Cultural Cracks.

One cannot but envy and admire people who can nonchalantly quote such cultural cracks as the population of Pernambuco, the weight of Carnera with, and without, socks, the number of legs owned by a centipede, the inventor of Wellington boots, the girth of the earth measured in postage stamps, and “Lincoln on Liberty” in the original American. One wonders why such people do not become professors instead of bores. But the strange thing about professors is that they forget entirely without effort. Whether they are subsidised by the funny papers to do so is a mute point. But it requires genius to forget so thoroughly that you can eat your hat in a restaurant and go out wearing a pie. Forgetfulness which enables you to chain up the baby and put the dog to bed borders on the sublime. It is the final victory of mind over what doesn't matter.