McGrath: Indeed, I have inscribed that quotation in my book of Browning's poems. However, FWIW, the original (Hans Johst, 1934) was "Wenn ich Kultur höre...entsichere ich meinen Browning". That makes it unlikely that a pun was intended. I suspect that whoever made up the English version changed "release the safety catch on" to "reach for" to avoid wordiness (English not being blessed with a single word for that action), and changed "Browning" to "revolver" precisely to avoid a distracting suggestion that a Nazi would regard Robert Browning as the epitome of culture. (People who know about such things have informed me that revolvers seldom have safety catches and Browning never made revolvers, so it is a very free translation.)

--- Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net

||: One compass points north. Two compasses point at each other. :||