Ridiculous Intellectual Indulgence

I'm editing, and I found a quotation in a footnote that I absolutely love, but that I finally acknowledge doesn't belong in my thesis. David Lloyd George was Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1920s. As such, he was often required to negotiate with Eamon de Valera in various capacities (he was eventually Taoiseach, or PM, of Ireland - eventually called the Irish Free State, then Eire). Owen Dudley Edwards, the great Irish scholar, wrote in his 1987 biography Eamon de Valera, "Lloyd George...stated that negotiating with de Valera was like trying to pick up mercury with a fork, on being told of which de Valera... inquired, 'why doesn't he use a spoon?'" (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1987), 97. De Valera's a fascinating character - obtuse and charismatic. If I could go out for a beer with 5 historical figures, he'd be one of them. (Likewise Kennedy, Harry Hopkins, Aristotle - so he could perhaps explain to me what he was @!#$ing writing about, and Martin Luther.)