Story from a friend whose daughter recently graduated from a major UK university.

The Vice-Chancellor (or perhaps it was the Chancellor – the distinction between the two is often lost on parents) was making a stirring speech about the importance of knowledge, etc. An example of this was the importance of the great overarching scientific theories. So the great man said, “And Darwin’s theory of…”. At which point he had a Senior Moment. There was a brief pause while he rummaged around for the word. And then out it came: “relativity”.

Could happen to any of us. Well any of us d’une certain age, anyway. I remember overhearing a woman in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin once explaining to her friend why her husband’s Volvo was superior to her companion’s husband’s Mercedes. “It’s got a cataclysmic convertor”, she said.