As Chairman of the Board at Thyme magazine, I am thrilled to welcome you to this year’s award of Sneer of the Year. And by Jove, didn’t we have a vigorous and close-run contest to decide who would win? I suppose the reason why it is more difficult to award Sneer of the Year these days is that, fortunately, we now have many more accomplished sneerers than we used to; every ego-maniac and narcissist who feels offended by the slightest criticism is a prime candidate to become an accomplished sneerer, which has been a wonderful boost to the sneer market....