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If you follow Wikipedia's source for that, here is what it actually says: In France, meanwhile, Voltaire was reputedly downing between 50 and 72 cups of coffee
by gruseom 13y ago
If you follow Wikipedia's source for that, here is what it actually says:
In France, meanwhile, Voltaire was reputedly downing between 50 and 72 cups of coffee a day
Encyclopedia authors shouldn't cut numbers in half. In any case, the reported number varies wildly and I've never been able to track down a source for it. They're probably all made up.
- mbell 13y agoIt seems to me that the measurement here comes into question. What is a cup now vs what is a cup then? At what brew strength? etc.
- anthuswilliams 13y agoWhen I first heard this claim, it was about the French author Honoré de Balzac. This claim about Voltaire makes me doubt both. I'm not saying that it's impossible to have two famous French writers habitually drinking an atypically obscene amount of coffee, just that it makes the claim seem more dubious.