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Diva / Mensch pair for May 11, 2022

Gertrude Stein's cook Hélène was a real diva, it seems. Here's an excerpt from *The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas* about how she expressed her contempt for Henri Matisse:


“She (Hélène) said a Frenchman should not stay unexpectedly to a meal, particularly if he asked the servant beforehand what there was for dinner, She said foreigners had a perfect right to do these things but not a Frenchman, and Matisse had once done it. So when Miss Stein once said to her, 'Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening' she would say, 'In that case I will not make an omelette but fry the eggs. It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter but it shows less respect, and he will understand.' "


Diva: omelette

Mensch: fried eggs




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