Acid test

[H]e reflected that few professional beauties could have stood, as this woman did, the acid test of that mercilessly brilliant morning.

"Eggs, Parker," said Freddie solemnly, "are the acid test!" / "Yes, sir?" / "If, on the morning after, you can tackle a poached egg, you are all right. If not not. And don't let anybody tell you otherwise."

The acid test: will the British public abide by such stringent guidelines about where they should stand, walk or sit in our stations and on our trains, when they have been used to a turn-up-and-go railway where they enjoyed freedom having bought their ticket?

This was the acid test – at least before Sunday's final with formidable Italy – and they came up with the goods not only in the context of Euro 2020 but also in demonstrating their character and big match mentality.

The Pranksters had just held an Acid Test at the Fillmore Auditorium, a big ballroom in the middle of one of San Francisco's big Negro slums, the Fillmore district. It was a wild night. Hundreds of heads and bohos from all over the Bay area turned out, zonked to the eyeballs.