Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The Churchill Series – Nov. 4, 2008

(One of a series of weekday posts about the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

The following is from a recent column in a Canadian newspaper:

On [one] occasion, Churchill commented, "The Almighty in his infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen."

In Parliament, after a Member of Parliament rambled on for some time against his wartime policies, the prime minister interrupted him. Speaking of the MP, Churchill said: "I must warn him that he runs a very grave risk of falling into senility before he is overtaken by age."

Then there was Churchill's comment about civil servants -- "no longer servants, no longer civil."
The entire column’s here.

Caution: The columnist uses that above quips and one other as reference points for a thoughtful discussion of the pernicious PC attitudes and regulations that now afflict Canada as they do the States.

The other quip is the one alleges a woman told Churchill he’s drunk; he allegedly replies “Yes, and your ugly” and then reminds her on the morrow he’ll be sober but she’ll still be ugly.

I first heard that story attributed to G.B. Shaw.

I can’t recall Churchill’s official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert ever confirming Churchill was the man in the “drunk-ugly.”

If any of you know where Gilbert did, please let me know.

In the meantime, I have it filed under “Urban Legends.”

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