Otherwise, whenever we woke up to a skiff of fresh snow in the garden, maybe a couple of times in a winter, we would run outside to make snowmen and snow forts, feeling alive in the cool snowy air.

Pleaseth you, pond your suppliant's plaint.

It's also possible that this Dennis is based on the real-life Labour firebrand, Denis Healey (b. 1917), the shadow of Chancellor of the Exchequer 1972-1974. In the run-up to the 1974 general election, Healey was particularly on point, promising that when Labour took back the government ten days later (Febrary 28), he'd “squeeze property speculators until the pips squeak,” as well as “wring the neck of the Housing Finance Act.”

Before my family left for Rome, I did the math. Over 11 days, with a lunch and a light dinner, each of us could taste approximately 55 dishes.