A friend tells me that he has discovered a Dublin dentist who has brought one spark of humanity into his profession. In place of the array of out-of-date journals which one usually finds in professional waiting rooms, he provides works of a more entertaining nature. Amongst these is a scrap book of "howlers." From this book my friend learnt that Wellington was the hero of Trafalgar, "but he died and was given a great funeral. It took eight men to carry the beer." I have always considered that the best "howler" is that about the prospective "middy" who told, at a viva-voce examination, that Salome was a woman who took off all her clothes and danced in front of Harrods. Unsilenced, he continued: "They took her to an upper room, whence they flung her through a window, and afterwards picked up seven basketfulls of the remains." Two of the examiners were inclined to "spin" the candidate, but the third, who was, I understand, a chaplain, with power to decide the matter it being of a religious nature ruled that the lad had shown an unbiased knowledge of the Scriptures.
The Irish Times, October 28th, 1930.