Potemkin’s Bet

I recently picked up a copy of George Soloveytchik's biography of the eighteenth-century Russian statesman Grigory Potemkin at my local used bookstore (Maxwell's House of Books in La Mesa). Potemkin was fantastically rich, one-eyed, and the lover of Catherine the Great. (Wikipedia link). But he was also more eccentric than I ever realized. For instance, he sometimes received official visitors wearing an old dressing gown and no pants. This anecdote also caught my eye:

He could be vulgar and cynical beyond belief. One day he was passing through his dressing room with two important courtiers who stopped to admire his famous silver bath. "If you can excrete enough to fill it," said Potemkin to one of them, "I will give it to you." The courtier turned to his companion, who was notorious for his voracity, and said: "How about attempting this business on a fifty-fifty basis?"

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Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over forty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. Contact Us

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 03, 2012
Category: Politics | Scatology | Excrement | Eighteenth Century

Comments

Hey, hey, what happens across state lines stays across state lines! :lol:

Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 01/03/12 at 08:40 PM

@BD: Pray tell, just how are we to do any meaningful flirting with Patty if we know you're lurking in the background? BTW, do you own any guns? ( :down: Sorry, stupid question... You're in the Midwest.)

REF: Potemkin, why would the guy think someone would want a silver bath full of questionable liquid? Just askin'.

Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 01/03/12 at 10:47 PM

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