Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
The first result when Googling Mussolini and animals immediately tells me that he enjoyed horse riding and had a pet lion cub....--
Shantavira|
feed me 07:30, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Mussolini loved to appear at parades and rallies on horseback for heroic effect. After the
Axis capture of Tobruk in 1942, he ordered a white stallion to be found for his triumphal entry into Alexandria; the
First Battle of El Alamein put paid to that. Perhaps petting lions fall into the same category.
Alansplodge (
talk) 08:02, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
This newsreel] shows Mussolini playing with his lion. Whether he genuinely liked animals or just used them to enhance his own virile image, I can't tell. His famous quote, “It's better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a sheep”, was recently Tweeted by Mr Trump.
[1]Alansplodge (
talk) 16:23, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
To be clear, it was "his" quote in the sense that at some point he quoted it, and a lot of people remembered him saying it. But it was not original with him.
Exactly who said it for the first time I have not been able to find out for certain. Secolo d'Italiaattributes it to
Ignazio Pisciotta, a WWI officer who I gather was just a captain during the war, because they made him a major when they retired him, but somehow retired as a general after being called up again to work in a museum. Il Giornale on the other hand
calls it a "more or less anonymous" saying from the Great War.
And not even that old. I'm trying to find an original text or reference to the "Malta (Constitution) Order in Council 1961"; I know it's SI 1961, vol. III, 4581. And I can find many sources online referring to it. But I have yet, despite browsing multiple gazettes, to find the actual text. It seems crazy that the Brits don't have something from as recent as 1961 online; am I missing something obvious, or am I really out of luck unless I find a hard copy of the 1961 statutory instruments? --
Golbez (
talk) 16:55, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
The National Archives would normally be able to give you a quotation for a copy, but I understand this service has been suspended for the time being. See
here for the catalogue description. As the Order is presumably spent and no longer in effect in the UK there would be no great need to prioritise putting it online.
DuncanHill (
talk) 18:10, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
And its not actually a statute, it's an
Order in Council which is made using powers already granted under existing legislation.
Alansplodge (
talk) 07:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Both those excellent points would explain why it's not online. Per
[2], they have only digitized Orders in Council back to 2000, alas.
70.67.193.176 (
talk) 15:45, 9 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Does anyone know why? Why does the US have every law, including Confederate, passed since the 1700s, but the UK can't even manage that since the 1970s? --04:12, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
Why should we? If a law is no longer in force, what's the point? As pointed out, in the absence of a global pandemic a copy is available. The converse question is why does the USA make "laws" made by
traitors available?
DuncanHill (
talk) 04:21, 10 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
The first result when Googling Mussolini and animals immediately tells me that he enjoyed horse riding and had a pet lion cub....--
Shantavira|
feed me 07:30, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Mussolini loved to appear at parades and rallies on horseback for heroic effect. After the
Axis capture of Tobruk in 1942, he ordered a white stallion to be found for his triumphal entry into Alexandria; the
First Battle of El Alamein put paid to that. Perhaps petting lions fall into the same category.
Alansplodge (
talk) 08:02, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
This newsreel] shows Mussolini playing with his lion. Whether he genuinely liked animals or just used them to enhance his own virile image, I can't tell. His famous quote, “It's better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a sheep”, was recently Tweeted by Mr Trump.
[1]Alansplodge (
talk) 16:23, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
To be clear, it was "his" quote in the sense that at some point he quoted it, and a lot of people remembered him saying it. But it was not original with him.
Exactly who said it for the first time I have not been able to find out for certain. Secolo d'Italiaattributes it to
Ignazio Pisciotta, a WWI officer who I gather was just a captain during the war, because they made him a major when they retired him, but somehow retired as a general after being called up again to work in a museum. Il Giornale on the other hand
calls it a "more or less anonymous" saying from the Great War.
And not even that old. I'm trying to find an original text or reference to the "Malta (Constitution) Order in Council 1961"; I know it's SI 1961, vol. III, 4581. And I can find many sources online referring to it. But I have yet, despite browsing multiple gazettes, to find the actual text. It seems crazy that the Brits don't have something from as recent as 1961 online; am I missing something obvious, or am I really out of luck unless I find a hard copy of the 1961 statutory instruments? --
Golbez (
talk) 16:55, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
The National Archives would normally be able to give you a quotation for a copy, but I understand this service has been suspended for the time being. See
here for the catalogue description. As the Order is presumably spent and no longer in effect in the UK there would be no great need to prioritise putting it online.
DuncanHill (
talk) 18:10, 8 October 2020 (UTC)reply
And its not actually a statute, it's an
Order in Council which is made using powers already granted under existing legislation.
Alansplodge (
talk) 07:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Both those excellent points would explain why it's not online. Per
[2], they have only digitized Orders in Council back to 2000, alas.
70.67.193.176 (
talk) 15:45, 9 October 2020 (UTC)reply
Does anyone know why? Why does the US have every law, including Confederate, passed since the 1700s, but the UK can't even manage that since the 1970s? --04:12, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
Why should we? If a law is no longer in force, what's the point? As pointed out, in the absence of a global pandemic a copy is available. The converse question is why does the USA make "laws" made by
traitors available?
DuncanHill (
talk) 04:21, 10 October 2020 (UTC)reply