On spinach, Flaubert and Eugene O'Neill

Here's Flaubert on spinach:

Ne jamais rater la phrase célèbre de Prudhomme : « Je ne les aime pas, j’en suis bien aise, car si je les aimais, j’en mangerais, et je ne puis pas les souffrir. » 

[Never forget the famous phrase of Prudhomme's: "I don't like it, and I'm glad I don't like it, because if I liked it I'd eat it, and I can't stand it"]

This a template that can, with minimal alteration, apply to almost anything else - football, texting, cultural studies and the Daily Mail. Or anybody, come to that: I don't like the Culture Secretary (whoever he or she happens to be this month, but let's for the sake of argument assume it's a he), and I'm glad I don't like him because if I did I'd have to respect him and I can't stand the unctuous blighter.

Unlike M. Prudhomme I happen to like spinach, and the stuff cropped up in a piece I wrote about Eugene O'Neill for the Literary Review in 2013, here recycled for your reading pleasure: Spinach and ice-cream