JB: I wrote a book called the Identity of Man. I never saw the cover of the English edition until the book reached me in print. And yet the artist had understood exactly what was in my mind, by putting on the cover a drawing of the brain and the Mona Lisa, one on top of the other

Jacob Bronowski's Christmas Card
Watergate
- an act of voiding urine:
Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1808

"I'll watch your watergate": that is, "I'll watch for an advantage over you." - Kelly's Collection of Scottish Proverbs, 1721

With what contempt the Scot's defined
The sly betrayal of their kind,
Blasting with prophetic rage
The desecration of the age.

Some elective Pharisee
Having bugged the Christmas tree
Or muzzled them with privilege
Gave their tongue an acid edge.

To fix a synonym for rage
Without benefit of tape,
And assure posterity
No mincing prince will go scot-free.






Source: Listener, 23 December 1973.
The Ascent of Jacob Bronowski

Copyright © 2000 by Stephen Moss. All rights reserved.