Life
Mexico is no country for journalists
I’m writing this on my last day in Mexico City, having accompanied my 18-year-old daughter here for the first week…
Solution to 2541: Beastly
The unclued lights form a quartet of three-word terms, each of which has the letter count of (6,6,6) which is…
Single-minded
In Competition No. 3237, you were invited to submit a short story using words of only one syllable. This challenge…
Nakamura the wildcard
Hikaru Nakamura justified his wildcard invitation by taking first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Berlin this month. The…
Real life
‘A diary?’ said the lady in the chintzy gift shop, pronouncing the word very much as Edith Evans said ‘handbag’…
High life
Was it Socrates who said that chaos was the natural state of mankind, and tyranny the usual remedy? Actually it…
Aussie Life
If a week is a long time in politics, two months is a geological epoch, during which not just goalposts…
Aussie Language
Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow referred to something called a preference cascade which he said was a term…
The whine of the Ancient Mariner
I was a bit irritated by all the millennials saying the Superbowl half-time show made them feel old. The 15-minute…
Mystery
In The Archers, Ambridge put on its own set of mystery plays dramatising the Nativity and Passion. BBC Radio 4…
Vintage years
Across oceans and continents, less favoured nations produce more history than they can consume. In these islands, the English —…
Making a meal of it
‘The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As if it wasn’t bad enough to overhear one side of a conversation as it’s bellowed into a mobile…
Steak Diane
Cooking for romance is no laughing matter. The stakes are high. Get it right and woo the love of your…
Love is …
In Competition No. 3236, you were invited to submit a poem that begins ‘Oh my love is like…’ . From…
Puzzle no. 670
Black to play. Shuvalova–Pavlidou, Women’s World Blitz Championship, 2021. White was winning, but has just played 89 g3-g4? No resignation…
2543: Parts of speech
Unclued lights form a progressive set, plus the name of the speaker. Across 1 Talk shortly about present-day veg…
Low life
Early on St Valentines Day I walked down to the car park where the raindrops were knocking off the young…
The turf
Certain sections of the media love to run a knocking story and when champion trainer Paul Nicholls’s horses failed to…
Real life
‘Do you have any questions?’ said the man at the insurance company after an hour of me trying to take…
Contemplating loss
Contemplating a lost position is a bit like having sauce down your shirt. It is annoying in itself, but worse,…
High life
Gstaad I cross-country ski the old-fashioned way, not skating but on machine-made narrow tracks. It is known to be the…
Bridge
A couple of weeks ago, just as I’d begun to think that if I hadn’t got Covid by now I…
Battle for Britain
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Solution to 2540: Recycling components
Unclued lights (PLAY, WITH, HOLD, DOWN) comprise components for the unclued cyclic sequence PLAY WITH, WITHHOLD, HOLD DOWN and DOWNPLAY.…
