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unearths some literary gems.
From The Barmecide's Feast, by John Gore:
[Barmecide: "One who offers imaginary food or illusory benefits." --OED. It seems maybe to derive from an Arabian Nights tale.]***She was a leader of the artistic set, who call one another by their Christian names the first time they meet, and usually correspond on future occasions only through their solicitors.***[Some offstage character names]Lady MountgloomsburyLady Heliotrope LacklandMr. Selanger Slap-Cabbage ("he spelt it to her")[And one corporation]The Patent Banana Peeling Capsule Company, Ltd.[There's also an episode in which someone loses his job in a government ministry because he unconsciously drafted an important official document in such as way that the prose could be read as rhymed verse.][More snippets, and one stand-out illustration, attached. Snippet 02 is from a scene in which society-page editors are shown using Mad-Libs-style templates to plug in whichever gentry they want to repay for buying subscriptions. (And when it comes to describing the featured ladies' outfits, the editors just make stuff up from, as it were, whole cloth.)]
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