Life
Alas, ‘alas’ is losing its irony
Boris Johnson looked unhappy, as well he might, standing at his indoor lectern last Saturday to announce the new lockdown:…
Why New Yorkers are fleeing the city in droves
New York Back when people used to read newspapers, they called it a ‘human interest’ story. Now it appears as…
Spectator competition winners: deflationary couplets
In Competition No. 3173 you were invited to give a fresh twist to a well-known single line of poetry by…
The joy of red wine
Everything is happening so fast. First we were put under a night curfew. A few days later M. Macron announced…
2479: Shielded solution
The unclued lights are heraldic terms. First prize J.P. Carrington, Denchworth, OxfordshireRunners-up David Shields, Merthyr Vale M.E. Bosence, Bournemouth Got…
2482: Perm all five
The unclued lights (one of two words) display a common feature, different in each case. Across 1 Fundamentalist group keeps…
The Queen’s Gambit – Accepted
‘It’s chess. We’re all prima donnas.’ You can hear it spoken with a wink in the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s…
Winning a knife fight with a fish: Newlyn Fresh Fish reviewed
It’s a good day to stab something and tear out its heart. Elaine Lorys is the only female master fishmonger…
Sporting spectacles to look forward to in lockdown
‘At least there’s sport,’ said the woman in the supermarket queue. True enough, and in a welcome sop to an…
The Battle for Britain | 7 November 2020
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What I’ll miss most in Lockdown II
A second lockdown won’t cause me much suffering. I don’t have a shop selling ‘non-essential’ goods (e.g. books) that will…
No. 629
White to play and mate in 3. A puzzle featured in The Queen’s Gambit, apparently composed by W. Atkinson in…
Bridge | 7 November 2020
How many times have we had it hammered into us: ‘When dummy goes down, plan the play’? Well, if we…
Dear Mary: How can I wind up a Zoom call with a chatty friend?
Q. Is there a tactful way to wind up a Zoom call when one of you has more time on…
Aussie Life
Simon Collins As soon as distance ceases once again to be a tyranny for Australians I will visit my elderly…
2478: Namesakes - solution
The lyrics of the perimetric I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN and FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN were written by Sammy Lerner,…
My Covid risk assessment
Classes of people at moderate risk from Covid-19. Addenda to current NHS guidelines. Those at risk from coronavirus now include…
Collapsing barricades
Geometry shmometry. The pirouette of a knight may be pleasing to the eye, but sometimes what I really crave is…
Will my election night party end in fisticuffs?
New York Election fever is heating up and I hope the party I’m giving on the evening of 3 November…
We’ve gone from summer to winter in the course of an afternoon
Wearing shorts last week in a mid-October heatwave, having worn shorts continuously since March, Les Murray’s poem ‘The Dream of…
My confusing life on the border of Tiers 1 and 2
As I scoffed down a fabulous supper in a candlelit room full of ecstatic diners, it struck me that this…
A toast to Tim Beardson
I am in an Eliot mood, not a Keatsian one. ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is a surprisingly… mellow…
The real problem with the Fatima advert
An advertisement from GCHQ provoked angry comment because it seemed to suggest that some ballet dancers would be better working…
There’s nothing neutral about Wikipedia
A couple of weeks ago Newsweek ran an article attacking Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, for engaging in a…
Bridge | 31 October 2020
I know its only October, but I’ve already found the perfect Christmas present for bridge-lovers: Simon Cochemé’s new book, Bridge…
