A. P. (Alan Patrick) Herbert, wag, Senior Member of Parliament for Oxford University and Britain's most whimsical reformer, has embarked on a new crusade.* Bedridden with a bad foot late last year, Herbert did not count wallpaper patterns but renamed the stars. He found their old names "queer, unworthy and inept." He has renamed some 300 stars, for a starter.
Herbert disclaims any intention of being "narrowly and offensively British." But the Great Bear (which Americans "flippantly but sensibly call the Dipper") becomes Great Britain; its stars: Shakespeare, Caxton, Pitt, Johnson, Wren, Reynolds...
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