Historie/kuriosa-nettstedet Futility Closet har en fin anekdote om å skryte på seg historiekunnskaper: Samuel Johnson used to boast that his memory was so prodigious that he could recite an entire chapter of Niels Horrebow’s 1758 Natural History of Iceland. When challenged he would declaim: «Chap. LXXII. Concerning Snakes There are no snakes to be met …