It's the birthday of American writer Thomas Mallon (1951), whose books of historical fiction, like Watergate (2012) and Finale (2015), examine American politics and culture through the lens of the American presidency. Mallon once joked, “I seem to only want to see presidents at the lowest points in their fortunes.”
The remark "let them eat cake" puzzled me for years. As a kid I thought "what's wrong with that? Hungry people would love to eat cake, wouldn't they?" Turns out that the word "cake" in those days referred to food residue scraped from the insides of cooking pots - like the baked-on stuff left at the bottom of your skillet after you, say, fry eggs. Palace kitchen workers used to throw "cake" through the gates of Versailles to the hungry gathered outside hoping for scraps. Regardless of who said it, the saying expresses a cruel attitude toward the poorest among us.
The remark "let them eat cake" puzzled me for years. As a kid I thought "what's wrong with that? Hungry people would love to eat cake, wouldn't they?" Turns out that the word "cake" in those days referred to food residue scraped from the insides of cooking pots - like the baked-on stuff left at the bottom of your skillet after you, say, fry eggs. Palace kitchen workers used to throw "cake" through the gates of Versailles to the hungry gathered outside hoping for scraps. Regardless of who said it, the saying expresses a cruel attitude toward the poorest among us.
Garrison,
Louis XVI was 5 generations removed from his great, great; great grandfather the mighty Louis XIV, the Sun King,