Censuring Stalin at a public meeting, Nikita Krushchev was interrupted by a voice from the audience. "You were one of Stalin's colleagues," shouted the heckler. "Why didn't you stop him?"

"Who said that?" roared Khrushchev. There was an agonizing silence in the room. Nobody dared to move a muscle. Then, in a quiet voice, Khrushchev said, "Now you know why."

More than welcome

When King George V and Queen Mary visited the Cadbury works, George Cadbury led the way with the queen while his wife walked behind with the king. Cadbury had removed his hat as a mark of respect for royalty. It was, however, very cold, and Queen Mary was concerned lest the old man should get a chill. "Mr. Cadbury, please put on your hat," she said. George Cadbury demurred. "Please, Mr. Cadbury—or I'll ask the king to command you to do so!" Her host still hesitated. Then from behind them came the ringing tones of Elizabeth Cadbury: "George, put your hat on." He did.

The Gallup poll conducted before the presidential election of 1948 wrongly predicted a win for Thomas E. Dewey. Shortly after the announcement of Harry Truman's victory, Gallup was stopped by a policeman for driving down a one-way street in the wrong direction. On reading the name on Gallup's driving license, the policeman grinned broadly and exclaimed, "Wrong again!"

The most celebrated of the works undertaken under Alfonso X King of Castile and León known as Alfonso el Sabio (Alfonso the Wise) under sponsorship was the compilation of the Alfonsine Tables which were published on the day of his accession to the throne and remained the most authoritative planetary tables in existence for the following three centuries. The preparation of the tables was very laborious and was based, of course, upon the Ptolemaic scheme of the universe Alfonso remarked that if God had consulted him during the six days of creation, he would have recommended a less complicated design.

This story was told by composer Lalo Schifrin on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, during an interview with Liane Hansen, September 16, 2007.]
Once I had a meeting with him (Pavarotti), in New York City, in his penthouse. All of a sudden in the middle of the meeting, a young German soprano singer showed up and she was accompanied by a gentleman. Luciano said to me, "Oh, I'm sorry. I have to interrupt this meeting with you because I forgot that I promised to audition her for the Luciano Pavarotti International Competition." So he asked her, pointing to the young man: "is he your pianist?"
"No," she said. "He is my boyfriend."
"Oh, okay. Do you have any music?" asked Luciano. But she didn't have any music and she didn't have a pianist but she wanted to sing some arias. So I said, "I will accompany her."
She was terrible. She was very, very bad. She sang out of tune and she couldn't maintain the voice and so after awhile Luciano said to her, "Come over to my desk."
He had an enormous desk with a big equestrian statue on it. Pointing to the statue, he asked the young woman: "Do you see the details of the muscles of the horse? Do you see all these details?"
"Yes," she said.
"Do you think that the one who made this statue was a good sculptor?"
"Oh, absolutely," she said.
"Well, you know, he had something to start with. He had the marble. I'm sorry to tell you this but you don't have the marble
Listen to the entire Lalo Schifrin interview ...sible' to Jazz."