Economist, Oct 5, 2013 (II)

choi

(1) Roundabouts  | The Widening Gyre; Like parliamentary democracy, roundabouts are a great British export with a risk.
http://www.economist.com/news/le ... xport-risk-widening

Note:
(a) British inventions: football, Worcestershire sauce, jellied eel
(i) football
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football
(section 3,2 Medieval and early modern Europe)
(ii) Worcestershire sauce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcestershire_sauce
(fermented anchovy)
(iii)  jellied eel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellied_eel
(The eel is a naturally gelatinous fish so the cooking process releases proteins, like collagen, into the liquid which solidify on cooling to form a jelly)

(b) "roundabout, first in Letchworth Garden City in 1909, * * * proved so popular in Britain that in the 1960s the Transport Research Laboratory developed a miniature version"
(i) roundabout
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout
(view animation; section 2.2 Terminology)

French-English dictionary:
* rond-point (noun masculine): "roundabout"
* rond (adj; adv); "round"
* point (noun masculine): "point"
(ii) Letchworth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letchworth
(officially Letchworth Garden City; in Hertfortshire)
(iii) Transport Research Laboratory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Research_Laboratory

Originally established in 1933 as a UK government agenct, it was privatised in 1996.

(c) "a roundabout in York with a windmill on it"

It is a working windmill. search images.google.com with roundabout, York and windmill.

choi

(2) Tamara Mellon | Stacked Heels; The footwear queen pens a pointed story.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... story-stacked-heels
(book review on Tamara Mellon, In My Shoes; A memoir. Portfolio, 2013)

Note:
(a) Jimmy Choo 周仰杰
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_choo
(1952- ; "born in Penang, Malaysia, into a family of shoemakers, who are of Chinese descent. His family name is Chow but was misspelled on his birth certificate as Choo"/ In 1996, he co-founded Jimmy Choo Ltd with British Vogue magazine accessories editor Tamara Mellon)

(b) Tamara Mellon (born in London in 1967)
(i) "her ex-husband, Matthew Mellon, scion of a banking family)"

Matthew Mellon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Mellon
(1964- )
(ii) her late father, Tommy Yeardye, a rough diamond who helped build the Vidal Sasson hairdressing company. Yeardye was the éminence grise hehind his daughter's business career."
(A) rough diamond
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rough%20diamond
(= diamond in the rough)
(B) éminence grise
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eminence%20grise

(c) OBE = Order of the British Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_British_Empire

choi

(3) Obituary | Robert Ford , a British radio operator in free Tibet, died on September 20th, aged 90.
http://www.economist.com/news/ob ... aged-90-robert-ford

Note:
(a) For "short back'n'sides," see short back and sides (n):
"a hairstyle for men in which the hair is cut short at the back and sides, showing the ears"
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ... hort-back-and-sides
(b) Chamdo  城关镇
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamdo
(c) "the lethal chang beer"

Chhaang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhaang
(or chang)
(d) "his hometown of Burton-on-Trent"

Burton upon Trent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_upon_Trent
(a town straddling the River Trent)