Word: dodgson
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was one of the busiest mathematical dons Oxford had ever known, but he was much too cranky to want to be well known. Letters addressed to him under his pen name...
...these testy quirks Parson Dodgson added a formidable string of prejudices, e.g., against ill-natured satire, preaching sermons, "bandying small talk with dull people," "jesting and flippancy on sacred topics," negligence on the part of college servants. He wrote dozens of indignant letters to the newspapers-once, at least, under the surprising pseudonym of "Dynamite." A staunch Tory, he liked nothing better than to lie awake making corrosive anagrams on the detested name of Liberal William Ewart Gladstone, e.g., "Wild agitator! Means well...
...make sure that his fellow dons got their money's worth-and no more-he invented a series of gauges by which to measure their drinks. All a man had to do was to hold a Dodgson gauge up to his glass and say "When" as the wine or liqueur reached a certain mark. Since liqueur prices varied, there were gauges for everything from green chartreuse to dry curaçao, with a special scale and price list for each...
Take It Back. Being only human, Dodgson did make a mistake or two. Once, after a series of mathematical calculations, he boosted a cellar temperature from 50° to 60°, only to find that his claret began ripening far ahead of schedule and that it was all Christ Church men could do to drink it up in time. But otherwise, Mr. Dodgson was a paragon of scrupulous management, and once when a local merchant tried to ingratiate himself by sending a Christmas gift of fruit, he huffily sent it back. "Mr. Dodgson would have thought it hardly necessary...
Such missives, of course, were typical of the Rev. Mr. Dodgson. But it was undoubtedly Mr. Lewis Carroll who had the final word about the life of a curator Surely," he wrote one day, "any curator worthy of the name would be found if physically tested, to possess a density directly and a gravity inversely varying as the potency of port; if tested anatomically, to have the word 'wine' neatly emblazoned on his heart; and if finally submitted to quantitative analysis, to consist primarily of C4H602," which, in early 19th century chemistry, spells alcohol...