196

196. LONDON ON FOOT. Whitechapel. An interesting street layout, but the best part is the pun: “cote” is the French word for “side”. Look both ways is good advice for a North American in London. Suffering the same situation, Winston Churchill was run down on 5th Avenue on a visit to New York in 1931: Used to traffic that keeps to the left, Churchill looked to his right, saw no one coming and kept walking. A car driven by an unemployed mechanic named Mario Contasino, dragged Churchill several yards and flung him into the street. Apparently what saved him was the heavy overcoat he was wearing. He was in town to give a lecture called “The Pathway of the English-Speaking Peoples” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and to visit his buddy Bernard Baruch.