The furious reaction in Germany after 200,000 protective masks destined for Berlin mysteriously went missing in Thailand and were allegedly redirected to the US is a case in point. There is no solid proof Trump approved the heist. But it’s the sort of thing he would do – or so people believe.

“Hello?” she said. I tried to gauge by the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes the stage of her mind’s undoing, but she was not my mother, and no two dementiae sing the same tune.

Barque of phosphor On the palmy beach…

a stalked barnacle