“But severe myopia meant that he could never be any sort of shot: he was Shakespeare’s creeping fowler in a rather dismal sense. Molly, who was a terrific tomboy and capable sports woman, once resoundingly announced when they got home, William’s bag today was a keeper, a cow and an owl. Though a tease it might have stung him rather sharply in such a settled county family. (On occasion, Molly, for want of anything better to do, would go off and take potshots at rats in the stables: a latterday Annie Oakley.) Likewise, the family retainer remembers to this day that William couldn’t hit a pig in a passage! He would love to have been a good shot, he told his sister in law Monica; so he must have been less than equal to his family’s expectations. Yet Margery Atcherley recalls that all of the Empsons tended to be slap dash, and bull bad at holding the line. “William once almost shot my husband.” (

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It is now well established that decreasing the intake of dairy products helps reduce serum cholesterol levels. In a recent prospective study conducted in Spain reducing dairy product intake also led to the reduction …