Ugh chronic headaches are such a pain, literally and figuratively. You have my deepest sympathies

And particularly ill-timed, given the cost of living is hitting so many people hard right now

This was an Opinion article, but it was otherwise packaged and headlined to look like part of their price-aware thread

What bothers me is that the Stuff article is totally oblivious to the downside

Note that the article's example has the cost of a coffee after the change being lower than the cost with the surcharge, but higher than the cost without the surcharge, and customers had the option to avoid the surcharge by using their PIN instead of using paywave.

I seem to recall her saying she believed in astrology and telepathy, but I can't remember the source of her comment, and she didn't mention a specific experience

And I am disturbed that the face cream Nostradamus gives Philippa has mercury in it. Not unusual for the time, but eek!

The writing quality outweighs it, for sure, but it contributes to the fact that much as I adore many scenes in Checkmate, I don't love the overall book, because Lymond spends 95% of it being pushed around by Philippa, Marthe, the Dame or circumstances rather than driving the plot.

It's because I don't believe in either. My biggest issue is with the Dame de Doubtance though, and her arranging Lymond's birth and then his life because of what she'd foreseen

I object to the telepathy and I object to the divining. But the divining at least provides a bit of fun in terms of spotting the links between the two series, whereas the telepathy in CM mostly seems to convey misery in both directions

Are you saying that the filming ban is barely mentioned or that Hamas-run health ministry is barely mentioned? Neither is true; both get repeated in BBC stories multiple times every week

How does Matt Goodwin expect to know what people voted for? Just because a politician has a manifesto and people vote for them, that doesn't mean you have any idea what they voted for or why. His post is stupid as well as horrific

Ten writers by whom I've read more than 10 books:

Dorothy Dunnett
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ursula le Guin
Terry Pratchett
C J Cherryh
Ben Aaronovitch
Martha Wells
Georgette Heyer
Ellis Peters
Captain W E Johns

Beetroot! Very tasty on burgers (and very common on burgers in NZ)