Ben Lewis

“There were jokes under fascism and the Nazis too, but those systems did not create an absurd, laugh-a-minute reality like communism.”
― Ben Lewis, Hammer & Tickle: A History of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes

“In 1515 a mechanical lion designed by Leonardo was the star attraction in a pageant for the young French king Francis I. Another Leonardo biographer, Gian Paolo Lomazzo, tells how the lion “moved from its place in the hall and when it came to a halt its breast opened, and was full of lilies and other flowers.”*4 The lion was a symbol of Florence, the lilies a symbol of the French monarchy, so the ensemble represented the new alliance between the two powers.”
― Ben Lewis, The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting