The wording of diplomatic agreements and protocols is often deliberately designed either to soothe ruffled feathers — while pursuing an otherwise ruthless course — or to give assurance in sufficiently vague form that the vaguery might afterwards be exploited to diminish the effect of the assurances.

The upper part thereof was whey, / The nether orange, mixt with grey.

Can you believe that Knopf akshully is publishing a book/screenplay on Walter Winchell, the gossiper of the 1930s? They are.

The smith can take a hunk of metal and hammer it out to the desired shape. He can see the result of every hammer stroke. He knows before the job is finished whether the skull cracker, the skean dhu or stingaree is going to serve its purpose in a private or public bickering, or merely is a piece of scrap to be hidden in the clinkers, cinders and junk pile back of the forge or under the bellows.