Life
Aussie Language
It’s that time of the year again—when dictionaries around the world start announcing their chosen ‘Word of the Year’. First…
2533: Monday’s Child
A nine-word phrase (in five unclued lights, two used twice) opens a work for 1A (three words) by 8 (two…
Battle for Britain
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Uranus
I had thought there were two pronunciations of Uranus. My husband, still capable of distinguishing the anatomical from the planetary,…
Taking back control
A friend of mine recently visited a company in Europe which plans to manufacture human-carrying, pilotless drones. These would be…
Low life
Foolishly I chose new specs in the village optician’s after a long lunch: a rather outré design that I might…
High life
New York I’ve never met anyone called Othello, certainly not in Venice nor in Cyprus, but perhaps there are men…
Real life
The street lamp as bright as the Dog Star is back to its full glare outside my house. I won…
Israel’s heady Heights
‘Where is this from?’ my friend asked, handing me a wine glass. It was a Cabernet Sauvignon, high in alcohol,…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. We have recently installed security cameras in our remote holiday house in the south of France and I was…
The day I became a prize contrarian
Something rather unusual happened to me a few weeks ago: I was shortlisted for a prize. Not the GQ Men…
Bridge
The Champion’s Cup is an annual competition for the national champions from 12 European countries. As my team won the…
Puzzle No. 680
White to play and win. The conclusion of an endgame study by Henri Rinck. The imminent promotion of the g-pawn…
Lancashire hotpot
Nine months ago, after a decade spent in London, I moved to Lancashire. Although I’m a northerner born and bred,…
Wild life
Kenya Each time I sit in St Bride’s on Fleet Street during the memorial of another friend, I look around…
Solution to 2530: Ups and downs
The quotation is ‘LAUGH, AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU; WEEP, AND YOU WEEP ALONE’ from Solitude by Ella Wheeler…
Night terrors
In Competition No. 3225, you were invited to provide a version of the Lord Chancellor’s ‘Nightmare Song’ from Iolanthe for…
Sacrificing the queen
One of the most eye-catching games from the recently concluded Fide Grand Swiss in Riga saw an early sacrifice of…
Kiwi Life
A government in jackboots A recent headline echoes the current mood of this now fed-up country, with Sir Russell Coutts,…
Aussie Language
The short-priced favourite that ran second in this year’s Melbourne Cup was a horse called ‘incentivise’. But is that a…
Everybody expects the moral Inquisition
Last week, the former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan revealed that he’d been accused by another cricketer — Azeem Rafiq…
Trash
‘When they posted the closing-night notice for his first Broadway play, Comes a Day, he went into a drunken rage,…
Sentenced to chicken
NoMad is a new hotel in what used to be Bow Street Magistrates’ Court: a preening piece of mid-Victorian classicism…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My husband has fallen in love with ‘the country’ and retired to Exmoor while I maintain a presence in…
Yorkshire cricket: the long view
The new chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club played a blinder in his first innings, consistently hitting the boundary and…
