Quotable quotes

Some thoughts from the OED and its files on

Weather-driven politics...
1909 Daily Chron. 24 Feb., South Africa also tilts to the east in summer and to the west in winter. This is probably traceable to the seasonal rainfall.

...mad dogs and Englishmen...
1906 Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis., Pseudo-Rabies. Five cases are cited of pathological alcoholic intoxication in which the patients were wild, making murderous attacks, attempting to bite persons or even trees, bed clothes, etc.

...one way to pass the time...
1730 Hist. Litteraria, He opened a Salamander's Mouth, and endeavoured to make it bite..a Chicken.

...and a Ms-conception?...
1754 Connoisseur 28 Nov., I could not help wishing that some middle term was invented between Miss and Mrs. to be adopted, at a certain age, by all females not inclined to matrimony.