Life
America isn’t speaking our language
I haven’t yet read the report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. But, looking at the recommendations,…
Dear Mary: How do I reject a wedding invitation without causing offence?
Q. I have just been invited to a wedding where the groom will be the only person I know. Much…
Spectator competition winners: royal clerihews
In Competition No. 3193 you were invited to submit clerihews (two couplets, AABB, metrically clunky, humorous in tone) on members…
2501: Delightful
7 Down has wordplay to only half its grid entry. The undefined part is the first word of a 9-word…
2498: Cross-country - solution
The unclued lights consist of the names of two countries overlapping by two or three letters: eg 25D ‘JAPANAMA’ gives…
Bridge | 10 April 2021
Bridge is a complex game, and is played by humans. Put those two things together and you have a guarantee…
No. 648
Black to play. Livaic-–Oparin, Fide World University Online Championship, March 2021. After 1…Rxc5 2 Rxb4, a draw was soon agreed.…
Unfair play
Twenty players were disqualified from the Fide World University Online Championships, out of almost 900. Does that call for moral…
Remembering one of the last great Americans
It takes a very good writer to produce prose that provokes an emotional response in a reader, even when it…
The Battle for Britain | 10 April 2021
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‘Protect the NHS’ is all very well, but when will the NHS protect us?
After refusing to issue my HRT without a blood pressure test, the GP surgery rang to offer me an appointment.…
Drowning the sorrows of Scotland’s virulent nationalism
There is a more depressing subject than the lockdown. The evening began with a bottle of 18-year-old Glenmorangie. It was…
My best Duke of Edinburgh salute for my oncologist
In the waiting room I thought about the Duke of Edinburgh. In particular, I pictured him saluting the cenotaph on…
The facts about race and education
Judging from the reaction to last week’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, you’d think it had been written…
Why I’m investing in sheep
Laikipia In the past I had a low opinion of sheep. During my first forays into farming I saw them…
The uncomfortable truth about ‘shonky’
A reader sent in a television preview from the Daily Star for Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds in which ‘Brad Pitt leads…
Aussie Life
Australia’s by-sea-girtness, as much as its size, means meteorologists will always have their work cut out predicting the kind of…
Aussie Language
The Oxford English Dictionary is currently asking ‘how and why sexist terms are recorded in the dictionary and what this…
What cricket will look like in 50 years
After the thrills and spills and last-gasp excitements of England’s triple-headed series in India, the attention of the cricket fan…
I’ve swapped booze for Pot Noodles
Along with many other people, I gave up drinking for the month of January and then resumed with gusto on…
Where did Alex Salmond’s ‘Alba’ party get its name from?
‘What, old monkey-face!’ said my husband with unnecessary lack of gallantry. He was referring to the 18th Duchess of Alba,…
Spring lamb and the bread of affliction: our Zoom seder
This week my son came home from school and asked me if it was true that the Jews killed Jesus.…
Dear Mary: How do we stop chatty workmen from disturbing us?
Q. I have been working (from home) for a TV comedy production company for a year. My job is scouting…
The Battle for Britain | 3 April 2021
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Fortune favours the brave
If you wish to unsettle your opponents, first attack them and second, play the moves quickly. It’s far from easy…
