Berna Cox writes a Christmas letter to Santa, in which she asks for peace and goodwill and coal for queue jumpers Dear Santa, Can you believe it’s that time of year again? Honestly, the gap between one Christmas and the next seems to get shorter every year. Maybe it’s because I’m an older child now [...]

Berna Cox talks about the ‘sci-fi nerd’ who showed courage and optimism in the face of a terminal cancer prognosis, and caught the attention of millions Around this time last year, the latest Star Trek prequel movie hit the cinema screens and now, 12 months later, the DVD is hitting the shops. It’s the 11th [...]

Berna Cox nearly beat the lump in her throat at Dublin Airport, but the Irish mammy losing a child to emigration was defeated At the best of times, airports do it to me. Even if I’m there for good reasons – like going off on a ramble or welcoming someone home – it still gets [...]

Berna Cox writes that a giving someone a bunch of flowers — though a hackneyed gesture — is still a wonderful way to express affection A ccording to the June 1949 issue of The Rotarian, Henry Penn was the Boston florist who first came up with the slogan ‘say it with flowers’ sometime around the [...]

Berna Cox is celebrating 30 years of something approaching marital bliss — if she makes it through the week! If we’re spared and if we don’t kill each other in the meantime, himself and myself will celebrate 30 years of wedded bliss (well, bliss-ish, if you’ll allow me a little literary and etymological licence) next [...]

Berna Cox is delighted that Emly is getting the reward it deserves, having saved her daughter from certain academic failure When this year’s Tidy Towns results were announced, the lady representing Emly in Co Tipperary was delira and excira. Emly was pronounced to be the tidiest village in Ireland and was also the winner of [...]

Berna Cox writes that far from being spoiled and petted, the youngest child in the family always gets a rough deal I read an article recently penned by a 16-year-old girl, which was entitled ‘Top Ten Things That Aggravate Teenagers’. Given that I’m really a teenager and am only trapped in this middle-aged persona by [...]

Berna Cox ponders the meaning of a ‘friend’ on the internet and suggests that friends are more than cyber-buddies Friend, n. A person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations. That’s the dictionary definition of ‘friend’. Quotations about friends and friendship abound: Hugh Kingsmill reckoned [...]

Berna Cox on the spate of books that asks women to return to the model of the perfect housewife that existed in the 1950s — which is just not on in the modern world, she says. Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman. This is the first line of Tammy Wynette’s famous song. Sometimes it’s [...]

Berna Cox takes a break from dusting and polishing to ponder on the merits of doing it at all. Housework, like many things, was better long ago. A fridge magnet I saw recently read ‘dull women have immaculate homes’. If it’s true, I must be madly interesting, exciting and decidedly un-Stepford. Despite owning a goodly [...]