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After Donald Trump’s counsellor, Kellyanne Conway, allegedly biffed a guest at the new President’s inauguration ball on Friday and “snowflake” has become a slur against Trump detractors, The Londoner set to wondering: is this all about Fight Club?

So we called Chuck Palahniuk, author of the original novel, made into a film in 1999, to ask him. Chuck broke the first rule of Fight Club by talking about Fight Club. The term snowflake originates from his book. “It does come from Fight Club,” he confirmed down the phone from his home in Oregon. “There is a line, ‘You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.’”

In Fight Club, Tyler Durden leads a generation of emasculated men to rediscover their inner strength by beating the hell out of each other.

Two decades later, Palahniuk sees the modern generation as delicate flowers more than ever. “There is a kind of new Victorianism,” he said. “Every generation gets offended by different things but my friends who teach in high school tell me that their students are very easily offended.”

Now snowflakes have blown across the Atlantic and entered into British parlance. Last week, Boris Johnson warned François Hollande not to administer “punishment beatings” in the Brexit negotiations. His old friend Michael Gove piled in, saying those offended were “deliberately obtuse snowflakes”. And the term has already been re-appropriated by its targets: at the Women’s March in London on Saturday were signs with slogans such as “Damn right we’re snowflakes: Winter is coming”.

Chuck says this is a problem with the Left, not the Right. “The modern Left is always reacting to things,” he opined. “Once they get their show on the road culturally they will stop being so offended.” He added self-effacingly: “That’s just my bulls**t opinion.”

And what about Donald Trump, The Londoner inquired — are people too offended by him? The writer wouldn’t answer. “I’m going to pass on that one,” he said, which led The Londoner to think he might be enjoying this new pugnacious politics.

More strings to the bow for the Milibands

Could David Miliband return from New York? Last year The Londoner heard talk that David’s violinist wife Louise Shackleton might follow Sir Simon Rattle when he takes up the baton at the London Symphony Orchestra this September.

Now the Big Apple is said to have soured for David after Hillary Clinton, who once hinted at having a “big crush” on the then Foreign Secretary — “he’s vibrant, vital, attractive and smart”, she said — was defeated by Donald Trump.

With their MPs falling like ninepins, Labour might be keen to tempt Miliband back from his job at the International Rescue Committee charity. The man who coveted Britain?

All sunny smiles under the Moonlight

To The Soho Hotel last night, for a special screening of Oscar frontrunner Moonlight, where Alex Hibbert, 12, from sunny Miami, and Naomie Harris, 40, from less sunny Islington, were both there.

Harris recently added an OBE for services to drama to her trophy cabinet but she may need to make room: she missed out on a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress but is nominated for a Bafta.

In Moonlight, Harris plays drug-fuelled single mum Paula, raising her son in a rough neighbourhood. Bleakness aside, it was all smiles from the pair. Sometimes you’ve just got to leave the drama on the set.

Will UK have Eurovision X factor?

Our six candidates to represent the UK at Eurovision have been revealed — a crew of former X Factor contestants all presenting songs of hope and unity.

But there may be a subtext of politics among the schmaltz. The offering from Lucie Jones, who has carved an impressive career on the stage since her appearance on the ITV reality show, is an anthem for someone struggling after a split: “You’re not defeated, you’re in repair... We’ll stand tall so you don’t fall... Together we’ll dance through this storm.”

Salena Mastroianni, meanwhile, calls for listeners to set aside their differences; Nate Simpson complains at having let the future down, and Holly Brewer encourages those in imperfect relationships to make a break for it. The attempts are more subtle than a previous entry by Georgia, though: We Don’t Wanna Put In was disqualified in 2009 for veiled references to old Vlad.

So does Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator and unlikely Eurovision expert, fancy our chances? “I’ve given up this year,” he despaired yesterday. “Am assuming BBC will again choose an entry so bad as to be a passive-aggressive insult to a continent.”

The Spectator backed Brexit, and Nelson seems content with his side of the fence. “Only things we need from Europe: free trade, cheap flights and Eurovision,” he tweeted. “All else is bureaucracy.” Nul points, then.

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With news that Bernie Ecclestone will leave his role as chief executive of Formula 1 and be given the title chairman emeritus instead, The Londoner remembered how someone else defined “emeritus”. When Rupert Murdoch replaced Frank Giles with Andrew Neil as editor of The Sunday Times, the joke was that Giles would become editor emeritus: “E means Exit, and meritus means you deserve it.”

Dr Adam does a runner

The Science Museum hosted the 25th Scientists Meet the Media event last night. Guests including first Brit in space Helen Sharman and solar energy specialist Dame Mary Archer interacted with thermal cameras and electric mechanisms, but for Dr Adam Rutherford it was a return to the scene of a crime. Last week the science writer tweeted a photograph of himself walking on the impressive treadmill-desk of Roger Highfield, director of external affairs at the Science Museum, who was out of the office at the time. While the cat’s away...

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Tie of the day for Lord Sumption, the Supreme Court judge noted for his Olympic, polka dot and Art Deco neckpieces. Today’s looked like musical notes. Surely not the notation for the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy?

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