Говори и пиши как The Eсonomist

In 1922 Archduke Otto von Habsburg, son of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor became the head of the House of Habsburg: "Your Majesty" to legitimists, and by the Grace of God "Emperor of Austria; King of Hun­gary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria; King of Jerusalem, etc; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bu- kowina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, Auschwitz and Zator, Te- schen, Friaul, Dubrovnik and Zadar; Princely Count of Habsburg and Ty­rol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Mar­grave of Upper and Lower Lusatia". His other titles were more minor.

With the war over, Seward found the time to devote to expansion­ism. He not only arranged to buy Alaska for $7.2m in gold — one senator declared his support for the treaty on the condition "that the secretary of state be compelled to live there"— but he also be­gan planning for the acquisition of Hawaii and the construction of the Panama canal, both of which later came to pass. He also wanted to buy British Columbia, which would have connected the rest of America to Alaska, but "British honour" kicked in, among other factors, and he failed.

The great fear of every political leader is events, especially unexpected ones, and especially unexpected ones that are beyond the power of poli­ticians to control.

An iron law of politics holds that at times of political unravelling the fixer becomes the scapegoat and the planter of stories turns into the story itself.

Inside were the contents of President Lincoln's pockets on the night he was assassinated. Two pairs of spectacles; a lens polisher; a pocket knife; the fob of a watch; a leather wallet; a linen handkerchief; and nine news­paper clippings admiring of the president's policies.

Being a President is like riding a tiger — a man has to keep on rid­ing or being swallowed.

The after-life for a prime minister is a particularly empty one.

Ronald Reagan famously said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

While in opposition, Mr Cameron invited the Swede to his house for sup­per. I bicycle home, so may be late, he warned Mr Reinfeldt. Great, replied the Swedish prime minister, I'll grab a pint at a pub near your house.

Azhar Usman, a stand-up comic, says he is a "very patriotic" American Muslim. "I would die for this country," he declares. Af­ter a pause, he adds: "By blowing myself up." After another pause: "Inside of a Dunkin' Donuts."

Bush blamed the Iraqis for their inability to accept America's gift of freedom.

In Congo the government spent more than $500m on elections last year, making them the world's most costly after America's. High rates of illiteracy and a lack of capable institutions do not help. In Sierra Leone's border regions, officials judge who should get a voting card by listening to people's accents.

Tens of thousands of Puritans, who were religiously akin to the Pil­grims, reached America in the 1630s and 1640s, clustering in Massachu­setts Bay and Connecticut. The Indians were squeezed into ever smaller spaces as the English convinced them to sell their land. Dartmouth, Mr Philbrick reports, went for "30 yards of cloth, eight moose skins, 15 axes, 15 hoes, 15 pairs of shoes, one iron pot, and ten shillings' worth of as­sorted goods".

An Icarus-like government career: a shimmering rise and cut short by incaution.

Ben Bradlee was the 52nd male Bradlee to study at Harvard since 1795.

One of the best things about being a government is that nobody audits your accounts.

Toowoomba today — the rest of the world tomorrow?

"Give me a balcony and I will become president," said Jose Maria Velasco, Ecuador's most prominent populist, who was five times elected president and four times overthrown by the army.

Now that "nigger" (which he calls the N-word) has become taboo in polite society, what happens to Niggerhead Point? The author notes in passing that this cape on Lake Ontario was thus named because it was a point on the laudable underground railroad that helped thousands of escaped slaves to freedom in Canada. That interesting historical association sur­vives in the first name change, to Negrohead Point (which remains on federal maps). But to call it merely Graves Point (as New York state maps do) seems a pity. "Nigger" and "Jap" are now banned on American maps, though a Dago Gulch survives in western Montana. More puzzling to the non-American is the onslaught on the use of "Squaw", which accord­ing to some activists (though not philologists) is not an innocent word for a Native American woman, but a derogatory term for her vagina. So Squaw Peak is now set to be renamed after Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman in the American army to be killed in combat.