188. The feuilletoniste

He wrote numerous brief sketches for The New Yorker infused with a sense of ridicule, irony, and wryness, frequently using his own misadventures as their theme. He chose to describe these pieces as feuilletons — a French literary term meaning "little leaves" — and he defined himself as a feuilletoniste.

A typical example is his 1950s work, "No Starch in the Dhoti, S'il Vous Plait." where he composes a series of imaginary letters that might have been exchanged between an angry Pandit Nehru in India and a sly Parisian laundryman about the condition of his laundered underwear.

He was incidentally enough, indirectly responsible for the success of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. When first published, this novel received lukewarm reviews and indifferent sales. A few months later, in an interview for a national publication he was asked if he had read anything funny lately, whereupon he went to considerable lengths to recommend Catch-22. After the interview was published, sales of Heller's novel skyrocketed.

Who?

187. True Humility....

A George Du Maurier cartoon from Punch, titled “True Humility”.





What phrase in the English language did this inspire?

186. From Diu with Love.....

In early 1514, Afonso de Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese India, sent ambassadors to Sultan Muzafar II, ruler of Cambay (modern day Gujarat), to seek permission to build a fort on the island of Diu. The mission returned without an agreement, but certain diplomatic gifts were exchanged on the occasion…

De Albuquerque decided to forward one of these gifts to King Manuel I of Portugal, and on reaching Portugal,it caused a sensation of sorts. Some people remarked “it was as if a piece of classical antiquity which had been rediscovered, like a statue or an inscription….”

News and descriptions of this "gift" reached Nuremberg through multiple routes and inspired a creation which still exerts a profound influence in the artisitic world.

So what resulted?

185. First Blood....

Excerpt from Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest:

"What have you been doing?" she demanded as we carried our drinks into the dining room. "You look ghastly."

I put my glass on the table, sat down facing it, and complained:

"This damned burg's getting me. If I don't get away soon I'll be going ______ _____ like the natives. There's been what? A dozen and a half murders since I've been here. Donald Willsson; Ike Bush; the four wops and the dick at Cedar Hill; Jerry; Lew Yard; Dutch Jake, Blackie Whalen and Put Collings at the Silver Arrow; Big Nick, the copper I potted; the blond kid Whisper dropped here; Yakima Shorty, old Elihu's prowler; and now Noonan. That's sixteen of them in less than a week, and more coming up."

She frowned at me and said sharply:

"Don't look like that."

Fill in the blanks to obtain a duo's maiden attempt.....