That quote from Belloc that Bill Buckley deployed to such effect in the

11/7/05 NRODT comes, I am told, from Belloc’s “Survivals and New

Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church” (1929). None

of my informants gave me a page number, but that definitely seems to be

the book.

And while I’m housekeeping:

—My anthropological query of yesterday, about cultures in which

married couples sleep separately, got a lot of responses but not much of

substance. People in polygamous cultures do it, for reasons that seem

to me obvious. Devout Jews do it for several days a month, in

conformity with ritual prohibitions. Spanish Aristocrats, and some of

their South American cultural descendants, do it. And no, sorry,

“Clintons” is not the name of a culture.

—I asked about Slim Pickens in the movie “Dr. Strangelove” saying:

“I’ll get those bomb doors open if it harelips everybody in Bear Creek.”

Well, this is authentic Americana. The most popular form actually seems

to be: “…if it harelips the Governor.” A close runner-up is: “…if

it harelips the Pope.” I am trying to find some opportunity to use this

locution; though how it will go over on Long Island, I am not sure.