Issue
Issue of September 19, 2026
Issue of September 19, 2026
Headlines
Alternatives to milk are losing moomentum
Business · Alternatives to milk are losing moomentum
“Moo” meets “momentum” — a five-star bovine portmanteau for an article about dairy’s comeback against oat and almond pretenders.
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A British tea party
Britain · A big-state prime minister meets a small-minded British public
Bagehot column on a British public revolting against higher taxes. “Tea party” simultaneously invokes the most British ritual imaginable and America’s anti-tax movement — whose backronym was “taxed enough already.”
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Don’t fear the inheritocracy
By Invitation · Don’t fear the inheritocracy
Portmanteau of “inheritance” and “aristocracy” — and a nod to the Blue Öyster Cult classic — for an essay arguing the Great Wealth Transfer is less dynastically threatening than it sounds.
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Bond markets aren’t just running a temperature
By Invitation · Bond markets aren’t just running a temperature
Directly rebutting Scott Bessent’s claim that bond markets have a “fever” — the headline says no, this isn’t a passing illness, it’s structural. Medical metaphor weaponised against the Treasury secretary.
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Alt-milks turn sour
Business · Alternatives to milk are losing moomentum
The subheading on the same dairy article. Milk literally turns sour; so has the alt-milk business. Simple, elegant, does two jobs at once.
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Buried in the text
British voters prefer the asses in Devon to the asses in Westminster
Britain · There is too little money in British politics, not too much
After noting the Donkey Sanctuary receives more donations than all major parties combined, the leader deploys “asses” — the zoological term for equines in Devon and the colloquial one for politicians at Westminster.
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Mr Trump has tried to beef up supply
The World This Week · Economic data, commodities and markets
In a passage about record-high ground-beef prices, the article notes Trump “tried to beef up supply.” The idiom is perfectly literal here — he is, in fact, trying to increase the supply of beef.
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The write stuff
Culture · Is it still worthwhile to teach cursive in school?
The cursive article’s closing line wonders if schools are teaching children “the write stuff” — a homophone swap of “right” for “write” in Tom Wolfe’s title. Old pun, but it lands here.
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This trial has therefore been voided
Business · Sleep like a pro
Bartleby’s mock memo on a workplace sleep programme reports that excessive magnesium doses acted as a laxative, so the trial was “voided.” The clinical term for cancelling a trial meets the gastroenterological one.
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A “special electoral operation”
Europe · Russia’s sham election is descending into farce
Russians are calling the Duma vote a “special electoral operation” — echoing Putin’s euphemism for the invasion of Ukraine. Dark, pitch-perfect, and coined by the Russian public rather than the Economist.
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Not so much “Life on Earth” as “Life in Earth”
Culture · The world’s most essential habitat does not get its proper due
Suggesting Attenborough’s next documentary about soil should swap one preposition in his famous title. A tiny change — “on” to “in” — that reframes an entire genre.
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We should definitely sleep on it
Business · Sleep like a pro
Bartleby’s final line recommending the company “sleep on it” before expanding the sleep programme further. The idiom meaning “delay a decision” meets its literal subject.
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