Thanks for the help with the New Yorker. Helen, the link to the “standing room” seats story seems very plausible. I hadn’t known about that. And Elizabeth, I’ll look again sharply with Mother’s Day in mind, when I’m reunited with the magazine.

Could there have been a recent episode when the economy-class lavatories were out of bounds?

[We read the New Yorker only when we’re in the country; I took that issue up and left it there, on Monday. I often find that with newspapers, computers and television denied me, I read articles that I would otherwise skim or skip, and profit greatly thereby.]

One of the unsung privileges of old age is not having to travel. Except that we hope to go to Greece – perhaps even to Pelion – in the autumn.

Having got on to that topic yet again: I tried the Oxford English Dictionary yesterday for “Pelion”, following up Anne’s comment of Monday. [We’ve got the whole big thing, on CD-ROM, a present from Alexander one Christmas when we didn’t even have a computer capable of running it.] There is no citation for Shakespeare – which doesn’t mean that he doesn’t use the phrase, just that I’m no further forward in finding it. I particularly liked this one:

"1976 Times 28 Apr. 14/8 Piling Pelion upon Ossa (a nasty habit that foreigners are much given to) they calculate the rate of inflation in Britain. "

Knitting

It’s time I got back to business.

I finished the third repeat of the centre pattern of my sister’s shawl yesterday. Here’s where we are:

There will be one more full repeat, and a bit.

I had occasion to toil up to the Post Office yesterday, and soothed my ruffled spirits, as often on such occasions, by a visit to John Lewis’ yarn department, hard by. Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze now comes in a small range of – “variegated” isn’t the word – colours that vary slightly within themselves. That is, each yarn is a single colour, but it varies in intensity. They had a few inches of a scarf-width knit in Old Shale. It looked seriously nice, to my eye. And Sharon has several patterns for that yarn in her "Simply Stunning" section...

I have always been obsessed with multi-coloured yarns, since childhood. I was greatly struck with Sean’s maiden efforts at dyeing, in his post yesterday. And he says it’s easy. I wish I could go to his forthcoming workshop – even if it would involve travel.