When I was teaching and couldn't use actual words to express my feelings, I used to say "Oh, swear words!" I regard "Gordon Bennett" as more an expression of exasperation.
He was a real person, but from Scottish stock rather than Irish: "This was a real person, named in full James Gordon Bennett. Confusingly, there were two of them. Mr Bennett the elder was born in Scotland in 1795, emigrated to the US, became a journalist, founded the New York Herald in 1835, and instituted many of the methods of modern journalism. His son of the same name (universally known as Gordon Bennett, to start with probably to distinguish him from his father) was also a good journalist (he sent Stanley to Africa to seek out Livingstone) but preferred the good life, mostly in London and Paris. He spent much of the fortune accumulated by him and his father in promoting air and road racing in England and France and generally being the playboy. There are several surviving pieces of evidence that show the high public profile of Gordon Bennett the younger during his European years, and his impact on sports in particular. He can be said to have started the sport of international motor racing through his sponsorship of the Bennett Trophy races from 1900 to 1905; a trials course in the Isle of Man was named after him. He gave a trophy for long-distance hot-air ballooning in 1906 that started the modern sport (the international Gordon Bennett balloon race still continues). He also gave a cup for powered air racing. So it's perhaps not surprising that his name become well-known, well enough that he should have become a byword, helped by his eccentric and boorish ways (he is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Greatest Engagement Faux Pas" for having his engagement to Caroline May broken off in 1877 after he arrived late and drunk at the May family's New York mansion and urinated in the living room fireplace in front of his hosts)." Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
