A historian writes with the following tidbit: that the Birch Society once had a bumper sticker reading, “Nero Fiddled, Ike Golfs.” By the way, I wonder who was better: Nero as a fiddler or Ike as a golfer.
Along those lines: Yesterday, I had lunch with a distinguished writer, and he informed me — I hadn’t known it — that he is a painter. I said, “Like Churchill,” while thinking, “Like Hitler, too.” And the writer said, immediately, “And like Hitler.”
Ah, well. (We don’t hold Hitler against vegetarianism or support for animal rights, and we don’t hold Hitler against painting, either. Saints paint, demons paint. Saints love carrots, demons love carrots . . .)