M
Where MACGREGOR sits is the head of the tableThe proverb is sometimes attributed to Robert MacGregor of Campbell (’Rob Roy’: 1671–
1734), highland freebooter. Other names are used as well as MacGregor. The idea is explained
in the two following quots.: 1580 LYLY Euphues & his England II. 39 When.. Agesilaus
sonne was set at the lower end of the table, and one cast it in his teeth as a shame, he
answered: this is the vpper end where I sit; 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 4362 That is the
upper End, where the chief Person sits.
1837 EMERSON American Scholar 19 Wherever Macdonald [the head of the Mac-
donald clan] sits, there is the head of the table. Linnaeus makes botany the most alluring
of studies and wins it from the farmer and the herb-woman. 1903 K. D. WIGGIN Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm viii. If wherever the MacGregor sat was the head of the table, so..
wherever Rebecca stood was the centre of the stage. 1918 A. G. GARDINER Leaves in
Wind 197 There are.. people who carry the centre of the stage with them. .. ‘Where
O’Flaherty sits is the head of the table.’ 1940 J. W. BELLAH Bones of Napoleon 69 Like
Macdonald—where Lord Innes sat was the head of the table. 1980 Times 12 May 15
(letter from His Honour Judge MacGregor) Sir, Where MacGregor sits is the head of the
table. honour; prideDon’t get MAD, get even1975 J. F. KENNEDY in B. Bradlee Conversations with Kennedy 25 Some of the
reasons have their roots in that wonderful law of the Boston Irish political jungle: ‘Don’t
get mad; get even.’ 1990 Evening Standard 28 Feb. 13 Nancy Reagan made more than $2
million from her ‘don’t get mad, get even’.. memories. 2001 Washington Times 25 May
A22 The episode was especially moving inasmuch as forgiveness is not in the Kennedy
tradition. JFK was the author of the famous dictum, ‘Don’t get mad, get even.’ revengemad see also whom the GODS would destroy, they first make mad.made see GOD made the country, and man made the town; PROMISES, like piecrust, are
made to be broken; RULES are made to be broken; also MAKE.