With concerted effort, I can follow written instructions, but don't ask me to simply grasp how to operate a smartphone.

In truth, my Anglophilia is fundamentally bookish: I yearn for one of those country house libraries, lined on three walls with mahogany bookshelves, their serried splendor interrupted only by enough space to display, above the fireplace, a pair of crossed swords or sculling oars and perhaps a portrait of some great English worthy.

My wife tells me I should check out 'Downton Abbey', but I gather that series might be almost too intense for my temperate nature.

Michael Dirda Quotes