Quail’s eggs, Diet Coke and being thin – the 'common list' for 2026 has landed | Zoe Williams

Nicky Haslam has released his annual tea towel ranking ordinariness. I almost admire his chutzpah Nicky Haslam has produced his list of things that are common for 2026: Diet Coke and being thin; beards and quails’ eggs; the word “nuanced”; the phrase “no-brainer” (on the grounds that you wouldn’t call anything a “brainer”). It’s the eighth year that he’s put his list on a tea towel, which retails for about £50. I could think of some disparaging words for spending that much on a tea towel, none of which are “common”. Still, I admire his chutzpah: he’s fashioned a class war, then waved it away nonsensically: “It’s nothing to do with class,” he told the Times. “It’s common in the sense of being universal.” (I mean, that can’t be true: if it were simply a list of things that were unlovely because of their ubiquity, you would hit “regular egg” before you got to quails’ egg.) Continue reading...