Life
Bridge
A major pandemic has been sweeping through the bridge world since the game went online — and it’s called cheating.…
Low life
In France I own a dented old Mercedes and in England a dented old Mitsubishi Carina. The Mercedes is parked…
The turf
We all have weeks when every win bet finishes second and every each-way comes home in fourth. You begin to…
2473: May
The unclued lights (two of two words) are of a kind. Across 12 To make sense of Sun puzzle, many…
Puzzle no. 620
White to play. Zaibi–Napoleao, Online Olympiad, August 2020. White has just sacrificed the rook on a1. He concluded the attack…
Cento
In Competition No. 3164 you were invited to submit a poem in which each line comes from a different well-known…
High life
Gstaad I experienced my first Zoom conference last week, and didn’t think much of it. As the great Yogi Berra…
Real life
Always the National Trust sticker. It feels like every time a car parks across the gateway to my horses’ field…
Solution to 2470: Express route
The unclued lights are places served by the Norwegian HURTIGRUTEN ferries from Bergen to Kirkenes. Tromsø (at 4D) overruns into…
Act of God
Man plans, God laughs. Fide, the international federation, organised an Online Olympiad, with 163 teams taking part. We got a…
Remote workers of the world, unite!
A few nights ago on Twitter, I quipped that I was planning to launch a trade union for remote workers.…
Dear Mary
Q. Some friends persist on displaying our email addresses in large address lists when sending out round robins to all…
The best leader we never had
I spent Monday afternoon with The Wake Up Call, a new book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge that lambasts…
Right up my alley
I suspect, though this may be romanticising, that if a French lorry driver with hitherto suppressed culinary tastes won France’s…
Scots
A teenager in North Carolina has been revealed as the creator of a fifth or even a half of the…
The Battle for Britain
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Aussie Life & Language
Tina Faulk There are very few ‘happy ending’ stories in the cruel history of slavery. This may just be one…
Low life
There was only a handful of us arriving at Bristol on flight 6114 from Nice. Oscar and I had the…
Sport as a TV event
Crowds, Covid and sport: could it get any crazier? I don’t mind about golf: no idiots yelling ‘Get in the…
Public disservice broadcasting
Reading the speech Tony Hall gave to the Edinburgh Television Festival, I was struck by his upbeat, confident tone. The…
Dear Mary
Q. For professional reasons it is important that I am not fat. However I have put on more than a…
High life
Gstaad The jokes about keeping a mistress are old and I’ve yet to hear a truly funny one (‘The difference…
Real Life
After driving around the hospital grounds in concentric circles until I was surely down a wormhole, I found the scanning…
The Battle for Britain
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Bridge
I have not played a single hand of bridge for about a month, neither have I kibitzed online. Ergo I…
