Dear Mary: Help! My neighbour keeps getting me drunk
– D.S., Delhi, Catskills, USA
A. Punish your neighbour by stocking up on silicone stretch lids, as used by the fastidious to cover the likes of yoghurt pots in the fridge. Having extracted a promise from her that she will not sneak up to refill your glass, secrete a stretchable lid over it. Since these lids are invisible, she will have only herself to blame when she suffers the splash-back consequences. This should put a stop to her meddling in future.
Q. I saw in Waitrose that the meat counter had huge reductions on ribeye and fillet steak – it was in the evening just before closing time. So I waited for the boy to come and serve me – my intention was to hoard it in my deep freeze for my sons. Then an older Sloane couple came up and stood right behind me and started making pointed remarks on what they were going to buy – and I ended up feeling bullied and didn't dare get more than three steaks. When I glanced back they were cleaning up on all the savings and yet I had been there first and it was I who should have had this advantage. How should I have tackled this, Mary?
– S.H., Shrewton, Wilts
A. You should have magnanimously enquired of the couple how much of the steak they were hoping to buy, since you would then hold back from bagging the lot as you had intended. In this way it would have been they who walked away with three steaks, feeling gratitude towards you, and you who cleaned up with the hoard.
Q. My husband and I are taking a house on the Ligurian coast and letting our daughters bring their boyfriends. Our problem is that the boyfriends are not 'housetrained'. We really mind them sitting at the lunch table without shirts, but our daughters are reluctant to say anything 'snobbish' in case they make the youths feel insecure. Help!
– Name and address withheld
A. Casually announce that the mayor of Portofino – 'who is a frightful bore' – has said he is going to drop in for lunch one day so would they mind wearing shirts at lunch just in case. When they google the mayor of Portofino, they will see that he is striking back against the tourist slobbery perpetrated mainly by the English, including being shirtless. It will be an eye-opener for the youths to learn that shirtlessness could be considered offensive, while you personally will have ducked association with snobbery.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
8 hours ago
- BBC News
Fire safety plans for Jersey residents living in tall buildings
Islanders living in tall buildings in Jersey are set to be consulted on proposals which experts say will improve safety. The Government of Jersey said there were more than 125 tall residential buildings on the island, towering 11m (36ft) or more, which housed thousands of home owners and said proposed fire safety regulations would implement some of the key recommendations from the Grenfell Tower phase one inquiry report, aimed at maintaining and improving of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service area commander, Jason Masterman, said the regulations would ensure self-closing fire doors and smoke control systems were "regularly checked and maintained". He added: "Residents will also receive clear fire safety information, and our crews will have access to simple accurate building floor plans and signposting to help them respond more effectively in emergencies"A total of 72 people, including 18 children, died in the Grenfell Tower fire which happened on 14 June in for Justice and Home Affairs, Deputy Mary Le Hegarat, said: "Thankfully, no similar fires have occurred here, but that does not mean we should not seek to make the places where so many islanders live as safe as possible."Approximately 19% of Jersey's tall residential buildings are estimated to be closely meeting the English regulatory requirements, with some others partially achieving them." Officials said while there had been no "significant evidence of excessive fire risk", the island's tall buildings, as a group, were at risk of falling behind similar buildings in England in three areas included the frequency of routine key fire safety checks, the provision of fire safety instructions to residents and the quality of building information provided to the fire said there was currently no dedicated Jersey fire safety law which required the buildings to manage and maintain their fire safety measures on an ongoing Hegarat added: "Creating regulations to implement some of the key building fire safety recommendations from the Grenfell Tower phase one inquiry report is a logical and sensible step in the light of the inquiry's findings."
Evening Standard
8 hours ago
- Evening Standard
Reports of the death of the Sloane Ranger have been greatly exaggerated
So where are the poor Sloanes living? For the truth is that Sloane money no longer gets you very far in the inner capital — and what they do have is entirely bankrolled by the grandparents. Those who would have been living in top postcodes have been banished to the margins in Putney and Kensal Rise, and the edgier ones have found some charming Georgian townhouses in outer Islington. They are forced to put their little darlings into London private day schools — or jockey for the right address for the best state options outside the capital. Of course the younger ones are pulling together enough money for a deposit (just), but instead of a starter flat in Fulham, they're having to commute to the Sloaney Pony from Wandsworth and Southfields, and get Ubers home from Jak's or The Rex Rooms, instead of just stumbling back to the Chelsea des res.
Glasgow Times
12 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
13 photos which tell story of Glasgow school and its famous ex-pupils
Famous ex-pupils of Whitehill Secondary in Dennistoun include leading lights of stage and screen, medicine, science and sport. The school opened in 1891 on Whitehill Street, replacing a building which had once housed the private school Dennistoun Academy, later renamed Whitehill Public School for Girls. Whitehill Secondary in the 1970s (Image: Glasgow City Archives) The first headmaster was James Henderson. In 1902, Whitehill became a Higher Grade school and in 1967 it became a comprehensive. In 1977, the school moved to its present site on Onslow Drive and the original building was demolished. (Image: Newsquest) In 2009, YDance officially launched its Free To Dance Project at Whitehill Secondary in a bid to encourage girls to get involved in dancing as an alternative to PE and other sports. A group of teenage pupils involved in the project treated fellow students to a performance. (Image: Newsquest) In June 1971, the principal prizewinners accepted their accolades – left to right, Brian Williams, 16; George Smith, 16; Fiona McIvor, 18; Ian Raitt, 17; Robert Livingston, 16; Robert Walker, 16; and Bashir Mohammed, 18. (Image: Iain Munro) Times Past reader Iain Munro shared photos of the old Whitehill Senior Secondary school magazine recently. Iain went to Whitehill from 1959 until 1963. READ NEXT: 'At the time, I lived in Riddrie with my parents, in close proximity to Barlinnie jail where my dad worked as a prison officer, and I travelled to and from Dennistoun by public transport, usually the 106 trolleybus,' says Iain, who now lives in the Wirral on Merseyside. 'The magazines are a fascinating reminder of my time at Whitehill.' (Image: Newsquest) Glasgow's first female Lord Provost Jean Roberts, pictured here with Princess Margaret, was a pupil at Whitehill. Trailblazer Jean was also the first woman to become convener of the electricity committee, first to be deputy chairman of the corporation, first to be city treasurer, and the first to be leader of the Labour group. After school, she initially trained as a teacher, and worked at Bishop Street Elementary School. (Image: Newsquest) Senior pupils in 2011 arrive by stretch limo for the Whitehill school prom. It was the early days of US-style high school proms becoming more popular in the city. (Image: Newsquest) Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, who was born in Dennistoun in 1948, was always getting into trouble for singing during lessons at Whitehill Secondary. It paid off, however, as Marie became global singing superstar Lulu, with a string of hits to her name. (Image: Newsquest) In the 1950s, girls and boys still studied different subjects at high school. This domestic science class in 1952 was just for the girls, while the boys studied technical courses such as woodwork. (Image: Newsquest) Artist and author Alasdair Gray was a pupil at Whitehill Secondary, where he received prizes for art and English. He attended Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957 and went on to make his living from writing, painting and teaching. (Image: Newsquest) Rangers and Aberdeen footballer Jim Forrest, who died in 2023 aged 79, was born in Townhead and educated at Rosemount Primary School in Royston and Whitehill Secondary School in Onslow Drive, Dennistoun. (Image: Newsquest) Ronald Cresswell, who died in 2021 aged 86, was a Scottish scientist who was at the forefront of the development of several groundbreaking drugs, including AZT, which is used to prevent and treat HIV. His initial interest was history but it was one of his teachers at Whitehill Secondary who got him interested in chemistry. Ronald also developed the statin, Lipitor, which helps reduce cholesterol. It was once the best selling drug in the world. (Image: Newsquest) Barry St John, who died in 2020 at the age of 76, was a famous backing singer for the likes of John Lennon, Pink Floyd and Elton John in the 1970s. She was born Eliza Janet Thomson in the Gallowgate and went to Whitehill Secondary School in Dennistoun. She is pictured here with American DJ Emperor Rosko in November 1968, the year he signed her. (Image: Newsquest) Dr June Almeida, pictured here at an electron microscope, was a pioneer of medicine, whose work led to the identification of the first human coronavirus. Some of the techniques used in the 2020 pandemic hark back to her work in the 1950s. She was born in 1930 and lived in a tenement near Alexandra Park. Her interest in biological science was sparked by the sad death from diphtheria of her six-year-old brother in 1940. June won the science prize at Whitehill Secondary School, but had to leave school in 1947, the family having no funds to send her to university. She went to work as a laboratory technician in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, which enabled her to study the microscopic examination of tissue samples at which she excelled.
