Storm in a coffee cup
QUESTION Did Hitler and Stalin once live on the same street?
While they did not live on the same street, hitler and Stalin lived in Vienna, Austria, in 1913, and could have come into contact in the famous Cafe Central.
They were not the only famous residents. Russian revolutionary leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito (later Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia) and psychologist Sigmund Freud also lived in the central city of the crumbling Austro-hungarian empire.
in 1913, hitler, aged 24, having twice been rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, was scraping a living selling his paintings on the city’s streets. he lived in a men’s dosshouse in the 20th district.
At the same time, Trotsky lived in the 19th district. he worked as a journalist, reporting on the Balkan wars and publishing the Vienna edition of Pravda.
he had fled Russia after the 1905 revolution was crushed. in Vienna he had good contacts with the local Social Democratic Party and was a regular at the Cafe Central.
in January 1913, Stalin visited Trotsky in Vienna and stayed a month in the city. he had been sent there by lenin to research how Marxism could be imposed on the multi-ethnic habsburg empire. The house has a commemorative plaque, financed by the Austrian Communist Party in 1949.
Trotsky recalled his first encounter with the man who was to have him murdered in Mexico in 1940: ‘i was sitting at the table, when the door opened and an unknown man entered, short . . . thin . . . his greyish-brown skin covered in pockmarks...i saw nothing in his eyes that resembled friendliness.’
hitler and Trotsky frequented the Cafe Central, so it’s conceivable that in January 1913, hitler, Stalin and Trotsky were enjoying coffee at the same time.
Josip Broz Tito, a machinist and test driver, had become active in the local labour movement, but left Vienna in autumn 1913 when Austria was conscripting young men to the army. he returned to Zagreb to join the army there.
hitler inherited some money, dodged the draft and fled to Munich. Freud lived in Vienna for 47 years and it was at his famous address, Berggasse 19, now the site of the Freud Museum, where he produced most of his writings.
emperor Franz Joseph lived in the hofburg palace while his nephew and heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, lived nearby in the Upper Belvedere Palace.
Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo in June 1914 would trigger the chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War i. Thomas J. Lewis, Southampton.
QUESTION What is the bestselling recipe book of all time?
WiTh more than 20 million book sales to her name, Delia Smith, champion of back-to-basics cookery skills and traditional ingredients, is the UK’s bestselling cookery author.
She is so influential that utensils and products that appear on her TV shows can sell out overnight.
her how To Cook and Delia’s Christmas have sold two million copes apiece.
however, these book sales pale in comparison with those of the U.S. favourite, Better homes And Gardens New Cook Book.
First published in 1930, practically every home in the country has a copy of this ring-bound cookbook with a red-andwhite plaid cover. Now in its 15th edition, it is thought to have sold in the region of 40 million copies.
it is considered the perfect primer, with cooking tips, measurement conversion and reliable recipes.
Running a close second is the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book. When published by the fictional Betty Crocker (a U.S. food brand) in 1950, it was America’s fastest-selling book, shifting two million copies and briefly overtaking the Bible.
The success of this cookery book was due to its photography, easy and inexpensive recipes and practical tips. Now in its 11th edition, it has sold more than 30 million copies.
Mrs K. Russell, Codsall, Staffs.
QUESTION Why did Hillary Clinton accuse Macedonia of influencing the 2016 U.S. election result?
iT’S become something of a parlour game — adding culprits to hillary Clinton’s blame list for her election loss.
Most are cited in her book What happened. Thus far, there have been 41 named culprits.
These include Donald Trump; Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic party presidential nomination; the Russians; James Comey, the then director of the FBi; the electoral College system; white women; misogynists; NBC anchor Matt lauer and the Far Right Breitbart News Network. her own name is conspicuously absent.
During her 2017 appearance at CodeCon, a computer networking conference in California, hillary surprised everyone when she also blamed Macedonian hackers.
She said: ‘Y’know there’s all these stories about, y’know, guys over in Macedonia who are running these fake news sites, and, y’know, i’ve seen them now, and you sit there and it looks like, y’know, sort of low-level CNN operation, or a fake newspaper.’
There might be a modicum of truth in her assertions, though hardly enough to sway an election.
in the final weeks of the U.S. presidential election, Veles, a Macedonian town of 55,000, was the registered home of more than 100 pro-Trump websites, many of them filled with fake news.
hillary’s imminent criminal indictment was a popular theme; another was the Pope’s approval of Trump. Young Macedonian entrepreneurs were using website traffic to make money through automated advertising engines. Gary Thomas, Hebden Bridge, W. Yorks.
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