51�Թ�

Armed with only a scalpel, a clamp and a metal probe, Philip L. Sherman would routinely carry out his surgical mission in about 15 seconds, leave in as little as 10 minutes and hotfoot it to his car, which was probably parked illegally but perhaps spared a ticket by the inspired placard on his windshield: “Mazel Tov! Bris in progress. Please don’t ticket.”

They don’t all hotfoot it straight to the police station.

Hotfoot it to your local shop to buy today’s Observer, to read all the masterful features and think-pieces previewing this final and just to keep it as a souvenir of this historic day?

Howard is only one of the many characters woven into “Mary Toft,” and Palmer never resorts to pantomime — except, perhaps, for Nathanael St. André, the first surgeon to hotfoot it to Godalming.

I decided to take time off work the very next day and hotfoot it to Tel Aviv, to get ahead of any competitors.