Yet sleep is more important than ever to us, because in Britain we don’t have a manufacturing base any more, we are reliant on our creative processes, and for individuals to come up with really novel ideas and decisions they need to enjoy regular, good-quality sleep.
To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.
Most terrorists are Muslim men
Most Muslim men have beards
Most men with beards are terrorists
Let me feed people on brown bread, grain foods, vegetables and plenty of fruit, and I will make the people sober without a single temperance lecture, and without an Act of Parliament. If people will live properly, they will neither have a desire for strong liquor, nor will they take it.
Thomas Allinson
The Way I Live My Life
Sometimes, all you
need is a
very hot shower
Following the first London performance of Messiah, Lord Kinnoul congratulated Handel on the excellent entertainment.
“My Lord,” Handel replied, “I should be sorry if I only entertained them, I wish to make them better.”
It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen’s image upside-down.
It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store.
Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned.
If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter.
In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet.
The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen.
It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing.
It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour.
It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.
In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk.
In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation.
A male doctor in Bahrain can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror.
In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm.
It is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle in Alabama.
In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed.
Women in Vermont must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.
In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except during funerals or hospital visits.
In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon.
Ponti’s idea was simple. He had four suits made: two for winter, two for summer; two of which were formal (for society events) and two casual (for the drawing board and the building site). And though fabrics would alter from season to season, the suits were virtually identical in cut (the workwear jackets had two extra pockets to hold Ponti’s many pens). He was also specific about colour: pale blues, sand and cement grey for summer; black, charcoal grey and blue for winter.
The suit soon became Ponti’s uniform, and he rarely wore anything else.
