'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'I hate with a murderous hatred those men who, having lived their youth, would send into war other youth, not lived, unfulfilled, to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.'

–  Quote attributed to one Mary Roberts Rinehart (right), at, of all places, as a tag line of a page on a what-does-this-word-mean website. Further digging found that Rinehart, a Pennsylvania-born author who lived from 1876 to 1958, was so well known as a mystery writer that some called her "the American Agatha Christie." Among Rinehart's contributions to popular culture? A character that inspired another writer to create Batman, as well as a catchphrase venerated in mystery lore:

'The butler did it.'

On October 4

On this day in ...
... 1883, a train of wagons-lits and other cars adorned with "intricate wooden paneling, deluxe leather armchairs, silk sheets and wool blankets for the beds" departed Paris en route to Constantinople, marking the 1st journey of the Orient Express. The journey to the city now known as Istanbul took about 80 hours, not long at all for passengers who reveled in the train's cachet, luxury on wheels. (credit for circa 1883 image of Orient Express dining car) It was a favorite as well of practitioners of espionage, so much that it was called the "Spies Express" -- a fact that inspired a Christie novel as well as Hitchcock and Bond movies. And as detailed in a Smithsonian article, certain wagons played key roles in World Wars I and II.

(Prior October 4 posts are here, here, here, and here.)