The BNF

Today was half-scary half-infuriating. I managed after strenuous efforts to get a BNF research card, which meant I was able to access the archives of the huge Bibliothèque Nationale de France. I tried to have a book taken out for me, which took no less than 5O minutes, that must be why people doing research always look so old and wizened.
And in this book, an account of a commemoration of Handel's death in 1784, Charles Burney recounts a silly anecdote. One day Handel was invited in at a lady's music room and performed a couple of pieces on the harpsichord. When he left, a geezer commented that Handel's hands looked like feet, and his fingers like toes. How petty is that, honestly.

Well OK he might have been a little podgy. But nice wig though.