The perfect response. (And as a side note, I paused long over ‘chided’. Is that really the past participle, I wondered? Since the option seemed to be chode, I guess it is.)

It’s when I call up books in the BL and have to take them back to the desk to have their pages cut…

Beresford. I get there in the end.

Can we have one following Elon around to stop him doing drugs, murdering 600,000, illegally firing workers — y’know, the kind of crimes he commits daily?

Or the Irish admiral (can’t remember his name: Jacky Fisher’s frenemy, begins with a B) who kept a pet bear on board, which lived in a little house on the poop deck that was named Sea View.

OK, if we’re doing kid jokes:

What ties Alexander the Great to Winnie the Pooh?

Same middle name.

I pray that every obituary-writer in the business has files this away for the lede when the day comes.

Isn’t it? So much better than ‘naked’ Frink.

It’s enough to make a stone weep.

Interesting. I wonder if the 'Jewish beef' in the previous add meant smoked meat/corned beef. That would make sense too.

But that's capitalism, so it's all good!

The ghastly part is, I suspect you're right.

Also, why wouldn't you fly directly to Paris from Dublin? Why on earth would you choose to stop anywhere?

I just looked up 'wurst' in the OED, and they have Zangwill using it with that same spelling -- worsht -- in 1892. One for @petermgilliver.bsky.social

Yes, or possibly a bit later, 1880s, when that huge wave of Russian/Pale of Settlement Jewish immigration occurred? (But I'm glad you think it's challah. I was expecting/fearing a reply that said, 'What? EVERYONE knows what collar bread is! Call yourself a Victorianist?')

‘I won’t be able to send you your money fast enough’: finally Trump says something true.