Mannerisms

One of the humbling things about the Americans is their incredible generosity which is very different to anything we see in Europe.

There can’t be anything much more important, or more ambitious, than preserving the intellectual legacy of an entire country. This is what Bill Gates is seeking to do with a programme to assist displaced Iraqi scholars.

It's very good to hear that Pasquale Pistorio, the great former CEO of STMicroeletronics, will be publicly interviewed at the International Electronics Forum in Geneva the week after next.

The loveliest people in the world come from Louisiana. The thought came to me as the lady in the filling station tactfully explained that the Holiday Inn I'd booked was in Lafayette Indiana, not, as I had thought, Lafayette, Louisiana. She found us a nice Hilton down the road.