The power of dealing with numbers is a kind of "detached lever"
arrangement which may be put into a mighty poor watch. I suppose it is
about as common as the power of moving ears voluntarily, which is a
moderately rare endowment.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
On the night of the tenth of May[1940], at the outset of this mighty
battle I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth
I wielded in ever-growing measure for five years and three months
of world war, at the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered
unconditionally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed
by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs....
