The cruise over to the shopping centre was no problem – he even fanged it through the traffic and spun the wheels on the wet road seeing it was his last day in town.

Already Mexico City is a warning to other developing countries where centralized government, a high birth rate, neglect of agriculture and the rush to industrialize have combined to encourage migration to the cities. Twenty percent of the country's population lives here, and the term urban macrocephaly has been coined to describe the phenomenon.

Joe got that promotion because he was a kiss-up, not because he knew the job.

Where do children's rhymes come from? What ancient motif is simply reclothed in a modern story or a children's skip-rope song?