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Dear Mary

Dear Mary: why have all my friends given me scented candles?

Plus: an unexpected invoice; visitors who fall asleep in the car

21 May 2016

9:00 AM

21 May 2016

9:00 AM

Q. My super successful son kindly gave a birthday dinner party for me in a glamorous London club. I have never used scented candles — I worry about the fire risk and, more recently, about the alleged particulates. No scent beats fresh air. So what should I make of the fact that when I unwrapped my presents the following morning, I found that 20 out of the 50 were scented candles? I am not the sort of person who takes offence, but are my friends trying to tell me something?
— Name and address withheld

A.

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