If these seem rather unheroic examples of parenting by proxy threat, there are some more startling lies recorded.

BBC: Most parents 'lie to their children'

An unheroic and pragmatic age might readily divest itself of over-sentimental notions about Pitt as the self-sacrificing pilot who weathered the biggest international storm which Britain had encountered since the 15th century.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Now look at the unheroic reality: thousands of pen-pushers at some 60 federal agencies, issuing more than 1, 800 rules a year, in so many billions of words that the Code of Federal Regulations is now more than 130, 000 pages thick.

ECONOMIST: English as she is writ