in cities without a direct interest in the business of banking corporations, and house, harbors without a ship. If the gambler in these they cease to have any influence over the political movelotteries should fail, the loss falls on the laborer or the ments of the Government. That principle, assailed as it capitalist. If he succeed, it is often at their expense. His has been by argument and ridicule, every friend of our palaces rise like exhalations, and he lolls in his magnificent free institutions should wish to see successfully adopted. coach, while the farmer or the mechanic, often with ten It is not, as my colleague [Mr. Wisk] supposes, à novel times his substantial capital, can scarcely afford an humble one, originating in an agrarian spirit. It claims a much dwelling or a one-horse chaise.
loftier origin. It received the sanction, many years ago, But the gentleman from New York [Mr. HOFFMAN] of Mr. Jefferson. Sir, it is my habit to lean upon the auinfurins us that the credit system works well; not, I believe, thority of great names; but it may be regarded as among sir, just at present. Doubtless it has worked well, through the evil auguries of the times, that the opinions of Mr. the aid of the Bank of the United States; at least in the Jefferson are made the theme of ridicule, while the ultra North, and so it may again. But what has been its federal doctrines of Mr. Hamilton are quoted with appro. effects at the South? Upon this suliject, my friend from bation in this hall. No man was ever more ardently deSouth Carolina (Mr. Pickens) has given us some inter- voted to the cause of liberty than Mr. Jefferson ; few ever esting details. Look back, sir, to the condition of the possessed a more vigorous or original mind, or more indeSouth before and since the establishment of the first national | pendentiy expressed the opinions he entertained. It is to bank, and you will not fail to be struck with the rapid ad-him, as much at least as to any of the great statesmen of vance of the Northern States compared with the Southern. his day, that we are indebted for what is most valuable in It may be that other causes have conspired to increase the 'the free institutions under which we live.
But, sir, we need not the aid of bis name to vindicate public treasure. We cannot justify ourselves if we abanthe principle we maintain. Our own history gives us don it to the control of the Executive. I. is a power never proofs that it is neither a new idea, nor had its birth in a safely entrusted to any but the immediate representatives factious spirit. We need only go back to the session of of the people. Yet our legislation is almost wholly shaped, 1834 to find it supporied by men whose patriotism and so far as concerns the revenue, by the other House, or by sound republican principles will not be questioned. Early the Executive. We have even received bills for raising in that session, Mr. Gamble, of Georgia, moved an inqui- supplies from the Senate almost without a murmur. The ry into the practicability of dispensing with banks in our bill for depositing the surplus with the States; it has been fiscal operations. Subsequently, when the deposite bill said, was amended at the White House, so as 'o meet the was before the House, General Gordon, then my colleague, views of the President. Look, sir, to the history of the proposed his plan for what is now called the sub-Treasury. Treasury circular-a measure adopted in known opposition Approving the principle, but believing it imperfect in de- to the will of Congress, and the act repealing it pocketed tails, I had the honor of submitting a motion to recommit by the President, and, for aught we know, now at ihe Herthe bill, with instructions to amend it so as to dispense mitage. Look to the course pursued for years past, in rewith bank agency. On this motion the yeas and nays gard to the custody of the public money-removed from were called : ninety-one members, including General Gor- the place where you had appointed it to be kept, to places don himself, and the opposition party almost to a man, you had never authorized to receive it. Yes, sir, you had voted in favor of the motion ; one hundred and fifteen, al- ordained a union between the Government and the namost exclusively the friends of the administration, voted tional bank; not, perhaps, strictly in the bonds of lawful against it. Were those who sustained it agrarians, or ac- matriinony. This union lasted for years; it was severed tuated by a spirit of factious opposition ? None will assert by the Executive fiat ; our Chief Magistrate cut the knot it. For myself, I can truly say the motion was made in with as little ceremony as Henry VIII, and then took up good faith. It was placed upon the ground of the insecu- with almost as many wives as surrounded King Solomonrity and danger, both in a pecuniary and political view, of forty or more-eighty, sir, it is said around me. The State & connexion between this Government and banking corpo- banks came into favor. It was an illicit connexion; the rations. On the contrary, the auministration party derided banns had nover been celebrated. We were called upon the proposition ; those particularly who have since occu- to sanction both acts—the divorce, and the new union, and pied conspicuous stations in the House.
we complied most obediently. The State banks, in turn, Speaker, then chairman of the Committee of Ways and have given offence, by too faithfully obeying the orders of Means, warmly commended the State banks as every way
their lord and master; and now the royal edict has gone competent, and worthy of all confidence. The present forth, and the cry is "off with their beads." The chamchairman of the Committee of Ways and Means (Mr. Cam. ber of Blue Beard never exhibited a more bloody spectacle. BRELENG] also opposed it. He has reminded us of his Yes, sir, in little more than two years, these new favorites speech, in which he said he concurred with me in the prin- are discarded ; and, after the flattering picture drawn of the ciple, but did not think that the proper time to assert it. entire security of the State banks, we now behold upon Yes, sir, I remember it well. He approved the principle, our table a bill to settle up our accounts with the late debut refused to carry it into practice. He spoke in favor of positories of the public money. The Executive has again the proposition, and voted against it. The bill providing taken the public treasure into its keeping, or, rather, has for a general deposite of public money in the State banks scattered it throughout the land, without the authority of was passed. It was the favorite measure of the party in law, in the hands of thousands of individuals. I repeat, power. But, sir, strange to say, those who, seemingly at sir, it does not become us to leave it in that condition. least, favored the principle of separation, now denounce it We may avoid the danger to which it is exposel, in my as factious and chimerical; and its opponents have become humble judgment, by placing it as a special deposite in the its warmest advocates. It is not for me to question the local banks, and, in making that deposite preserve, subsincerity of either party. That is between them and their stantially, the principle which the sub-Treasury scheme is consciences. We have to do here with measures, not mo- designed to assert. Special deposites no more imply any tives. I think now, as I thought then ; and will not change pecuniary or political union between the Government and my course, because the administration party, or the oppo- ine banks, than such a union would spring from employing sition party, may think fit to change theirs. I have never a railroad or steamboat company to transport the mail or so far enlisted under the banners of either, as to give up munitions of war. I trust, therefore, sir, we shall have the exercise of my own judgment, nor consented to sub- the aid of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and init to the dictation of any party, or of any man in this Nieans to amend the bill in the way I have had the honor House, or in the other House, or in the White House. to suggest. It would be the most effectual means of renStill less will I yield up the convictions of my own mind, dering the measure successful, and putting an end to the because my political adversarjes have acknowledged their hopes of those who look to its failure as resulting in the truth. The experience of the last two years has been establishment of a national bank. enough to open their eyes; and I will hope, sir, they have Mr. GARLAND, of Virginia, thought it his duty to make seen ibeir error. To adhere to an opinion, when renson some remarks on the amendment he had proposed. After and experience show it to be erroneous, is to be a bigot or replying to some arguments of his colleague in relation to a hypocrite. It is equally true that those who desert their the Virginia banks, he adverted to the present bill. He was own principles, and act in opposition to their own judg- sure the Government would never prosper when divorced ment, are slaves, mere puppets, moved by the will of an- from the banks, between whom and the people there still exother. Maelzel could construct a House of Representatives isted a matrimonial connexion. It was his opinion that, in as fit to exercise the functions of legislators-yes, sir, speak- less than eighteen months after the passage of this measure, er, orators, and all, down to the previous question.
the Government would seek to reunite itself with the banks. But it is asked, why legislate upon the subject now? The relief now proposed to the people in lieu of the Stato The separation has taken place, and the sub-Treasury banks, reminded him of a certain criminal, who, when on scheme is in full operation. True, sir, but how has this his way to the gallows, was offered a reprieve on condition been effected? By the simple mandate of the Executive. of his marrying an ugly, wrinkled old woman. Is it not obvious, too, that this plan itself, as now practised, after a moment's reflection, exclaimed, is insecure, and stands in need of legislative provisions ?
" A gentence hard you do impart; It is the duty of Congress to provide for the safety of the
The woman's worse --drive on the cart,"
VOL. XIV,-90
The man,
H. of R.]
Florida War-Sub-Treasury Bill.
(Oct. 12, 1837.
And thus preferred hanging to a wedding on such terms. to show that the committees to which the several subjects
So the sentence was more preferable to the people than the of investigation had been formerly referred, were not likely
system now proposed. The object of the divorce bill was to prosecute the inquiry with any practical efficiency. In.
to take the money from banks and to deposite it with sub- deed, he was of opinion that no standing committee of the
agents. But, in his opinion, taking into consideration the House ever would conduct a scrutiny of this nature with
frailties of human nature, it would be a dangerous scheme. eflect, and insisted that none but a select committee, and
He did not mean to say that the officers of Government that appointed by ballot; would be likely to do any thing
had less integrity than nther men ; but when the lamenta- to the purpose in the matter.
ble instances were called to mind where individuals of high In reply to remarks of Mr. McKay, on the composition
Etanding had sacrificed an unblemished character for a mere of committees, and especially of the Committee on Manu-
paltry amount, it ought to teach a lesson to guide them in factures, Mr. A. went into a history of that committee,
the present instance. He would repeat the words of his from the time when he had entered Congress, and had,
colleague this morning, who had said even the words of contrary to his own earnest remonstrance, been placed at
our Saviour were, " lead us not into temptation." He its head. He gave an account of the circumstances which
advocated the plan of keeping the money in the vaults of bad attended the report by that committee of the tariff
the banks, as more secure, and particularly if the amend. bill of 1832 ; went into a history of the manner in which
ment last offered were adopted, which provides that the the celebrated compromise bill had been introduced into
banks shall receive the money as a special deposite, and the House, and passed without debate by force of the pre-
without using it in any way whatever. He denied that vious question. He made some general observations on
the banks were insolveit, aš had been stated. He hud the practice of appointing, on all the important committees
been informed on unquestionable authority, that they were of the House, a majority of members in favor of the ad.
as sound now as before they suspended specie payment. ministration; to which he did not object; but stated that,
As regarded the proposed separation, he had always under- until the late era of reform, the opposite practice had pre-
stood that our system of Government, although necessarily vaileil. He olijected to the postponement, as the committee
divided into many branches, was all one. But now they would want all its time, and much useful progress might be
talked of a separation from those institutions of vhich the made during the recess.
States had laid the foundation, and which they had cher. Mr. WILLIAMS, of North Carolina, demanded the
ished to this time. How fearful would be that time, should yeas and nays on the question of postponement, and they
it ever occur, when this Government should consider it as
were ordered by the House. its duty to make its action independent of the States ! He Some conversation took place between Messrs. BOND, did not say that gentlemen designed this, but he would en- MCKAY, and REED, as to the necessity of the investitreat them to reflect whether the present measure would gation proposed, and as to the abuses which exist in the not pave the way for such a state of things. The true indian relations of the country. policy of Government was to cement itself more closely Mr. BOND took occasion to introduce a statement of with the States, and he had no doubt but that the issue of appropriations, within the last two years, for the suppres. Treasury notes would speedily afford relief, and enable the sion of Indian hostilities, all these expenditures being 50 banks to resume specie payments. It had been said that much in addition to the ordinary expenses of the military these notes would lay the foundation of a Treasury bank, establishment. but he had no apprehension of that kind, for the restric- Mr WHITTLESEY, of Olio, hoped if the motion for tions to that bill would render such a result impossible. postponement prevailed, one good result would follow : He contended that the bank note system had not had a fair that the Committee on Expenditures would discharge the trial, and referred to the Bank of France, and other insti- duties assigned them. He animadverted with much partutions, in support of bis position. At the conclusion of ticularity upon the neglect of duty which characterizes so his remarks,
many of the standing committees of the House, and the On motion of Mr. HAYNES, the committee rose and difficulty even of procuring meetings for the perforinance reported the bill to the House, without coming to any res- of their duties. olution thereon ; when,
Mr. A. H. SHEPPERD, of North Carolina, mado On motion of Mr. BRIGGS, the House adjourned. some remarks to a similar purpose, and gave an account of
the manner in which he had performed his duty as chairTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 12.
man of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department
of State ; stating some facis going to show the necessity FLORIDA WAR.
of vigilance in the discharge of their duty by the Commit The House proceeded to the unfinished business of yes- tees on Expenditures in the the several Departments. terday morning, which was the motion of Mr. McKar to
SUB-TREASURY BILL. postpone the consideration of the resolution of Mr. WISE for a committee of inquiry on the Florida war till the first The House then proceeded to the orders of the day, and Monday in December next.
went again into Committee of the Whole on the state of Mr. McKAY made a brief explanation, stating, in sub- the Union, (Mr. F. 0. J. Smith in the chair,) on the stance, that he had moved the postponement because all Senate's sub-Treasury bill. the important points in the resolution were already within Mr. RICE GARLAND made an ineffectual attempt to the province of different standing committees, or had been have the bill laid aside, to take up the bill to settle with investigated before courts martial or of inquiry. As to the deposite banks, the expenses of the war, he had no objection to a strict in- Mr. HAYNES, who was entitled to the floor, address. vestigation of them; but this could be prosecuted through the committee as follows: the standing Committee on Expenditures in the Depart- Mr. Chairman : At an early stage of this discussion, ment of War, whose duty it was to report on that subject while the Committee of the Whole on the state of the at the next session.
Union was engaged in the consideration of the bill to postMr. ADAMS said he was happy to hear the explana- pone the fourth instalment of deposite with the States, so tion, and to learn that the gentleman from North Carolina extraordinary were some of the statements of fact, infer(to whose vigilance he paid a compliment) was not, as Mr. ences, and arguments, presenied by some gentlemen who A. had before understood him, of opinion that no investi- took part in it, more especially the remarks made by my gation was necessary. Mr. A. made some remarks going honorable friend from South Carolina, (Mr. Thoxpson, ]
[H. or R.
The first specification against Ge:etal Jackson is, that,
that nothing but the position occupied by me could have sometimes come to be believed as truth, when at its originprevented my endeavoring to offer an immediate reply. al pronulgation it was known to contain no one single That honorable gentleman, in his zeal to throw upon the element of truth whatsoever. And in what manner has late and present administrations the burden of the present this grave charge been supported ? If it would not be disdifficulties and embarrassinents of this country, was pleased respectful to those who have made it, = would say, we to institute a comparison between the course pursued by have had "declamation without argument, and assertion the monarchies of Great Britain and France, in periods of without proof." That the late President should have come commercial distress in those countries, for the purpose of in for a full measure of condemnation is not wonderful, concontrasting their paternal solicitude for their subjects, and sidering the tone in which the opposition have spoken of the grievous oppression of the American Government to- hiin cver since the commencement of his administration. wards its citizens. Among the extraordinary statements But, sir, I will not imitate the example of those who have sometimes ventured in this House, I was not prepared to ascribed the late commercial revulsion to Executive usurhear an honorable gentleman speak in terms of eulogy of pation, by relying on a mere contradiction of their charge, the conduct of the French Government in the memorable although, in all fairnesa, I might do so. explosion which terminated the Mississippi bubble. The honorable gentleman from South Carolina surely has not by refusing to sanction the recharter of the United States lately revived his historical recollections, or he would have Bank, he opened the field for the creation and operation of beld very different language in reference to the conduct of State banks without limitation or control; and, as a conthe French Government at the period to which he referred. sequence, that the country has been flooded with irredeem
What, Mr. Chairman, is the history of the Mississippi able paper. And here it may be proper to remark, that bubble? A foreign adventurer established a bank in Paris the opponents of the late and present administrations are in the year 1716 or '17, which, having been managed to not agreed whether the paper currency has, or has not, apparent advantage for a few months, was purchased in been extended to an unreasonable amount. If I did not the name of the King the course of the following year. greatly misunderstand the honorable gentleman from South Banking was then a novelty in France, and the scheme Carolina, a considerable portion of his remarks was inseemned to work so successfully, that an emission of paper tended to show that the local bank issues had, at no period, sufficient to redeem the public debt was issued shortly af- gone beyond their proper and healthful proportion to the ter the bank became the property of the King. It would specie in this country. If this argument be true--and for be a waste of time to recapitulate the measures which were the present I shall pass it by without further examination adopted to enable this bank to monopolize the whole exter- this grave charge of Executive influence in producing an nal commerce of France. By what means it is unneces- unsafe increase of bank capital and circulation, must fall sary to inquire, the shares, originally of the value of 500 to the ground. That the velo upon the bill to recharter livres, were raised, by a series of speculations, to the en- the United States Bank in 1832, may have had some inormous advance of 10,000. The Government having be- fluence in increasing the establishment of local banks, and
come alarmed by the wild and reckless spirit of specula- their consequent issues, I might be disposed to admit, if . tiun produced by an immense issue of bank notes without the testimony of a distinguished financer, high in the con
a specie fund for their redemption, and fearing there might fidence of my honorable friend from South Carolina, to. be a run upon the bank, issued an edict, under severe pen- gether with considerations connected with it, did not go to alties, that no individual should have in his possession, in establish the contrary. It is well known that the advocates coin, more than the sum of 500 livres. To aid the bank of a national bank base their support of that measure on the in sustaining its credit, the livre, in coin, was reduced or ground that it can and will so regulate and control the debased to one-half its original value ; and, to cover the issues of the local banks, as to keep them in a sound and difference between the livre in coin and the livre in paper, healthy condition. For the purpose of the present arguthe latter was made to undergo such successive reductions ment, it is sufficient that I admit it. It is equally well in value as should, in the course of a few months, bring known, that after a charter had been granted to the stockit down to the standard of the debased coin of that denom- holders of the late United States bank by the State of ination. All would not do to sustain the credit of the Pennsylvania, its president congratulated them upon its bank ; and, in the course of three or four years from its severance of the connexion whịch had existed between the establishment, having afloat the enormous sum of four or Government and the old bank, because it was better for five hundred millions of dollars of irredeemable paper, the both, and the bank was stronger without it than with it. notable scheme was wound up by issuing an edict reducing Put this testimony together, and how dare any gentleman the price of shares to 5,000 livres ; which was shortly fol- to say that the circulation of the local banks has been unlowed by another, compelling its holders to fund the bills sound or excessive? They shall not discredit their own for the iniserable pittance of an annuity for fifty years' pur- witness, Mr. Biddle, for the purpose of extricating themchase, and that, so far as I can ascertain, without interest. selves from the contradictions by which they are environed. This, sir, is a statement of what the honorable gentleman What then is the result? Either that there has been nam from South Carolina has been pleased to eulogize, as show- excess of local bank paper in circulation, or a national ing the paternal care of the French Government for its bank is impotent to restrain it. I care not which horn of subjects.
the dilemma gentlemen may select-either is fatal to their How far it tallies with the history of the late and present favorite scheme of a national bank. If I understood the administrations of this Government, the committee can honorable gentleman from South Carolina, he argued, or, judge. Of the parallel the honorable gentleman was pleas- if he did not so argue, it is a fair inference from bis reed to institute between the course of the British and Ameri- marks upon the currency, that there had been no overcan Governments towards their subjects and citizens, in trading in this country. And here, too, if I am correct in periods of pressure and alarm, I shall speak hereafter. my recolection of what was said by that gentleman, he is Flat, stale, and unprofitable as it would seem to be, I was sustained by the testimony of Mr. Biddle, given in a letter not particularly surprised to hear the American Govern- addressed to the distinguished member from Alassachusetts ment charged, by almost every gentleman opposed to the [Mr. Adams] about the time Congress convened in 1836, system of measures under consideration, with having pro- in which he showed by the state of foreign exchange that duced the extraordinary state of things which has existed this country had not overtraded. for the last few months in this country. Such is the in- It is true, that in a subsequent letter, addressed by him to firmity of our nature, that what is often repeated may the same distinguished individual, he did say that we had

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Nordic World Heritage Association
Since 1995 the Nordic World Heritage sites in the Nordic countries have meet annually and together shared experiences of how to implement the World Heritage Convention in the Nordic Countries. The 20-year tradition has shown that competence and capacity building amongst the sites can better be achieved through international cooperation and by learning from each other. In September 23 2016 the next step was taken when the Nordic World Heritage Association was founded on Iceland. The foundation took place on an ideal place for it, the World Heritage site Thingvellir, where agreements among people have been reached as early as in 930 AD.
The purpose of Nordic World Heritage Association is to aid and support the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in the Nordic countries. It shall be achieved in accordance with the UNESCO World Heritage strategy of Credibility, Conservation, Capacity-building, Communication and Communities.
Nordic World Heritage Association is a non-profit organization and shall work exclusively for the benefit of its members.
The association earns as a umbrella organisation for the National World Heritage Associations or National World Heritage Groups in the Danish Realm, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
nordicworldheritage@gmail.com
©2020 by Nordic World Heritage


text:
UiO The Faculty of Law
International Law and Governance
Research > Research areas > International Law and Governance > Events > Guest lectures > 2018 > "The whole world shall be ruled by law": reflections on a century of international adjudication
"The whole world shall be ruled by law": reflections on a century of international adjudication
The Research Group on International Law and Governance is, together with the Norwegian branch of the International Law Association, pleased to welcome Professor Christian J. Tams, Chair of International Law at The University of Glasgow, to offer his reflections on international adjudication.
Time and place: "The whole world shall be ruled by law": reflections on a century of international adjudication Sep. 26, 2018 6:30 PM–7:30 PM, Domus Media west wing, 2nd floor, Venue: Viggo Hagstrøms sal ("Kjerka")
Professor Tams is a generalist international lawyer, and his work reflects the breadth of the discipline, from investment protection to the law of the sea.
Prior to his position at Glasgow he has studied law at the universities of Kiel, Lyon III and Cambridge and he is also a qualified German lawyer. He has published 15 books (as author or editor) and approximately 120 articles, book chapters and notes on questions of international law, EU law and German constitutional law. He has acted in proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and arbitral tribunals.
Tams is a member of the German Court of Arbitration for Sport, the ILA Committee on the Use of Force and the ILA's standing steering group, and the scientific advisory board of the European Journal of International Law. Over the past years, he has held visiting positions at universities in France, China, Germany and Austria. Tams is also an associate at Matrix Chambers, London.
Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, The Research Group on International Law and Governance and International Law Association Norway
Published Sep. 4, 2018 3:37 PM - Last modified Sep. 4, 2018 3:51 PM
Find your way to "Kjerka"
Domus Media west wing, 2nd floor
Domus Media - the west wing entrance
The Faculty of Law
Domus Juridica
7. floor (Map)
postmottak@jus.uio.no


text:
Q: Add an autocomplete widget with compile SDK 19 android i want to have  an autocomplete widget in my android app
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i tried all examples but  they all used SDK 23 my app for some reasons need to use SDK version 19  any example for using autocomplete widget with ir

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
January 30, 2015 by Kat
Stella Gibbons's Westwood
It is easy to lose yourself in almost-classics. You can become so absorbed in the engaging novels of Dodie Smith and Rumer Godden that you absent-mindedly forget to take a cake out of the oven, or. break a date to see Cake (an underrated movie with a very good performance by Jennifer Aniston).
Stella Gibbons is an equally compelling writer.
Best known for her satire Cold Comfort Farm, she wrote several other books that were reissued by Vintage Classics in 2011. I recently read Gibbons's The Rich House, a warm, witty novel in which she describes the loves and losses of an ensemble cast of characters in a seaside town: a pretty young bank clerk who is overshadowed by her actress sister, a fish shop clerk with a zest for geography, a library clerk who loses her job, a retired famous actor, a vain hotelier, and more.
I have just finished Gibbons's 1946 novel Westwood., and can scarcely express how much fun it was! The narrative flows smoothly, there are some surprisingly poetic descriptions of London, and the characters are so odd and charming that one can't wait to see what they will do next.
Set during World War II in a London beset by bombs and air raids, this engaging novel follows the fortunes of Margaret Steggles, a plain, earnest, talented if uninspired teacher who has found a new job in a school in London. Teaching is not her vocation, though she is an expert at conveying knowledge to the young. She is thrilled to be moving from Lukeborough, but longs to do something more glamorous, perhaps get involved in the art scene.
Her adventures begin when she finds a ration book on Hampstead Heath that belongs to Hebe Niland. Margaret wonders if Helbe is related to the famous artist, Alexander Niland, and when she returns the ration book, she learns that Hebe is indeed his wife. Hebe immediately takes advantage of the awed Margaret by asking her to babysit for her two children until Grantey, Hebe's old nurse, shows up.
Good-bye, Margaret Steggles, and don't murder my children. Good-bye, honeybunch," said Mrs. Niland, addressing the baby. Margaret smiled and tried to sound gay as she said, "Good-bye!" A second later she heard the door slam. At the same instant the baby burst into tears.
Throughout the novel, Hebe takes advantage of Margaret by coercing her to do free child care.
Margaret is willing to be Hebe's slave, because it turns out that she is the daughter of Gerard Challis, a famous playwright. And the Challises live in a big house called Westwood, very near the house where Margaret lives (she can see it from her bedroom). She meets the Challises, and befriends Zita, an excitable Jewish refugee maid who teaches Margaret about classical music. The two young women spend many evenings in a sewing room listening to music on the radio.
Much of the attraction of Westwood has to do with glimpsing the handsome Mr. Challis from a distance or having brief encounters with him. His wife is much more charming than he is.
And unbeknownst to Margaret Mr. Challis has "spiritual affairs" with beautiful young women, and is currently flirting with her best friend Hilda, who thinks it's a scream that a man in his fifties has a crush on her and pays him very little attention. Mr. Challis darkly wishes to run off to South America with her, but she is more interested in her soldier boyfriends.
Gibbons has a good time satirizing Mr. Challis's new play, Kätte, a tragedy based on his conception that warm, affectionate Hilda is a man-eating monster: Hilda doesn't know Mr. Challis's real name, but she declines to go to the play with him, telling him it sounds awful
And awful it is. Gibbons writes:
For another two hours the tragedy of Kätte unfolded, marching towards its inevitable end over the souls and bodies of her friends and relations. Her father shot her mother, for having borne him such a daughter, then jumped into the Danube. Her crippled brother's character was corrupted by the young officers who bribed him to carry notes to his sister for them and plead their cause, and he became a pimp. Her younger sister went insane with jealousy when she believed that her own lover had deserted her for Kätte and the final blow was struck when the old nurse, with whom Kätte had lived since the break-up of her own home, was forced to sell her pet goldfinch to buy a little goulash for their supper…
Margaret is good with children but is getting a little tired of child care: It seems to be her fate. Coincidentally, there is a shadow house of Westwood: her father's friend keeps his mentally handicapped daughter, Linda, in a sugary-looking Hans and Gretyl house called Westwood. When the housekeeper is hurt in an air raid, he begs Margaret to take care of Linda. Margaret becomes fond of her, because she is an absolutely dear child. (N.B. I wondered if Margaret Drabble might have read this. In The Pure Gold Child, she writes of a child like Linda.) At one point Margaret thinks Linda's father wants to marry her, but it is a false alarm: he only wants to kiss her
Margaret hopes for romance, but she only gets kisses. At a wild party at the Challises, she ends up on the roof kissing two men. And after learning about manners and dress at Westwood, she has become not only prettier but easier in her manner and a better teacher.
This is not the kind of comedy that ends in marriage. Of course she would like to marry, but she has friends, kisses, and a career.
This is a very satisfying, entertaining novel. I can't wait to read more Gibbons.
| Tagged Stella Gibbons, Westwood | 4 Comments
Why We Can't Talk Like a Nancy Mitford Novel
Megan Dodds and Rosamund Pike in the 2001 BBC adaptation of Love In A Cold Climate
Be a love and take them to see a Roman ruin or something…"–Linda Radlett in Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate
Do Amecian Angophiles wonder why they cannot converse in the flippant style of the charming characters of Nancy Mitford, Angela Thirkell, Stella Gibbons, and Evelyn Waugh?
We Americans of the 21st century simply could not keep up the level of discourse.
Perhaps the British couldn't keep up these days, either.
I have been reading a lot of what my cousin calls Brideshead Revisited. And she doesn't necessarily mean Waugh.
Take Stella Gibbons's charming novels. Her books are very readable and witty, if not quite classics, and I have been admiring the dialogue.
In Westwood, Serena, the vague and charming wife of a pompous playwright, rebukes her husband for calling their beloved nanny, Grantey, a slave. She says he should be nicer, and that before their marriage, he was "such a pet, always wanting to improve my mind."
"Well, you must remember all those alarming books you unloaded on me…I did try… only somehow there was never any time for anything, there never has been, has there?–ever since we got married. It's years since we really let our back hair down and had a good long talk like this, isn't it? Look here…I'm supposed to be dining with the Massinghams tonight, and it's after six now…"
I love the way she goes on her merry way to dinner, after trying gently to mitigate his callousness.
In Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate, the heroine, Linda Radlett, is hilarious when she marries a Communist. She works in the Red bookshop on weekends so Comrade Boris, the manager, can get drunk, and she substitutes favorite books like The Making of a Marchioness for Karl Marx: The Formative Years. But it is not the most comfortable life, she admits
You know, being a Conservative is much more restful," Linda said to me once in a moment of confidence, when she was being unusually frank about her life, "though one must remember that it is bad, not good. But it does take place within certain hours, and then finish, whereas Communism seems to take up all one's life."
If only Linda had been with us in our left-wing days in the '70s, she would have voiced witty insights on the discomfort of consciousness-raising groups and bulgur-and-spinach takeout from the food co-op.
Angela Thirkell, whose charming novels are back in print, is ceaselessly funny. Her long passages of absurd indirect statement are more comical than her dialogue, but she does banter very well.
In Cheerfulness Breaks In, Lydia is exasperated at her ditzy sister Rose's wedding and hands her her bag at the reception.
You can stick on some more powder and lipstick if you like, but I think you've quite enough, don't you, John?"
"Don't be so dispiriting," said Rose, "and this lipstick doesn't come off anyway."
"I should think not," said her husband. "I wouldn't let you put it on if it did. That's enough, Lydia. Take it away."
Evelyn Waugh's satires are hilarious, but we know him best for Brideshead Revisited. It started, of course, with the BBC series starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, and Diana Quick in 1981. I have read the book several times.
In Waugh's great Catholic novel, the narrator, Charles Ryder, becomes friends with the Catholic aristocrat Sebastian Flyte at Oxford; later he falls in love with Sebastian's sister, Julia. At Oxford, the charming Sebastian carries his teddy bear, Aloysius, everywhere. Aristocrats are always so eccentric, aren't they?
At first Charles thinks Catholicism is very silly. He asks if Sebastian believes in prayer, and Sebastian assures him that he does.
Don't you remember last term when took Aloysius and left him behind I didn't know where? I prayed like mad to St. Anthony of Padua that morning, and immediately after lunch there was Mr. Nichols at Canterbury Gate with Aloysius in his arms, saying I'd left him in his cab."
It's no wonder that we Americans can't talk like a character in an English novel. Nancy Mitford was one of the Bright Young People, Angela Thirkell was the granddaughter of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, Evelyn Waugh was a Bright Young Person and a very good friend of Nancy Mitford's, Aldous Huxley was the grandson of the zoologist Thomas Huxley, and only Stella Gibbons, the daughter of a London doctor, seems to have had an ordinary family.
I regret to say that i never knew anyone with a teddy bear at my lovely Big Ten Schools.
What are your favorite witty English novels?
| Tagged English novels, humor | 8 Comments
The Crush in Literature: Pamela Hansford Johnson's The Philistines & Charlotte Bronte's Villette
What would we have done without our crushes when we were young women? (And may those days never come again.)
In our thirties when we were freelance writers, we worked in our pajamas at home and did phone interviews between loads of laundry. Charming editors persuaded us to write stories that involved long bus rides, multiple interviews, and long days of writing. The fee probably worked out to $3 an hour: less with typewriter ribbons. Crush away: it motivated us, though it would not be profitable.
The crush is also significant in literature.
In Pamela Hansford Johnson's The Philistines, a crush lifts the heroine, Gwen, an unhappy housewife, above the tedium of life in Branley (a kind of anti-Cranford) with her boyish banker husband, Clifford, his gloomy invalid mother, and irritable unmarried sister, Evelyn. Clifford is a beefy, jovial conformist, proud of his "intellectual" wife. During World War II when Clifford is away, Gwen works at a hospital and flirts with Paul, a doctor. Her crush is so intense that she sends her son to boarding school so she will have time to have an affair. The affair, of course, never happens.
But Gwen needs her crush.
One of their first conversations is about reading. The smug, domineering Paul
…interrogated her swiftly, searching, probing, and unsmiling. "Villette? Better than Jane Eyre? But why?"
"She knew more, then."
Gwen is right: Charlotte Bronte did know more then. In Jane Eyre, she gives Jane the husband she wants, albeit he is crippled first. In Villette, Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece, the heroine, Lucy Snowe, does not get the man she wants: she falls in love with Doctor Graham, who doesn't really notice her and loves someone else. Paul, an unattractive, misogynistic Belgian teacher falls in love with Lucy.
In The Philistines, Paul is a blend of Graham and Paul: like Bronte's Graham, he likes Gwen but doesn't love her; and, like Bronte's Paul, he interrogates her.
Branley is a cruel, gossipy town. Branley disapproves of Gwen's best friend fortysomething Pamela's engagement to a younger man, Gerry. At the club, Clifford plays a prank that ruins Pamela's life. In a game of Blind Man's Bluff, he leads a nubile 22-year-oldwoman, Phoebe, to the blindfolded Gerry Fenner, Pamela's fiance, whose hands are all over Phoebe. When the blindfold is removed, Gerry is stunned by her beauty. Shortly thereafter he breaks off his engagement to Pamela and marries Phoebe. Pamela commits suicide.
Here is what you do not want to hear when you tell someone you're in love with him. Paul's response to Gwen is:
My dear," he said at last, in a tentative, kindly voice, "you and I are different people. You;re a romantic: I'm not. I can't help feeling that all this, to you, hasn't been much more than a peg on which to hang the idea of love."
Gwen creates a new life for herself and her son with courage, intelligence, and grace. Love has not been kind, but it might come again.
| Tagged Pamela Hansford Johnson, The Philisitines, Villette | Leave a comment
Pamela Hansford Johnson's The Philistines & The Book-Buying Habits of Bloggers
Bernadette (Kathy Baker) reading "Emma" in "The Jane Austen Book Club"
Book bloggers are an intense bunch. Think of all that writing with no reward except to share our avidity for reading.
I was thinking about the act of book-blogging because it is National Readathon Day, a pro-literacy event sponsored by The National Book Foundation, Penguin Random House, Goodreads, and Mashable
I was busy during official readathon hours, but I made up for it later. I finished Pamela Hansford Johnson's remarkable novel, The Philistines, an exploration of the psychology of an unhappy woman who marries a suburban banker after she realizes she has no talent for writing. Her mother, an artistic widow, is appalled.
What else should I do? I have no future."
"There'll be something…something."
"Oh, something!" Gwen cried, with a bitterness that made her instantly ashamed.
From the beginning, we understand that unconventional Gwen is headed for disaster. She and Clifford live with his mother and sister, and never move into their own place.. Motherhood does not fulfill her, and the social life at the club is monotonous. She develops a crush on a doctor, and it is not returned. She fantasizes about him for years.. I was struck by the intensity of the crush, an emoition so common among women in their thirties, yet largely unwritten about in novels. Perhaps romance is more exciting, but how many women actually sustain themselves by fantasies ? More on this next week.
Johnson always breaks taboos by delving into forbidden psychological territory.
There is a new trend among book bloggers: we say at the beginning of every year we are going to read only from our shelves.
We are going to be like Susan Hill in Howards End Is on the Landing, a wonderful book about her reading from her home bookshelves for a year.
That's what I say I'll do, and I do read from my shelves, but book-buying is where my materialism comes in. And I recently made a very interesting discovery : I can get very cheap used books if I settle for "good" instead of "very good" or "like new" condition.
At our house it is very like a '60s sitcom when books arrive in the mail on weekends. I wish I were like Samantha in "Bewitched" and could twitch my nose and make the books disappear. Today my husband intercepted four packages. "Is it your birthday?"
I have very good reasons for buying these books, as he shortly learned. I had to replace my copy of A Dance to the Music of Time, Second Movement, because it fell apart while I was addictively rereading Casanova's Chinese Restaurant.
I swore I couldn't get it at the library.
And so now I am done buying books. For the year.
We'll see!
| Tagged book-buying, Pamela Hansford Johnson, The Philistines | 6 Comments
Nancy Drew & the Mystery of the LRB
I recently received a copy of the London Review of Books.
It must be a sample copy, I thought. Only there were no subscription cards inside.
I scanned the Table of Contents and turned to Jenni Diski's "Doris and Me," an engrossing essay about her life as a teenager at Doris Lessing's house.
And then I forgot all about it.
Yesterday a second issue arrived.
The label on the plastic wrapper says I have a three-year subscription.
Very mysterious.
Oddly, it is addressed to me under my nickname, not my formal "subscription" name.
"Does it have anything to do with your blog?" my husband teased me.
I burst out laughing.
The situation reminds me of the plot of the Nancy Drew book, Nancy's Mysterious Letter, which I read when I was nine.
On the opening page the postman brings a letter.
Hello, Nancy," he said. "…Lots of letters today. There's one in the bottom of my bag for you. It was sent air mail from London, England."
The letter says Nancy is an heiress, only it turns out another Nancy Drew is the heiress. So maybe I'm getting an LRB that is supposed to go to another me?
Since it first arrived a few weeks ago, I have been bombarded with offers of subscriptions to book review publications.
The TLS wants me to subscribe. I already do.
Poets & Writers offered me a deal and enclosed a gift of the tinest notepad in existence.
The New York Review of Books would like to pile up unread on our porch.
What would Nancy Drew do?
I'm sure there would be phone calls, letters, interviews, instagrams (whatever instagrams are).
I'll just read the LRB instead.
| Tagged LRB | 4 Comments
Karen E. Bender's Refund
The theme of money unifies Karen E. Bender's extraordinary new collection of short stories, Refund.
In her brilliant 2013 novel, A Town of Empty Rooms, a Jewish family must relocate to the South after the grief-stricken heroine, Serena, shattered by her father's death, charges $8,000 of jewelry on the company charge card. Like Serena, the impecunious characters in Refund are too confused, exhausted, and overworked to find security in poorly-paid jobs. In these wrenchingly realistic short stories, people barely get by as they miserably struggle to provide for their families.
Bender's style is forceful but simple as she shares her ironic, compassionate insights into money, security, and family life.
In "The Third Child," Bender describes the numbness of family life after the Goldmans move to a small city in South Carolina where they can afford a house and car. When Jane Goldman, a freelance editor for technical manuals, gets pregnant with a third child, she decides to have an abortion. The financial responsiblity and love and boredom of raising the two children they already have is enough. And in a way she has a third child: their eight-year-old neighbor, Mary Grace, the daughter of Baptists, is the only person who ever knocks on their door.
Jane's view of the neighborhood and family from the front porch is humorous and compassionate.
The screaming was the sound of children protesting everything: eating, bathing, sharing toys, going to sleep…. This was her life now, at forty. She had married a man whom she admired and loved, and after the initial confusion of early marriage–the fact that they betrayed the other simply by being themselves–they fell into the exhausting momentum that was their lives.
Karen E. Bender
Bender's characters have to be flexible in their work and their expectations.. In the title story, "Refund," one of the best 9-11 stories I have read, two artists realize that their art is an extravagance. Clarissa and Josh are almost 40, they are soon to lose their rent-controlled apartment, and they realize they need full-time jobs. Clarissa suddenly wants to send their son to an elite pre-school, Rainbows ($10,000 a year). How can they afford it? How can they pay their bills? They find teaching jobs for three weeks at a university in Virginia and sublet their apartment in Tribeca near the World Trade Center to a Canadian woman, Kim. But they are away on 9-11, and when they return, Kim sends them crazy letters saying she wants a full refund. While ash and dust coat their neighborhood, Josh finds a full-time job, Clarissa discovers the shallowness of the mothers at the pre-school, and learns that Kim's plight is not as simple as it seems. All of them could use a refund, whether of the monetary or emotional kind.
Many of Bender's characters are similarly beleaguered by violence. In "The Sea Turtle Hospital," the narrator, a teaching assistant in a kindergarten class, describes the experience of being in lockdown when a shooter invades the school. Most of the teachers are poorly-paid and work a second job to survive; but now survival seems unlikely as they listen to the unidentified noises in the school. The police tell the children to close their eyes and walk with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them down the hall, but most of them see the tracks in blood and their dead principal .. The narrator comforts herself by taking a student to see wounded sea turtles at a "sea turtle hospital." When they return to Keisha's neighborhood, the police are there because they feared more violence.
In "Reunion," the narrator, Anna Green, attends her 20-year high school reunion to distribute business cards for her failing home appliance repair business. One of her classmates takes out a gun and starts shooting, and Anna's now obese ex-boyfriend, Warren, a realtor, leads her out. She doesn't immediately tell her husband, a social worker who is having a small breakdown and lending money to his clients. Unable to pay the bills and concerned that their daughter refuses to sleep, Anna escapes her life by visiting Warren in his shoddy office, and is so confused she buys a property from him.
One of the stories, "Anything for Money," is about ostentatious wealth. Lenny Weiss is the host of the game show "Anything for Money." His guests must humiliate themselves for money: singing in a phone booth filled with bugs, etc.. Lenny came up with the concept for the show when his daughter had an ear infection and he had no money to take her to the doctor. Years later, there is a parallel situation when his grandchild comes to visit while her mother is in rehab. She steals meaningless personal objects so she feels she is in control and can reconstruct people's stories. When she becomes ill, Lenny's money cannot help her.
The arrangement of the stories in a collection is important, and I have one criticism. Two of the showier stories, "Anything for Money" and "Theft" are anomalous, yet appear near the beginning of the book. Perhaps one of the more effective stories about lower middle-class people struggling. would have worked better there. Overall these stories are almost as connected as chapters of a novel.
I loved reading Refund . It made me question how people end up living in houses in developments with thin walls "slapped together with drywall and paste" and "the bullish SUVs parked in the driveways, testament of dreams of safety and endless oil." Well, it's because they have nowhere better to go, and they're afraid, yes? Bender doesn't despise these people, but she doesn't want to be where they are. Nor do her characters.
| Tagged Karen E. Bender, Refund | 3 Comments
Mirabile Does Middlebrow: Stella Gibbons's The Rich House & Mary Webb's The House in Dormer Forest
I like nothing better than to spend an afternoon reading a solid, well-crafted middlebrow novel.
Stella Gibbons won the Prix Femina Étranger for her masterpiece, Cold Comfort Farm, an extremely funny portrait of rural life that satirizes the "loam-and-lovechild" books of Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Mary Webb, and Sheila Kaye-Smith. Her 1941 novel, The Rich House, takes a different tack: this delightful comedy centers on the love and work of an ensemble cast of characters in a seaside town in England. I especially like the brief sketches of their jobs in the theater, shops, a bank, a library, and a hotel.
This hugely enjoyable, character-driven novel begins with Mrs. Pask, a 70-year-old woman, looking out her window on a winter night into the lighted shops across the street.
She knows that Reenie Voles, the fat cashier at the fish shop, is impatient to leave work because she must shop every night for food. Reenie lives with her mother, and food is the main object of their lives. The descriptions of their eating, eating, eating every evening, all evening, is grotesque and comical, but Reenie proves to be one of the kindest and most adventurous characters.
Mrs. Pask is also interested in Pauline Williams, who lives with her mother and rather chilly actress sister, Marjorie. That night Pauline is on her way to change her mother's library book.
Here is a sample of Gibbons's humor, a priceless description of Pauline's mother's divergence from the standard taste in library books.
Pauline's mother always said that she liked a nice story with plenty of descriptions and nothing disgusting and a happy ending, only not too ridiculous; nevertheless, Pauline had almost insensitively observed that her mother seemed to read a good many books that were described by The North Essex Advertiser (if it ever got around to reviewing them) as Outspoken.
Gibbons in The Rich House portrays characters of all classes. Working at the library desk is Mavis, the Pretty Fair Girl, as Pauline thinks of her, a quiet working-class woman who rents a room from Reenie Voles' mother. She sings in the church choir and daydreams about a fellow singer, and perhaps the daydreams are sparked by the fact that she has so little money she can barely afford to eat. When she loses her job, her panic and terror are harrowing. In fact, I have never read such a nightmarish description of unemployment. (Even if we're not working-class, we women in liberal arts know what it is to totter on the brink of poverty.)
There are also men in the novel. Ted has been raised by his grandfather, the famous actor Archibald Early, and lives in what Pauline and her sister used to call "the Rich House," a big, cozy nest of clutter, fading furniture, and visiting eccentric retired actors and their dogs. Ted naively wants to be a professional cricketer, but after studying acting in Paris returns a changed, charming man.
Dutiful Eric lives with his parents, works in a bank, and sings in the church choir with Mavis. But he has a secret life: he is recovering from a miserable five-year affair with a sadistic woman, and soon falls in love with the actress Marjorie, Pauline's cold sister, who intends to use him and then drop him. It never occurs to him that Mavis in love with him.
The novel is rather theatrical, as befits a novel with several characters in the theater.. It reminds me very slightly of my favorite Dodie Smith novel, The New Moon with the Old. (Indeed, Dodie Smith's play, Dear Octopus, is mentioned in The Rich House.)
The Rich House is a fast, very good read, one of my favorites of the year so far (not that the year has progressed very far).
Mary Webb's witty, moving novel, Precious Bane, narrated by a smart young woman who believes herself incapable of winning love because she is disfigured by a harelip, is a classic. But I may be going too far when I contend that Webb's third novel,The House in Dormer Forest, is well-worth reading. It is intriguing, if desperately uneven.
It may be just for Webb's fans.
Precious Bane is beautifully written. In The House in Dormer Forest, there are many overwritten poetic descriptions. On page 3 we have:
The upper wood had never known the shuddering horror of the axe, the bitter and incurable destruction of the day when gnomes of ugly aspect are let loose with flashing wepons. among the haughty sons and daughters of the gods, hacking and tearing at the steadfast forms of beauty, until beautiy itself seemed to have crashed earthwards.
Michelle Barale, In the introduction to the Virago edition, declares that Webb is not only a rural writer but also a writer who focuses on women's lives.
Mary Webb is, I would suggest, a most bleak feminist for she seems to find no possible solution for the process of victimization, by society or self, within social institutions. A relationship of love and equality is possible only beyond social boundaries: within there is either worship or rape, use or abuse
I don't see this as a feminist novel, but I do care deeply about the fortunes of young, sprightly Amber Darke..
Webb relates the story of three generations of the Darke Family. (Yes, that truly is their name.) The older generations at Dormer Old House are decidedly gloomy and demoic: the witchy, religious hag, Grandmother, her insensitive son, Solomon Darke and his silent, disapproving wife, Rachel. But Solomon and Rachel's grown children are genial: Peter is a womanizer but not a seducer; Jasper, the idealistic atheist, returned from school because he refused to study to be a minister: Ruby, a pretty girl, is luckily engaged so has distractions from the bleakness of the society at Dormer Old House; and Amber, the only one with a sense of humor, has no qualms about going after love when she finally meets a man she likes.
At the center is a gorgeous, if rather stick-figure-ish villainess, Cousin Catherine, who is determined to win the desire of men just to make as much mischief as she can. Ruining lives is her hobby.
I love Webb's witty dialogue. Before Amber's simple wedding, Mrs. Gosling, the cook, has this to say:
Ah Sarah!…a wedding, when it is a wedding, takes the eye! With the half-dozen bridesmaids giggling, the mothers fighting each the other like wild cats, the bridegroom champing to be off (ours champed terrible when I was wed. A meek manner had ours, but a great sperrit). There's bridegroom hollering for a coachman; and coachman lashing up, very fresh; and even parson a bit fresh–leastways in the old days. But this! No champing, no maids and men, no coachman, and nobody fresh! Give me a funeral!
If I lived in England, I undoubtedly would walk on Lyth Hill in Shropshire.
One of these days I plan to bask in a big Mary Webb reread.
| Tagged Mary Webb's The House in Dormer Forest, Stella Gibbons' The Rich House | 2 Comments
Moving to Thornfield Hall!
The Frenetic Life of a Netgalley Reviewer & Favorite Writers' Bags
Empowering Women & Three Literary Links
Shopping with My Husband & Stella Gibbons's "Bassett"
The Planner Notebook & Elizabeth Gaskell vs. Kathy Acker
Fall Reading!
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This ANZAC Day, turn MAX on for an awesome Aussie countdown. Featuring 100 Home Grown Legends. Sure to make the list, Farnsey, Barnsey, Kylie, the Oils and a bit of ACADACA!
Get your Aussie music fix this ANZAC day on MAX.


5/3/1: Cycle 9 – 3s Week: Overhead Press (135 x 1 Stall): 11/16/12 – My Journey to Godliness!
Shot myself in the foot by playing Black Ops 2 on the PS3 for an hour after work yesterday instead of sleeping right away.
Slept around 4-5 hours before it was time to go to the gym.
Also the longest time I have fasted then lifted so that may have been another downfall for today's session.
Stalled but this is somehow also one of my quickest session!
Despite the lack of sleep and such a long fast before training, I managed to have a 2nd and even a 3rd wind!
Next time I really NEED to prioritize sleep whenever I can, specially on lifting days!
Long fast and insufficient sleep did me ion this time.
Weight felt heavier than usual when this should have been an easy day for me.
I even was able to tighten my belt 1 more notch tighter on the last set but still too weak today.
First couple sets felt easy then progressively got harder at the end of the reps.
Dips hurt today so decided to drop the weight on the 4th set.
Right elbow was still not 100%.
Shows how much I screwed myself considering I did more without straps than I did today with straps on!
Had 1.5 minute rest after each sets.
Considered 1 set after I finished the left then right side.
Grip was easier today somehow but doing the actual side-bends was tough.


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Chicago Sun-Times Blog December 19, 2007 Guest Contributor
Chicago Sun-Times Blog
The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper now has its own religion blog, written by reporter Susan Hogan/Albach.
You can subscribe to its feed with this link.
I love the title 🙂
I also appreciate the acknowledgment of non-religious people in the subtitle: "Covering religious belief, non-belief and all things spiritual."
Obviously the word "non-belief" is in regards to religion, but does anyone flinch at the use of that word because it might imply that we believe in nothing at all (which is untrue)?
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
Questions for Atheists: Mixed Atheist/Theist Relationships
December 19, 2007 Holy Toast Stamp
Generally, yes; but in that sentence it's pretty clearly "religious non-belief." (Although someone is sure to bitch and moan that it implies we're religious in our non-belief…)
t3knomanser
I don't believe in anything*. I'm not a big fan of belief in general. I don't believe in gravity or evolution- to describe my relationship with them as "belief" implies some kind of volition, like I have a choice to disbelieve these things.
*I do believe in things, more out of habit than honest volition. I actively try and find beliefs and either confirm them (removing the need for belief) or abandon them. A select few are maintained, but they're esoteric and unprovable matters and I have the good graces to realize what such beliefs are worth- absolutely nothing, and so I mostly keep them to myself.
Gadren
To be honest, no, I didn't even notice anything possibly amiss since you pointed it out. I guess I'm so used to religion sections of newspapers either not covering issues of non-belief (or trying to stick them in some dramatic journalistic tale of "threatening" belief) that I was just happy that someone decided to acknowledge us.
writerdd
No, I often call myself a non-believer.
Richard Wade
There are various meanings to the word "belief" and that can cause confusion or be used deliberately to muddle a person's argument or to discredit their character. The two main popular meanings are belief as the assumption of the truth of something without confirmation as in "I believe in God," or "I believe in Santa Claus" and belief as giving support to a principle or a holding to a commitment such as "I believe in being honest" or "I believe in giving to charity."
So when religious believers try to portray those who do not believe in, say, God as "not believing in anything," they could be technically correct as in my case, because I do not persist in assuming the truth of anything in the absence of convincing evidence. But if their intention is to imply that I have no principles or morals or commitments to social virtues etc. then I have to jump down their throats and call them on that slander. Generally I avoid the use of the term "belief" whenever I can use something like "hold to a principle" or "support a concept" or such.
"Non-belief" or "non-believer" can be used properly in a context where religious belief is being discussed or mentioned as a general term to include anyone who does not subscribe to the religious belief being discussed or in other cases to any religious beliefs at all. That way atheists, humanists, skeptics, agnostics, or just people who don't put much thought into religious beliefs can be included loosely under that category. Of course there are drawbacks to using loose, inclusive terms, and one needs to be precise where precision is warranted.


It was resentment of Danny Fiszman's influence that drove her to leave, according to their source. Which is appropriate, because the one thing this story lacked to this point was a diamond dealer living as a tax exile in Switzerland.
Directors have followed the vision of Danny Fiszman, whose 24.11% stake made him the largest single shareholder in the club until Usmanov built a superior holding.
It was Fiszman's decision to build the Emirates Stadium and to redevelop Highbury as a residential complex. But he now lives as a tax exile in Switzerland and his visits to the club are increasingly infrequent. That stoked frustration in Bracewell-Smith, who controls 15.9% of Arsenal and whose family have owned a stake in the club since before the second world war — her husband's grandfather, Sir Bracewell Smith, served as Arsenal's chairman — because she felt the views of her family were being under-represented.
What does this mean for the future of the club? That she's likely to sell her shares immediately, according to Scott's source, who is also far more skeptical of Stan Kroenke's readiness to buy them than many Arsenal fans have been.
Of course there's no telling who this anonymous source is or what their agenda may be—the quotes suggest someone close to Bracewell-Smith and hostile to Fiszman, but that could be pure affect—so take this with the doubt it clearly warrants. Still, it's the most authoritative statement yet on the meaning of the boardroom drama of the last two days, and it's far more bullish about the prospects of Alisher Usmanov taking over Arsenal than most of the uninformed speculation has been.
UPDATE: The Telegraph have their own more-details version of the story up, and their sources are much less sympathetic to Bracewell-Smith and less bullish about Usmanov's chances. Their version has the board removing Bracewell-Smith, rather than her resigning, and they intriguingly describe the resignation of her brother-in-law Richard Carr's as an arranged move that allowed them to oust her unanimously.
The board had increasingly lost confidence in Bracewell-Smith and, with American businessman Stan Kroenke having accepting an invite to become a non-executive director, there is a feeling that her importance to repelling a possible hostile takeover had diminished.
Danny Fiszman, who owns 24 per cent of the shares, has apparently taken a calculated gamble in the belief that he no longer needs Bracewell-Smith and that Usmanov is currently unlikely to buy.
Both stories agree on a rift between Fiszman and Bracewell-Smith, but the Telegraph portrays her exit as a sign of Fiszman's impatience with her rather than vice-versa. I don't want to read too much into any of this, but the net impression you take from these stories is that Bracewell-Smith may be signalling her willingness to be sounded out by Usmanov, while the rest of the board is trying to prevent a deal between them. That's scrying in tea leaves from this distance, though, and the only real answer is that 24 hours after the news broke, we still don't know much about these upper-floor maneuverings.
Jesus Christ, who the hell else is on the Arsenal board!? Captain Nemo? Ra's Al Ghul? Charles Xavier?
I'd like to see a famous WWI flying ace of some kind, possibly German, possibly Erich von Stroheim in Grand Illusion.
And I think we could use someone in the "wily Texas oilman in an enormous cowboy hat" category.
Now I'm really curious – what's the video?
It's the Simpsons' "Ship of Lost Souls" bit. Homer stranded on the high seas with a contemptible lot of cads, bounders, and tiger-stabbers.
Count this as my revenge for years of trying and failing to listen to BBC audio clips.
I was trying to remember who was in the Simpson's take on the Republican party, and thought maybe Count Chocula was pushing it; but what the hell, might as well throw in some obscure Romanian prince. Also, I'd like to think there's a place for Ettore Majorana and Benjamin Briggs in there as well.


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1827-1910 British William Holman Hunt Galleries Hunt's intended middle name was "Hobman", which he disliked intensely. He chose to call himself Holman when he discovered that his middle name had been misspelled this way after a clerical error at his baptism at the church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Ewell.[1] Though his surname is "Hunt", his fame in later life led to the inclusion of his middle name as part of his surname, in the hyphenated form "Holman-Hunt", by which his children were known. After eventually entering the Royal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected, Hunt rebelled against the influence of its founder Sir Joshua Reynolds. He formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Along with John Everett Millais they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the spiritual qualities of medieval art, in opposition to the alleged rationalism of the Renaissance embodied by Raphael. He had many pupils including Robert Braithwaite Martineau (best known for his work "Last Days in the Old Home") who was a moderately successful painter although he died young. The Hireling Shepherd, 1851Hunt's works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness. He achieved some early note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such as The Hireling Shepherd and The Awakening Conscience. However, it was with his religious paintings that he became famous, initially The Light of the World (now in the chapel at Keble College, Oxford, with a later copy in St Paul's Cathedral), having toured the world. After travelling to the Holy Land in search of accurate topographical and ethnographical material for further religious works, Hunt painted The Scapegoat, The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple and The Shadow of Death, along with many landscapes of the region. Hunt also painted many works based on poems, such as Isabella and The Lady of Shalott. All these paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, their hard vivid colour and their elaborate symbolism. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, according to whom the world itself should be read as a system of visual signs. For Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Out of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career. He eventually had to give up painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not get the level of quality that he wanted. His last major work, The Lady of Shalott, was completed with the help of an assistant (Edward Robert Hughes). Hunt married twice. After a failed engagement to his model Annie Miller, he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure of Isabella. When she died in childbirth in Italy he sculpted her tomb up at Fiesole, having it brought down to the English Cemetery, beside the tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. His second wife, Edith, was Fanny's sister. At this time it was illegal in Britain to marry one's deceased wife's sister, so Hunt was forced to travel abroad to marry her. This led to a serious breach with other family members, notably his former Pre-Raphaelite colleague Thomas Woolner, who had married Fanny and Edith's third sister Alice. Hunt's autobiography Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1905) was written to correct other literature about the origins of the Brotherhood, which in his view did not adequately recognise his own contribution. Many of his late writings are attempts to control the interpretation of his work. In 1905, he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII. At the end of his life he lived in Sonning-on-Thames.
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