Recently I went on a terrific date, says Annie Lord in British Vogue. Conversation came easily. “I made fun of him because he was really upset about a microscopic scuff on his trainers; he made fun of me because I kept adding irrelevant details to my stories like, ‘So, he was in this red jumper, right?’” When we left he put his hands around my waist, told me he hadn’t “connected with someone like this in a long time” and asked if I wanted to see Dune next weekend. I nodded giddily.
But there was no Dune, just a couple more days of texting, a “Whoa, so sorry I went off the grid over the weekend”, and another couple of days of texting. Then silence. “I might not have been so bothered if this were an isolated incident.” I’ve met countless boys in the past year. We go on one date, have a great time, then they vanish into thin air. I wonder why. “Maybe it’s the way dating apps have bred a culture of disposability, the sheer bulk of great women, something I don’t know how to articulate relating to capitalism?” A university professor should do some research before it becomes “even more endemic”. I texted my friend and her reply was more straightforward: “Men just suck.”
Giving Liz Taylor both barrels
In 1966 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor visited Oxford to appear in a student production of Doctor Faustus, says Patrick Kidd in The Times. It was a favour to Burton’s alma mater and the Hollywood couple were at the height of their fame. At the after-party, a student called Ivor Roberts asked Taylor for her autograph. She obliged and signed it “Elizabeth Taylor-Burton”. When Roberts asked her why, she replied that this was how she liked to be known. “Oh,” a swaying Roberts said. “So why don’t you sign it Elizabeth Taylor-Hilton-Wilding-Todd-Fisher-Burton?”