Phraselet No. 69

Somerset Maugham once said that the only way to eat well in Britain was to have breakfast three times a day. Not everyone would be so generous. Ironic historians even theorize that Britons conquered a quarter of the world because they were either toughened by their grim diet or in search of a decent meal.

When a Royal Navy ship entertained a captured Agentinean officer to dinner during the Falklands War in 1982, Frank Johnson, the veteran British journalist, saw it as an intelligence operation to undermine enemy morale. They'll think twice about taking on our lads, he wrote, "once they've had six inches of cold British food inside them."

- John O'Sullivan, "The Battle of Britain's Palate," The Wall Street Journal (January 19 - 20, 2008)