Life
2460: Sleaze
The same word appears as seven headwords in Chambers. Unclued lights (including two pairs and one of three words, one…
Why is YouTube so afraid of free speech?
On Sunday, the hosts of Trigger–nometry, a YouTube show, posted an interview they’d done with Peter Hitchens. They labelled it…
Crunch time
Now that I have considered Monster Munch I decide to eat one mindfully. I put it in my mouth, and…
Wild life
I used to live in Mogadishu for months at a time, cooped up in compounds behind fortified walls. Venturing on…
High life
Wolfsegg, Austria I have finally understood what’s wrong with the modern world: motorways. These dehumanising slabs of asphalt covering our…
Garden tools
Hours of googling have left me unable to find the essay on domestic horticulture, written by a Victorian aristocrat, which…
Hashtag
‘So my poor wife rose by five o’clock in the morning, before day, and went to market and bought fowls…
Dear Mary
Q. I own a small, somewhat shabby and antiquated but well-located flat in central London which I have been happy…
The Battle for Britain
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Robot Wars
Twenty years ago, I was an avid fan of the cult TV programme Robot Wars. Teams of contestants would design…
to 2457: Beginning
Unclued lights suggested a section of the international radio communications alphabet: Bravo (VILLAIN: 6), Charlie (DIMWIT: 16), Delta (DEPOSIT: 19),…
Real life
We went on our first outing, to the beach at Littlehampton, but I’m not sure it was as stress-relieving as…
Puzzle no. 607
White to play, Stockfish–AllieStein, TCEC Season 16. Stockfish found a beautiful knockout blow in this game against a different neural…
Bridge
When did we change from being a nation of curtain-twitching old biddies into one of full-on super-snitches? First a retired…
Low life
Saturday night we ate outside next to the floodlit rock face. Four adult guests came puffing up the path and…
Herculean
In Competition No. 3150 you were invited to submit a sonnet describing one of the labours of Hercules. This challenge…
Hops and dreams
It is enough to drive a man to drink. The most glorious weather, so suitable for white Burgundy on a…
Small wonders
The Tesla Model 3 is an astounding achievement, but one thing baffles me: why do electric cars lack even the…
Scaffold
Whenever I turned on the news last weekend, my husband took to humming the March to the Scaffold from the…
High life
Gstaad Well, Theodora did not wait and I missed yet another grandchild’s birth (the prettiest little blue-eyed thing ever, even…
Dear Mary
Q. Please can you tell me the correct etiquette about signing the visitors book after you are married? Obviously you…
The puppy has won
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
2459: 22 Down
Six unclued entries (three of three words, and one of two words) can be combined to make a quotation (in…
Swindlers’ art
A lost cause at the chessboard is hard to define, but, like obscenity, I know it when I see it.…
Solution to 2456: So American
Unclued lights are marches by John Philip SOUSA, as hinted by the title: 4/1A, 14/12, 20D, 33A/17, 37/29/26, and 41…
