This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
[Above: Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter.]
About, oh, 15 years ago, I was writing a column in defense of a local public official, female, who had been photographed topless at a gathering of motorcycle riders — something that often happens in such an atmosphere.
The photo had been reproduced, without her permission or prior knowledge, in one of those motorcycle magazines that sits on the shelf at truck stops, sealed in cellophane. It was a would-be scandal that the respected woman properly survived, and didn't need my help to do so.
But it was a chance for me to use an appropriate witty line from "The Lion in Winter":
"Eleanor of Aquitaine: I even made poor Louis take me on Crusade. How's that for blasphemy. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn ... but the troops were dazzled."
(It's even better if you imagine it spoken by Katherine Hepburn.)
It order to quote the line accurately, I had to walk over to the local public library and hope that it had the script of the play on its shelves. Luckily, it did.
The other day, working on another column about how too many people in modern America carry guns, I wanted to quote another bit of dialog from the same play.
"Prince John: A knife! He's got a knife!
"Eleanor: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians!"
A search for the exact wording took about two seconds, via Google, to the Internet Movie Database.
I love technology.