I wol nat tellen / of hir strange sewes / Ne of hir swannes / nor of hire heronsewes […].

In mid-1936, the steel plant's deputy director, Khazanov, revealed that according to factory administration data there were 3,663 Stackhanovites at the steel plant, but according to the records of the trade union committee, there were 4,441. “In our shops,” he commented, “there are insufficiently precise criteria for determining Stakhanovites.”

With a resolve to get his son away from these monsters, Isaac knuckled up and mean-mugged his opponent.

An illiterate fool sits in a mans seat; and the common people hold him learned, grave, and wise.