Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Two History Blurbs

Presented here together simply because I came across them both today.

  • AP is reporting (via Huffington Post) that the file maintained by UK intelligence agency MI5 on author George Orwell was declassified today. It shows that while local police had their suspicions that the man who penned Animal Farm might be a subversive, MI5 wasn't concerned. One of the things that tipped off the locals was Orwell's habit of "dress[ing] in a bohemian fashion both at his office and in his leisure hours." Heaven forbid anybody try to determine my political views via my sartorial choices!
  • Meanwhile, a blog from Examiner.com has an interesting nugget of info about Jeffrey Toobin's forthcoming Supreme Court book, The Nine. According to Toobin, Justice David Souter was so shaken by the whole Bush v. Gore fiasco that he almost quit the Court right after. He remained "[a]t the urging of a handful of close friends."

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