It's hard to evaluate Bismarck properly. He was blessed with incompetent diplomatic contemporaries and with enough insight to know the full range of their incompetence. Unlike Frederick, though, who had something of the same gift, Bismarck realized that, if you pile up twenty badly led armies against you, they are able to start doing things bordering on harmful. So, he tended to limit the scope of his engagements whereas Frederick generally charged ahead blindly to get whatever he thought belonged to him.

And now your Donnie Murphy update:

Tuesday night the aura of Donnie Murphy cured two lepers in the audience as he went 1 for 2 with a solo home run and a walk. Asked about the miracle, he responded, "It was not I, but Baseball acting through me," and an awed hush followed.

- Count Dolby von Luckner