SWEDEN: No Prizes

From Stockholm the following sentence flashed along the cables of the world: "The Board of Directors of the Nobel Fund announces that, for the first time since the initial awards 24 years ago, all five of the annual Nobel Prizes will be withheld for the current year."

To serious thinkers the announcement was saddening. It meant that throughout the realms of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace the year has brought no overwhelming and secure accomplishment. Meanwhile many a semiliterate inquired, "Why do them Swedes spell 'noble' 'n-o-b-e-l'?"; and many a citizen...

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