out of curiosity; he had never seen the general. “I have always thought that Grant was a much overrated man,” he said. “That’s my view also,” Grant replied. —The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes I heard that when Marco Polo first opened the trade routes to China, he was quite impressed with their rockets. Now, these weren’t quite the fireworks we now know, but they did shoot into the air, explode and make some pretty patterns. Strangely, no matter where he went, there were people who made fireworks,