Word: borgias
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...Imam of Yemen, who acts like a Borgia Pope, is known to have a minimum of five diseases in various stages of arrested development (rheumatism, heart trouble, bilharziasis, gastritis, syphilis), but this does not prevent him from greedily devouring huge meals consisting of nothing but Russian salad heavily splashed with mayonnaise. The Imam's greatest trouble is psychological: he is under the impression that the British are depriving him of huge oil royalties...
Attempting to lend more dignity to beauty contests-an institution which the church has consistently opposed-the promoters of the Miss Italy contest at Rimini decided to put all entrants through a culture quiz. The results were disastrous. The beauties could not identify Hamlet, Lucrezia Borgia, or even Romulus and Remus (said one: "Greek twins''). None knew the boiling point of water, which in Italy is a simple 100°C. One was unable to name a single Italian wine-her brave try: "Champagne." Without congratulating the winner, Nives Zegna, 19, of Milan, the Vatican's eminent...
...Bandit's Head. The figure on which the friendless Van Gogh fastened with an intensity that had near fatal consequences for them both was Gauguin, who boasted that he was part Spanish Borgia, part savage. When Van Gogh saw Aries on a trip to Southern France in 1888, he told Gauguin that he had found a glaring brilliance and overpowering color to match the tropics Gauguin longed for. Van Gogh dreamed that if Gauguin would only come to Aries, it would be the impressionist center for all painters...
...RENE BORGIA...
...LIFE AND TIMES OF LUCREZIA BORGIA, by Maria Bellonci, made the famous daughter of profligate Pope Alexander VI a more human and attractive woman than the poisoner of legend, but still conveyed the horrors that went on around her and finally drove her to a hair shirt and piety...