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thanks malone

Thanks, Cockie. I still think it's an extremely ungainly-looking word!

Cockie, Malone

Ungainly, yes, but fo'c's'le's a great word - 4 apostrophes - wow!

Grunger, with or without the apostrophes, the F word is lacking in elegance. Without them, it looks like a scary hand in Scrabble, with them it looks like the writer/ typist has the shakes and is strewing apostrophes all over the place.

The pandemic is no laughing matter. .

having closed boarders around the world

According to today's fishwrapper

Sorry to be pedantic, but do you mean "LED to some discussion.."?
Lead being a heavy metallic element, atomic number 82.
Or, alternatively, what you do to a discussion (e.g. the minister was asked to lead the discussion on the morality of capital punishment).
Or my favourite joke about the man who was lead guitarist in a heavy metal band.

Oliver Kamm, the erstwhile Times resident pedant, had an explanation for why "that was a great three points" is acceptable. As I recall, the entire phrase "three points" is to be regarded as the object of the sentence and, since only one set of three points is awarded for each win, the singular verb is appropriate.

Thanks, parallelogram - autocorrect has a lot to answer for! I should have paid more attention to what was appearing.

Parallelogram

Thank you. It just sounds odd but if you say it is acceptable, I will be happy to go along with it.

Malone

I was annoyed that I didn't solve the clue that LED to the latest -ess word in the Times, "patroness". I put in "lilywhite" which as I am sure you know is the nickname of Preston North End.

If lilywhite = fickle, it satisfies the clue, I think.