And some recipes are just untweetable, like lobster Thermidor, which calls for 26 ingredients and 32 steps. Twitter can’t handle too many instructions like “pour the cognac in and boil for a minute or two, shaking the skillet.”

Most players play pretty loose on the bubble, much looser than they theoretically should, and even if I saw an opponent sitting out a few hands, it's more likely that he just hit a run of low cards than that he turned into a locksmith at this stage.

Glancing at the gold clock on the mantelpiece I see that it is already midnight, the most potent time of night for Lazarus witches, so that all our most important events are timed to start to coincide with the mesonoxian hour.

In the dewy fog, it was cold and damp.