Life
Hyper deflation
In Competition No. 3173 you were invited to give a fresh twist to a well-known single line of poetry by…
Low life
Everything is happening so fast. First we were put under a night curfew. A few days later M. Macron announced…
Solution to 2479: Shielded
The unclued lights are heraldic terms. First prize J.P. Carrington, Denchworth, OxfordshireRunners-up David Shields, Merthyr Vale M.E. Bosence, Bournemouth Got…
2482: Perm all five
The unclued lights (one of two words) display a common feature, different in each case. Across 1 Fundamentalist group keeps…
The Queen’s Gambit – Accepted
‘It’s chess. We’re all prima donnas.’ You can hear it spoken with a wink in the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s…
Bass notes
It’s a good day to stab something and tear out its heart. Elaine Lorys is the only female master fishmonger…
Sit back and enjoy the spectacle ahead
‘At least there’s sport,’ said the woman in the supermarket queue. True enough, and in a welcome sop to an…
The Battle for Britain
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Singing the blues
A second lockdown won’t cause me much suffering. I don’t have a shop selling ‘non-essential’ goods (e.g. books) that will…
Puzzle no. 629
White to play and mate in 3. A puzzle featured in The Queen’s Gambit, apparently composed by W. Atkinson in…
Bridge
How many times have we had it hammered into us: ‘When dummy goes down, plan the play’? Well, if we…
Dear Mary
Q. Is there a tactful way to wind up a Zoom call when one of you has more time on…
Aussie Life
Simon Collins As soon as distance ceases once again to be a tyranny for Australians I will visit my elderly…
Solution to 2478: Namesakes
The lyrics of the perimetric I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN and FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN were written by Sammy Lerner,…
Calculated risks
Classes of people at moderate risk from Covid-19. Addenda to current NHS guidelines. Those at risk from coronavirus now include…
Collapsing barricades
Geometry shmometry. The pirouette of a knight may be pleasing to the eye, but sometimes what I really crave is…
High life
New York Election fever is heating up and I hope the party I’m giving on the evening of 3 November…
Low life
Wearing shorts last week in a mid-October heatwave, having worn shorts continuously since March, Les Murray’s poem ‘The Dream of…
Real life
As I scoffed down a fabulous supper in a candlelit room full of ecstatic diners, it struck me that this…
A toast to Tim
I am in an Eliot mood, not a Keatsian one. ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is a surprisingly… mellow…
Cyber
An advertisement from GCHQ provoked angry comment because it seemed to suggest that some ballet dancers would be better working…
There’s nothing neutral about Wikipedia
A couple of weeks ago Newsweek ran an article attacking Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, for engaging in a…
Bridge
I know its only October, but I’ve already found the perfect Christmas present for bridge-lovers: Simon Cochemé’s new book, Bridge…
The Battle for Britain
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Now We Are Six
In Competition No. 3172 you were invited to submit a poem about the government’s coronavirus messaging. Many of you, nudged…
