British journos can be kind of cute when they’re doing American. The other day, I cited a report in the Daily Mail that said, “Mrs Palin seems to have ditched the staid and formal ‘hockey mom’ image she appeared to favour during her campaign with Republican hopeful John McCain.” “Staid and formal” provoked howls among American readers (when I pointed it out to them). You remember what Palin herself said was the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: “Lipstick.”

Well, this isn’t so bad, but I was just reading a review in The Spectator — that estimable and invaluable magazine — of a new Anne Boleyn bio. The reviewer ends his piece by saying that previous biographers may well take exception to this new book: “‘Woah Nelly!’ as they say across the Pond — I think I can smell a fight brewing.” Let me give the man some help with that expression: “Whoa, Nellie.” He may also like to learn, “Ho, Bess.”