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History in my hands

The Capricorn expedition of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1951-52 was notable for many things, among them the presence on board of Ron Mason, later the discoverer of the oceanic magnetic stripes, and Helen Raitt, the first woman to take part in an extended US oceanographic cruise. After it was over, Helen wrote a book about the cruise, and sent Ron a copy.

The Abbaye after Jeanne

Among the residents at the Abbaye aux Bois when Rose de Freycinet’s mother was there was the famous (or perhaps infamous) socialite, Juliette Récamier. She was still there when, many years later, she was visited by Anthony Trollope’s mother.

The professor in Car 14

As, in Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand approached the end of her prowl along the corridors of the doomed Taggart Comet, she encountered, in Bedroom A, Car No. 14, yet another professor, a class of people for whom she had a very special contempt.