YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
Dear Mary.. .
Hasty note about your correspondent 'T.H.' (7 September) wanting to know how to keep the pages of books open. Clips are effective with smallish, flattish books, but for great big weighty tomes I have found rubber bands to be the answer. The band should be stretched over the left cover and pages, out on the left margin. Then the only time the reader needs to touch the book is to turn the page. Of course it helps if one possesses a book-stand as well.
R.A., PetroneII, Austria
A. Thank you for your tip. Some readers will find it necessary to have (large loose) elastic bands round the right-hand pages as well.
Q. What can one do to discourage a 78- year-old mother-in-law from driving? It is like Brand's Hatch when she sets off down the drive, and neither I nor the nanny dare go as passengers. My husband says he hasn't recovered from the last time he drove with his mother 20 years ago, She gets frightfully upset because we won't allow her to drive the children, and her tales of speeding along in the fast lane of the motorway are simply terrifying. Sadly, we live at opposite-ends of the M25. We would send a driver when she visits us, but the suggestion would be greeted with hor- ror and the riposte, 'Of course I'm a safe driver, darling.' Help, Mary!
A.H., Bwy St Edmunds
A. Why not grass on your mother-in-law with a timely tip-off, so that next time she leaves your premises a police vehicle is lying in wait to observe her reckless driv- ing? If she is apprehended you will have no further problem. Pensioners over the age of 70 who make court appearances for driving offences are often ordered to resit their
driving tests. Perhaps another anonymous tip-off to the presiding judiciary might be in order, to ensure that this punishment is enforced.
Q. I have been playing quite a lot of tennis recently, often with more or less complete strangers. Although these games are happy and lively occasions, I do find the process of changing ends socially worrying. What is the correct expression or throwaway remark to employ when changing ends and passing within a few inches of your oppo- nent in the narrow space between net and boundary fence?
A.B., London W8
A. This widespread embarrassment can be avoided altogether if you make a point of simply kicking or hitting a ball into the net in advance of your progress through it. Then, while you are passing your opponent, you can occupy yourself by ducking down into a frog-like squatting position to pick up the ball, thus obviating the need to make any comment at all.
Mary Killen
Previous page
