Posted on 04/15/2016 9:37:09 AM PDT by PatrickJames
Stories of Churchill's special relationship with alcohol are legendary. Eleanor Roosevelt, who was his host at the White House during World War II, was astonished "that anyone could smoke so much and drink so much and keep perfectly well."
...
Churchill drank several brands of champagne such as Giesler, Moet et Chandon, and Pommery, but Pol Roger was his clear favorite. Every year on Churchill's birthday, the charming and shrewd Odette Pol Roger sent him a case of champagne. (His other great friend, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, sent him caviar — until they fell out over Churchill's Iron Curtain speech.)
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
“Always remember, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
— Winston Churchill
The drink never came close to intefering.
When you are in the arena as much as Churchill was, there was bound to be some SNAFUs.
Liberals can't resist taking jabs at conservative heroes. In this case it's like a liberal gnat attacking an elephant.
Oops, that is in error. Buckingham Palace has over 700 rooms. Blenheim about 187. It’s the grounds of Blenheim that are bigger than Buckingham Palace...or at least were..I think they sold some off.
Quiz: Would you rather have as a leader, a womanizing, cigar smoking boozehound, or a vegetarian who is also an animal rights champion?
One is Churchill, the other is Hitler.
Hitler was also a teetotaler.
No corn dogs and Twinkies?
At least he would, by his own admission, be sober in the morning ... whereas his critic in that instance would still be ugly.
So what if Churchill drank?
Many an 18th century American was a proverbial, if not literal, boozing, chain smoking, honor obsessed, braggart who possibly didn’t bathe all that regularly ... and they were still much better men, whose company I would prefer, than all these genteel post-modern nitwits we have a surplus population of today.
And Churchill was no savior, just a politician with vision and backbone ... which is rare enough without trying to make more of him than he was....
Did he keep it in a pretty cabinet?
Didn’t know that William Manchester died in 2004. I read American Caesar; amazing how MacArthur led the peaceful occupation of Japan & gave them a new constitution.
Are there any greats among us any more, of the stature of Churchill? Any waiting in the wings, as he did?
I read all three volumes last year as well. I definitely could not have kept up with Winnie's drinking and dinners. I don't think I could have kept up with your fantasy dinner, either; unless it was spaced over a very long time.
By the way, Manchester was a political liberal. But he was able to put aside his biases and write objective bios of conservative great men.
I have read quite a number of Manchester’s books and I agree that while Manchester was a Liberal, he could write a very fair book on his subject matter and would put the good and the bad in it and let you make up your own mind.
His book on Douglas MacArthur was that way.
He picked a friend, author Paul Reid to finish it. Reid said that Manchester died while he was helping him and said one thing that was tough was trying to decipher Manchester's handwritten notes. Reid also says that so many W.W. II documents had been declassified when he came on board he re-researched a lot of stuff before finishing the book.
I spent the whole summer two years ago reading the final volume, I wasn't in a hurry and found I was constantly looking people up mentioned in the book to understand better who they were and how they fit in to the narrative.
Monumental work that was put together very well.
My favourite account by Churchill of his younger cavalry days is of the Afghan/Indian frontier. Unhorsed, he faced a huge berserk Afghan with his calvary sword. The man was waving a whacking great scimitar. Churchill conceded he would have no chance. He calmly reached for his pistol and shot the man twice. The man did not go down, but ran behind a rock. At no time seemingly did Churchill overstate his actions on the frontier.
Eat all that and you’d achieve the nearest male equivalent of pregnancy.
I intended to invite several close friends,
JMHO
FMCDH(BITS)
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