Life
Bridge
All the best people play bridge. Stephen Sondheim, who died two weeks ago, was mad about the game. In his…
Low life
Noticing via this Low Life column that I had trench fever, the Western Front Association treated me to a year’s…
The turf
In the first such case for 20 years, former rider Freddy Tylicki, paralysed and wheelchair-bound since his mount Nellie Dean…
Real life
‘Did you hear it?’ said a friend of mine, red-faced with the flush of a piece of news she couldn’t…
Based
My grown-up friends don’t use based in its new slangy sense, so I asked Veronica (whom I still think of…
Carlsen’s breakthrough
Game 6 of the Carlsen–Nepomniachtchi world championship match was one for the ages. After draws in the first five games,…
The final showdown
The good citizens of Stevenage would be well advised to prepare extensively for the likely open-top bus parade of their…
Battle for Britain
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Soho consolations
Soho is so gilded nowadays that even drug addicts look down on it. The wasteland without must match the wasteland…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My mother-in-law has remarried and now lives in South America. She has a large family with nieces, grandchildren, godchildren,…
Let’s not become Scotland
The Law Commission has published a string of recommendations following its recent consultation on changes to hate-crime laws in England…
High life
New York Imagine a European country today in which a newspaper in its most populous city launches a mendacious project…
2536: At rest
Unclued lights are three sets of three words of a kind, along with a name which connects them all (two…
Solution to 2533: Monday’s child
‘From harmony, from heavenly harmony, this universal frame began’ opens JOHN DRYDEN’s Song for ST CECILIA’S DAY (22 November, a…
Aussie Life
I have reached an age where I have started to forget where I have put things, but so far they…
Aussie Language
In a recent piece in the Australian newspaper paper Terry McCrann (the doyen of economics writers — he of the…
Bridge
The 2020 European Championships were an early casualty of lockdown but hopefully 2022 will rectify the count! It’s going to…
Mnemonic
In Competition No. 3227, you were invited to provide verses to help children remember the sequence of the last eight…
Mar del Plata
Alireza Firouzja produced a momentous performance for France at the European Team Championships, held in Slovenia last month. The 18-year-old,…
The Battle for Britain
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Real life
The streetlighting engineer walked up and down outside my house trying to work out who was right: me, or my…
Why punish a scientist for defending science?
As a defender of free speech, I sometimes feel like a man falling through a collapsing building. Just when you…
Low Life
Every year Vernon celebrates the gathering in and pressing of his olive harvest by inviting friends to a ceremony at…
High life
New York It’s party time in the Bagel, and it’s about time, too. Good restaurants and elegant nightclubs are…
Puzzle no. 682
Black to play. Plat-Esipenko, European Team Championship, 2021. The 19-year-old Russian playing Black found a way to force mate in…
