“New York became a pirate haven, where there was a blurry line between businessman and buccaneer, as local merchants financed pirate voyages to capture goods they needed, including sugar and slaves. Captain Kidd lived at what is today 7 Hanover Square until he was contracted to go to sea to hunt pirates — and somewhere out on the deep blue, between Madagascar and the West Indies, he became one himself.”

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”

“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.”

“Similarities between embryos and tumors ‘should be paid attention to,’ says pioneering cancer researcher Lloyd J. Old, chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research New York Branch. ‘The reason this is so interesting is that the idea that cancer and development are in some way linked goes way back,’ he explains. The 19th-century pathologist John Beard, for example, noted the similarity between tumors and the trophoblast, a part of an early embryo that eventually becomes the placenta. ‘If you’ve ever seen the trophoblast invading the uterus, it invades, spreads, creates a blood supply. It also suppresses the maternal immune system,’ Old says, ‘All of those are characteristic of cancer.’”