My favorite passage is the account of a trip by car in the first paragraph on p. 235. I used to laugh myself to tears over that one. My second-favorite one is the conversation among Christopher Sykes, “a Teherani, an Isfahani, two muleteers, and the driver’s assistant,” on pp. 59–60, supposedly translated from the Persian:
Quantum Est In Rebus Inane 
My favorite passage is the account of a trip by car in the first paragraph on p. 235. I used to laugh myself to tears over that one. My second-favorite one is the conversation among Christopher Sykes, “a Teherani, an Isfahani, two muleteers, and the driver’s assistant,” on pp. 59–60, supposedly translated from the Persian:
Teherani: What’s that about?
Christopher: It’s about the Pope.
Teherani: The Foof? Who’s that?
Christopher: The Caliph of Rum.
Muleteer: It’s a history of the Caliph of Rum.
Teherani: Shut up! Is it a new book?
Assistant: Is it full of clean thoughts?
And so on.
So much great stuff. Thanks for the reminders!
I just noticed the second sentence after the passage that you quote: “Bertie mentioned that all whales have syphilis.”
Yeah, I thought about including that!