Deathbed Dreams

There are quite a few nice deathbed stories, but I really connect with this one, related by Theodore Dalrymple in The Telegraph:

The Rev Thomas Dibdin tells the story in his book The Bibliomania, or Book-Madness: History, Symptoms and Cure of this Fatal Disease (first edition 1809, 87 pages; second edition 1811, 782 pages) of a bibliomaniac who, on his deathbed, excitedly sent out for books from the catalogue of a bookseller, his obsession keeping him happy until the very moment of his death.

No more lunatics

In a rare show of bipartisanship and civic responsibility, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to remove the term lunatic from American federal legislation. The vote was 398 to 1. The person who voted against the bill was from Texas, and he said, according to the BBC, and I must say, not altogether unreasonably:

"Not only should we not eliminate the word 'lunatic' from federal law when the most pressing issue of the day is saving our country from bankruptcy. We should use the word to describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in Washington."

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