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IP: The World According to Dukie the Twit
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 01:32:01 -0500
From: "Janos G." <janos451 () earthlink net> Lord Marmaduke Hussey, according to Jennifer Selway's feature in the Daily Express today, doesn't like being regarded as upper class. He is a toff-by-marriage, he will tell you, adding "I don't mind being called a twit, though. I rather like that." Dukey is in the news because of the publication of his autobiography, "Chance Governs All." The man - who later became head of the Times corporation and came as close to breaking the unions as it's possible in England, and then spent 10 years as head of the BBC, driving it into the ground - lost a leg and nearly his life at Anzio in 1944, at age 21. He was greatly amused when told that journalists covering the 50th anniversary of Dunkirk were so exhausted they required counselling. PD James asked him if there was counselling at the beaches of Anzio. "I just thought it was hilarious." Hussey speaks of John Birt, whom he appointed BBC director general in 1993, as a "man handicapped by having a massive inferiority complex and a massive superiority complex. Also those terrible suits. I had always thought Armani was some sort of perfume." Of having lunch with the late Robert Maxwell: "He was trying to woo us with his legendary charm, which I'm bound to say I didn't see. He was a bad man. I don't think he had any redeeming features." Of a dinner with Mrs. Thatcher: "She didn't drink though she loves whisky, as do I. I think she was rather sexy, but not to me; though I can see why men were attracted to her [apparently Hussey didn't mean men voters]. She had quite a sense of humour, but also an astonishing sense of duty, amazing powers of concentration and beautiful manners. Handwritten thank you letters, that sort of thing." The best bit: his use of a word that's new to me (and, sitting on a plane between Godthab and Kuujjuaq, I can't look it up) - he speaks of being shot in the war: "I never missed cricket and rugby much. The leg was orf and you can't put it back on again, so that was that." The only orf I know is with two f's. Must be an abbreviation. More WWII news from the UK: the entire underground government complex where Churchill ran the war from, a bunker complex under Whitehall for 2,000 people, will be restored and opened to the public in 2003. A Times comment: "If Blair seems more exhaused after two months of war than Churchill ever appeared, that may be because the modern Prime Minister must fight a public war, under permanent scrutiny, on a stage rather than in a bunker. Churchill could spend days, personally crafting and honing a single speeach, a luxury denied his modern counterpart." A grand sidebar to the story: about Ruth Ive, now 84 and then 22, a telephone operator whose job was to cut the single trans-Atlantic line used by Churchill and FDR whenever they wandered into dangerous topics German intelligence could use if they tapped the line*. Apparently, Churchill's liquid refreshments did not promote the clarity of his speech. "One day Mrs Ive found herself puzzling over a reference to someone called `Jughay.' `He was actually referring to UJ - Uncle Joe, Stalin - and I probably should have boken the line, but by the time worked out what he was saying it was too late." * They did. Daily transcripts went right to Hitler. PS: The Times has no copy editors left either. The story has five references to "Ive" and a four to "Ives." Sigh. =============== Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org janos451 () earthlink net
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- IP: The World According to Dukie the Twit David Farber (Nov 23)