Begging
The Spectator
Thursday
Alice
Bbc 2
‘We were hoping to adopt, but with my husband working for the BBC we’ve got no chance.’
Tv 4
‘Have you tried turning it off and not on again?’
Mugged
‘I got mugged on the way here.’
Bond 3
‘I should warn you, Henry has no opinion as to who the best Bond is.’
Doggy
‘I can’t eat it all. Could I have a doggy bag?’
Kickboxing
‘You’re new to kickboxing?’
Snails 2
‘Of course, it was just a shell when I moved in.’
Jungle
‘I’m after some Nadine Dorries repellant.’
Barometer | 15 November 2012
Brave new words ‘Omnishambles’ was declared the Oxford English Dictionary’s ‘word of the year’, but will not for the moment be added to the dictionary itself. Here is a selection of the 498 words which were added to the OED in September alone, a month which concentrated on words beginning ‘a’: — Affogato, n, coffee-based
Letters | 15 November 2012
What the result says Sir: John O’Sullivan (‘Obama’s hollow victory,’ 10 November) says that after President Obama’s re-election, ‘America looks a less naturally conservative country, more a centre-left one.’ But we ought to consider what John O’Sullivan thinks of as left and right, conservative and unconservative; what Americans think; and what most of us British
Portrait of the week | 15 November 2012
Home Abu Qatada, detained in Britain for seven years although not charged here, but wanted on terrorist charges in Jordan, could not be deported, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled, because evidence might be used against him that had been obtained from the torture of others; so he was freed on bail. The annual rate
A new world power
For decades, America has dreamed about becoming self-sufficient in terms of energy, and ending its dependence on unsavoury Arab regimes. Now this dream seems within reach. The International Energy Agency this week forecast that America is undergoing a fuel revolution, and that it will overtake Saudi Arabia to become the world’s biggest oil producer by
Books and Arts – 15 November 2012
Books of the year
A.N.Wilson Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie (Bloomsbury, £14.99). At last, an Anglican Father Brown. Runcie has sensibly set his detective stories in the 1950s, before the boring era when DNA and science spoilt the poetry of crime investigation. Canon Chambers, a self-effacing, clever clergyman with a taste for pubs and shove-halfpenny,
Thursday
Reaper
‘I’m not a reaper any more. In the modern NHS, my title is Grim Pathway Co-ordinator.’
Relate
‘OK, Pip and Estella . . . ’