Now that Larry Kramer has decided that Lincoln’s first name was Gaybraham, the whole world, apparently, has gone gay.

The year in which so many were observed, large numbers were ichneumoned, many caterpillars having an egg affixed to the head.

When Peter Stuyvesant became director-general of New Netherlands in 1647 by appointment of the Dutch West India Company, he resided on his farm, or bowery, which name the place retains to this day, though the scent of roses has long since left it. Later this same bowerland was the center of fashion, the Bowery Street a popular driveway, wealth and gaiety crowding its borders while yet the Broadway was a country road winding among humble farms and odorous stockyards.

The Ardent Spirit pupils now belong to him alone and through them he’ll set his plans in motion, moulding them to be warrior saints, brilliant in deceit against the West and its sympathisers here at home.